Alicia I love this movie so much

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

writers_reign This was the first full screenplay credit - albeit shared with Richard Maibaim - for Nobby Clearke aka Bryan Forbes following an 'additional dialogue' mention on Alan Ladd's The Black Knight and essentially it's a Boy's Own Paper yarn based on events in World War Two. Once again the usual suspects are wheeled out to support Jose Ferrer and Trevor Howard, i.e. Vic Maddern, Bernard Lodge et al. It adheres like the limpets it features to the tried and trusted formula; ask for volunteers, weed out the demicks, show the rest in training, then the 'mission'. Basically what you see is what you get though as 'action' films go this is more than a tad insipid. Yana, a popular vocalist in the fifties, who began a career just as real singing was giving way to shouting off-key, has one song and one scene which serves to take your mind off the one-trick pony screenplay.

dusan-22 Nice and entertaining war movie made or influenced by the Hollywood war film school of the 50s. Soft made army life and war fighting and dying adapted to the eye of the watcher of that time. Beautiful and everlasting colors of the Technicolor war film typical for war epic movie which this film definitely isn't. Good and saturated film composition, typical gags for the time of filming are pretty much watchable today. Imaginative dose of sarcasm that tends to launch Hollywood humor of that era in this UK film suits the whole idea pretty nice. Very realistic depiction of the action itself without exaggeration which is almost impossible to see in the US movies on the same topic even today. All in all, cute WWII film, especially recommended to the WWII buffs. 6 out of 10.

Spikeopath World War II and German battleships are safely docked upriver in Bordeaux, Royal Marine Major Stringer and Captain Thompson select volunteers for a highly secretive mission. The mission is to canoe thru enemy waters and blow up the battleships, will they achieve their goal?, will any of them survive?, these are the questions asked about the men who became known as The Cockleshell Heroes.Directed and starring José Ferrer {Stringer}, The Cockleshell Heroes is an above average war picture telling a gutsy tale that almost beggars belief. The volunteers plucked for this mission come from a rag-tag band of men, it's almost like the Dirty 10 {as opposed to the Dozen}, but under intense training and controlled discipline courtesy of Trevor Howard's Captain Thompson, these men shape up just fine, and we believe that this mission, as hazardous as it is, may just succeed. The first half of the picture {during the training and selection process} is guilty of being a tad over jovial, but it doesn't harm the film per se, in fact it kind of lulls you into a false sense of expectation for the mission. The mission itself is capably handled and Ferrer manages to ring out the tension to close the film out successfully, perhaps a war film to not linger long in the memory, but none the less an entertaining piece about actual events. 6/10

Lloyd Kelly The movie was based on a real mission, called Operation Frankton. It was a successful Commando raid, despite the loss of life. The number of casualties in the film is accurate to those in real life. The training regime is somewhat questionable, and some elements would of only been added to make the movie more fun. However, a lot of training has been cut from the movie, as it simply would not be enjoyable to watch at all. All in all the film is fun to watch, you'll learn something about WW2 and although no film cannot capture just exactly what those men went through, it's a brilliant tribute to those who did not make it back.