There were so many great British war movies produced in the 1940s and 1950s that it becomes almost an inevitability to pronounce each one you newly discover as a classic. "Malta Story", released in 1953 is, alas, not a classic. However, it is a good, solidly made and generally engrossing tale that is unique in that it covers the incredible story of the island of Malta, then a British colony, and its unlikely strategic importance to the Allies during the campaign to prevent Rommel and his forces from dominating the African continent. Malta is a tiny nation that found itself sandwiched between Sicily to the North and North Africa to the south. Both the Allies and the Axis powers deemed it to be essential to the conquest of Africa, as it could provide a valuable port and landing strips for bombers. For over two years, the undermanned British defense units on the island, bolstered by the courageous local population, endured daily bombing raids that devastated the nation. Malta was dependent on receiving essential supplies from Allied convoys, most of which proved to be sitting ducks for German U-Boats. Countless tons of precious food, medicine and ammunition went to the bottom of the ocean along with a large loss of crew members. Still, with plucky stiff-upper-lip resolve, the British and Maltese fought on, even with the RAF fighter planes having been reduced to only 15 aircraft. Ultimately, the British managed to reinforce the air defenses and some American convoy ships managed to survive the U-Boats. Malta managed to prevail and thwarted an inevitable full-scale invasion by German and Italian forces. King George VI was so impressed that he collectively awarded the nation as a whole the prestigious George Cross to commemorate the courage of the military and civilian forces.
"Malta Story" opens with its protagonist, a military photographer, Flight Lt. Peter Ross (Alec Guinness) on a flight to Africa to photograph German military installations. Flight troubles force the plane to unexpectedly land in Malta, where Ross meets the beleaguered commander of military forces, Air Commodore Frank (Jack Hawkins), who instantly arranges for Ross to join his command. Ross has his hands full with a starving local population and a shortage of planes and anti-aircraft ammunition. He sends Ross on an assignment to photograph German military movements, but Ross diverts his course and manages to photograph suspicious German train movements that he suspects are transporting supplies to build gliders- a sure indication of an impending commando invasion. Frank chews him out for disobeying orders, but it turns out Ross's instincts seem to be correct. When "Malta Story" sticks to the military plot it soars along very well indeed. However, the somewhat muddled screenplay bogs down the action by introducing a romantic subplot that finds Ross smitten by a courageous Maltese woman, Maria (Muriel Pavlow) and much screen time is devoted to one of the screen's most boring love stories. Guinness was a genius as an actor but he excelled in playing characters that were either very eccentric or larger than life. Ross is neither. He's an every day schlub with no particularly interesting traits. Guinness seems out of his element and perhaps for this reason he was rarely cast as a romantic leading man. In fact, the love scenes between Ross and Maria are about as erotic as giving your sister a peck on the cheek. Indeed, things bog down to the point where Ross disappears from the middle section of the film only to pop up again at the end, when he volunteers to take on a one-man mission to locate and photograph a German convoy- a seemingly suicidal task that curiously would be replicated by Kirk Douglas in Otto Preminger's far superior "In Harm's Way" twelve years later.
With Guinness a bore, it falls to Jack Hawkins to carry the acting chores and he saves the film with his steadfast performance. Much of the combat footage was recycled from actual newsreels but because the film is in B&W the gimmick works rather well. "Malta Story", competently directed by Brian Desmond Hurst, is primarily valuable as a history lesson. The trials and courage of the Maltese people have largely been overlooked in studies of WWII history and for this reason, the movie can be recommended viewing.
"Malta Story" is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. It can also be ordered from Amazon on DVD by clicking here.