The Riddle of the Sands (1979)
Directed by Tony Maylam

Film Review

Erskine Childers' hugely influential 1903 novel The Riddle of the Sands, reputed to be the first modern espionage thriller in English fiction, is masterfully transposed to the big screen in this slick and compelling adaptation.  Its director, Tony Maylam, would go on to garner considerable acclaim for his 1988 BBC television film Across the Lake and he brings a similar finesse to this very distinctive nautical thriller.  When you say the words 'British spy thriller' you automatically think of the James Bond movies.  By this time, the Bond franchise was rapidly running out of steam and ideas, with the latest entry, Moonraker, resorting to silly laser gun battles in space.  Maylam's measured period thriller offers something far more rich and satisfying, and the only thing that lets it down are the moments when it becomes a little too conscious of its own artistry.

The film's main selling point is Christopher Challis's breathtakingly beautiful cinematography, which is at its most potent in those sequences set in the misty shallows around the Frisian Islands.  Such stunning location photography gives the film a haunting poetic quality and helps to anchor the drama solidly in the period in which it is set, at the turn of the 20th century - a time of gallantry and romance, when an individual's heroism could genuinely decide the fate of his nation.  There are a few action scenes, and these are all exciting and meticulously choreographed, but where the film impresses most is in the quieter scenes preceding these, which are charged with an almost unbearable tension and anticipation.

Both of the photogenic lead actors, Michael York and Simon MacCorkindale, had their careers blighted by some spectacular misfires in the 70s and 80s, but here they are superbly well cast and deliver flawless performances, assisted by the ever-lovely Jenny Agutter and a suitably sinister Alan Badel.  Made at a time when British cinema was floundering in very shallow water, The Riddle of the Sands stands out as something special, an assured quality production that is as compulsively entertaining as it is seductively stylish.  Childers' novel could hardly have hoped for a better adaptation.

Film Synopsis

In 1901, Charles Carruthers occupies a minor post in the British Foreign Office.  Towards the end of an uneventful summer, Carruthers is slowly dying from boredom when he receives an unexpected invitation from a former Oxford chum, Arthur Davies, to join him on a yachting holiday in the Baltic.  With nothing better to do, Carruthers dashes off to meet up with his friend at a port on the north coast of Germany.  Carruthers is disappointed to learn that Davies is planning to undertake his expedition in a tiny one-man sailing boat, not the large crewed vessel he had been expecting.  He is about to head straight back to London when Davies reveals that an attempt was made on his life during an earlier trip around the Frisian Islands.  Immediately prior to this incident, Davies had made the acquaintance of a German sea captain, Dollmann, who is overseeing salvage operations in the area.  Intrigued, Carruthers decides to stay and the two men begin investigating a site of covert activity on one of the islands.  To their surprise, they uncover an incredible plot by the Germans to invade England's undefended east coast...