Hell Boats - boat film

[hypercraft]

Did anybody happen to make a video recording of the 1970 film ‘Hell Boats’ which was screened on UK Channel 5 TV this afternoon?

I really wanted to see this, but my video recorder malfunctioned while I was out, so I don’t have it.



Graham

[joz]

wasn't that made in Malta during 1970 the war to which the RN patrol boats were stationed in Malta and attacked the Italian fleet?

[safewalrus]

Can't remember any RN patrol boats in Malta in 1970! We only had a couple then anyway both based in Portland (my mate was cox'n on one of 'em Scimiter I think it was)

[joz]

No I meant for the filming only the RN had patrol boats were there?

[hypercraft]

Yes, this film was made in Malta circa 1968-1969 and released circa 1970.
To my knowledge this film is screened extremely rarely (indeed I don't recall ever seeing it in the TV listings. Nor is it on DVD/video. I think it is a WW2 story about British torpedo boats (or maybe British-crewed captured E boats) attacking German submarine pens, or maybe e-boat pens, but as I have never seen the film I am only guessing. Anyway, I believe it contains some cracking fast boat footage.

So when I noticed Hellboats was due to be shown on TV I was excited and set my video recorder accordingly. One for the archive I thought! But when I found my video recorder had failed to record it I was truly p*ssed off.

Any suggestions about how to get to see this film are welcome.

[joz]

It was shown here once in Australia

[KevMull]

It was indeed filmed entirely in Malta, athough some scenes where the raids take place are meant to be in Sicily and I have the pics (and DVD) to prove it....

HELL BOATS LINK (http://medusa.ee.umist.ac.uk/moviesmadeinmalta/title.aspx?TitleID=17)

I think I should introduce myself.

Sorry, I have no interests in boats (make me feel queazy, even though i was born and bred in Portland**!) but I do have interests in movies and Malta and developed the above web page a few years ago.
I was doing a bit of googling on Hell Boats and came across this forum.
I've been waiting for the film to come out on DVD for a while now, although it still hasn't it was shown on UK TV on C5 last year (as the op says) which I recorded to DVD (with all ad breaks removed) :)

It's not a bad film as far as old war films go and I guess if you like boats, you'll like it even more :)
It even has a young Ronald Allen of Crossroads fame!

PM me mateys if anyone is still interested in seeing this film.

** Dad was a sailor for the RN stationed in Malta in the 50s/60s, meets Maltese girl (Mum), falls in love, gets married, gets stationed in Portland, Dorset, settles there where I was born and the rest as they say is history!...

[Robinwilliams]

Very interested your reference to Hell Boats - the actual film is not that great being that it is a poor take off of the St Nazaire Raid of 1942 - it seems to be filmed entirely in Malta although I take note that some one says some scenes shot in Sicily. Most of the shore shots are taken within the then HMS Phoenicia which was a shore base inside Fort Manoel on Manoel Island. I would be interested in obtaining a copy of this film being that I was based in HMS Phoenicia from 1958 -60 (some years before the film was made) when I was a young man of 18 through to 20 so the film brings back many fond memories but to date I have been unable to obtain a copy.

[Frosty]

There was another one (which I have a DVD of) called 'They were Dispencable" I think thats right it was with John Wayne.

Fabulous footage of the triple Merlin MTB, noise, wake, berthing, everything.

It was filmed in Phillappines I think in Subic bay.

[safewalrus]

great place that Subic Bay! Frosty is probably banned so it's even better!!

[Frosty]

I anchored off Subic when I went to Singapore from Hong kong. The end bit is called Orlangapo, think thats how you spell it. Kids kept paddling out to me to sell me military grey paint.

I dare'nt leave the boat. Had to leave,-- familiarity breads contempt.
Fish thrown on the boat etc.

Next stop was Corigador island on the mouth of Manila bay, Geeez nasty night that.

Next night was the Verdi pass and Pueroto Gallera where Nina and Frederick got murdered. I shifted half a tank blasting into 25kts up the Verdi pass, the decks stripped bare for less windage, Oh sorry -----boring.

[safewalrus]

Don't blame you there Frosty, not a nice place! Mind you consider yourself lucky you don't have a Septic accent, you'd have woke up dead if you had! Used to be numero uno Septic Naval base in Subic - Olangapo was the shanty town outside the gates! One main street that was nothing but bars and brothels - that was "in bounds" the rest shacks and shanties were the locals lived was "out of bounds" If you went down there you came out the otherside dead! They usually killed several yank sailors a week!

Actually the out of bounds place wasn't all that bad I went for a long stoll down there, quiet, dark but not unfriendly (I wasn't in Yank uniform mind) should have seen the Septic Patrols eyes as I stolled out of the area! Said I was the first guy to come out alive that year!! (it was about August 196*) see it pays to be crazy!!

[Pericles]

Baroness Nina van Pallandt (born July 15, 1932) is a Danish singer and actress.

