A wartime action movie for you this week, The Sea Wolves, with a stellar cast, an unusual plot but also one based on a true story. The Sea Wolves tells the story of the elderly and middle aged members of The Calcutta Light Horse, an army unit in British India who end up doing one last but vital military action.

The plot revolves around Nazi ships that have been impounded in the port of the Portuguese colony of Goa. Although the ships had surrendered their radio equipment to the Portuguese authorities when war broke out between Britain and Germany, British intelligence finds out that signals are coming from the port giving information about British and Allied shipping in the Indian Ocean. These Allied ships them become vulnerable to German U Boat attack and many are sunk.

Because under international law, it was forbidden for the Allies to enter Portuguese territory as they are a neutral nation in the conflict, so the British concoct a way to get a force into the port to try to silence the German radio transmitter. This is where the old men of the Calcutta Light Horse come in. Despite not seeing any action since the Boer War at the turn of the 20^th century, the military top brass impress the men into taking part in a covert action against the Germans but one that has a sense of plausible deniability about it.

This is an excellent 1980’s action movie about men who thought their fighting days were over stepping up to the plate and doing their bit against the enemy. The cast list reads like a who’s who of mid 20^th century British and American cinema with such names the late Roger Moore, Gregory Peck, Trevor Howard, Patrick Mcnee, David Niven, Barbara Kellerman and the very distinctively voiced Patrick Allen.

I’ve seen and enjoyed this film for a number of years and on a number of occasions and I’m delighted to find it available to share with this blog’s readers.