"FOR FREEDOM."

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 92, 18 April 1940, Page 18

"FOR FREEDOM."

The splendid naval battle which ended in the destruction of the "Graf Spec" was the foundation on which the whole idea of the film "For Freedom" was constructed. • It has been designed to combine propaganda and antertainment. Originally, the film was to cover European history over the past twenty years culminating in the naval action. Shortly after the commencement of production, the merchant marine captains who were prisoners on the Graf Spec, returned to London. They were immediately placed under contract to appear in a reconstruction of their experiences during the battle. Very shortly afterwards the Navy was again in the headlines with the rescue of British prisoners from the Altmark. About this time also H.M. ships Ajax and Exeter arrived at Plymouth. C. M. Wooll of Gaumount-British Dominion, was quick to grasp the opportunity. As s suit, the Altmark affair was added to the script and fiiteen officers with three hundred ratings from the personnel of the Ajax and Exeter were placed under contract with the approval of the. Admiralty. ' These men are now appearing in the film re-en-acting the actual roles they played during the Graf Spec fight. In addition Will Fyffe has been given the principal role and will appear as a newsreel editor.