Born Nina Magdelene Møller-Hasselbalch, she married Frederik, Baron van Pallandt in 1960. They formed a singing duo, Nina & Frederik, and achieved worldwide popularity with their calypso-style songs. They had three children:

* Floris Nicolas Ali, Baron van Pallandt (1961-2006), a film writer, director and painter.
* Kirsa Eleonore Clara, Baroness van Pallandt (1963)
* Ana Maria Else, Baroness van Pallandt (1965)

They divorced in 1975. Frederik van Pallandt settled in the Philippines in the 1990s. He joined a major Australian crime syndicate, for which he provided transportation for drug trafficking, and was shot dead with second wife in 1994.[1]

In the early 1970s, Nina van Pallandt was romantically linked to fellow Ibiza resident Clifford Irving. In the 2007 film The Hoax, about Irving's fake autobiography of Howard Hughes, Nina van Pallandt is portrayed by Julie Delpy. The film starred Richard Gere, who appeared with the real van Pallandt in one of his earliest films, American Gigolo.

She also appeared in several Robert Altman films during the 1970s, including The Long Goodbye, A Wedding, and Quintet.

1969 she contributed the song Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown? to the James Bond-movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service, starring George Lazenby. Where Do You Go To (My Lovely) is another 1969 song by Peter Sarstedt. It was a #1 hit in the UK-charts for six weeks in 1969. One theory is that Nina van Pallandt was the mysterious Marie-Claire in the song about a young jet setter who moved in high circles but was from a lowly origin.

Frederik, Baron van Pallandt (May 4, 1932 - May 15, 1994), was best known as the male half of the popular 1960s singing duo, Nina & Frederik.

He and his first wife, Nina van Pallandt, had three children:

* Floris Nicolas Ali, Baron van Pallandt (1961-2006), a film writer, director and painter.
* Kirsa Eleonore Clara, Baroness van Pallandt (1963)
* Ana Maria Else, Baroness van Pallandt (1965)

They divorced in 1975.

In 1976, Frederik Van Pallandt married María Jesus de Los Rios y Coello of Portugal, with whom he had one child:

* Daniel Tilopa, Baron van Pallandt (1977).

Frederik van Pallandt settled in the Philippines in the 1990s. He joined a major Australian crime syndicate, for which he provided transportation for drug trafficking. In 1994, both he and María were shot dead. Their murderer is believed to be another member of the syndicate.

Wikipedia

[safewalrus]

Pericles WTF?? You in the same thread mate?

[safewalrus]

I've just watched the mentioned film "Hell Boats" From experience Malta, definately, very medioca tho' - in places downright boring!! If it hadn't been for this thread I think I'd have left it after about ten minutes! If not sooner. Very wooden acting, inaccurate to a certain extent when you consider that at the time it was made the war was still very much in everybodies minds - crews in kakhi? Army maybe but not the Royal Navy! OK the boats were Brits but that was about it!! Septic lieutenant commander gets given a top secret mission - yeah right!! Shades of various other films mostly, obviously on a budget!! Not reccomended!

[mbp1]

Safewalrus - yes RN crews wore khaki in working tropical rig in WW2 Malta -or any old uniform they could lay hands on. To other posts - film was shot summer 1968 (half of my school 5 & 6 forms were in it - see www.talhandaqnostalgia.org). Yes there were serving craft used - two RAF HSLs in disguise. The one other craft seen may have been an ex-ML, interested to know if anyone can tell me. Its the one chugging along between the HSLs as they scream away towards the harbour entrance from Manoel Island. Yes there was a video (maybe even a DVD) released but it was renamed "MTB". Sometimes pops up on ebay, but hidden among all the bikes of course!!

[safewalrus]

Summer '68 eh? Nope missed it was out the far and nasty then, on a much bigger ship, same coloured ensign mind, probably even the same firm but we were never sure!

I c an see what you mean about the khaki in working tropical rig, probably more like the submariners 'pirate rig', anything you could beg, borrow or steal, but I doubt if it would have been as uniform as that lot!!

[mbp1]

Well a quick Google found this:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lnr7MkZLGz4C&pg=PA61&lpg=PA61&dq=royal+naval+khaki&source=web&ots=oZManfJ2j_&sig=UQIF9GpG9bOw_FY0pqQ488RKTZs&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPA64,M1

(see page 61 column 2)

and this:
http://www.replicaters.com/ww2navyuniforms.html

(see second caption below the fellow in whites).

[masalai]

Aaaah Hah, - - Made and maid in India, I have a better tailor in Bangalore.... :D:D:D

Uniform is (was) an oxymoron...

[mbp1]

If Hypercraft is still watching this thread he has two hours to bid on a copy of the video on ebay - search on "Malta"

[bob etherington]

hi all, can anybody help, my father served on the boats that were used in the film hellboats and i am trying to get a copy of the film for his birthday, any info would be helpful, thanks