The Ship That Died of Shame filmed in Dorset

The Ship That Died of Shame was partly filmed at Weymouth Harbour and the film has been restored to celebrate Richard Attenborough’s centenary on August 29.

Other locations used for the film were Poole Quay and Portchester in Hampshire.

Reader Alan Wolsey remembers the local filming of The Ship That Died of Shame.

He said: "I was at Melcombe Regis School as a pupil and I reckon there used to be a training ship there at the time.

"They took it and used it for the film. It was filmed in the harbour where the Cove used to be.

"The plot was about a ship that had done really well in the war and then was used to run drugs and contraband between Weymouth and France.

"It eventually blew up and caught on fire."

The film was not well received by critics and was said to reveal a darker side to the golden years of postwar reconstruction.

Alan said he remembers one specific scene being filmed at Weymouth harbour 'where there used to be a pub on the corner'.

Film legend Richard Attenborough known for Brighton Rock and The Angry Silence stars alongside Virginia McKenna, George Baker (I Claudius), Bill Owen (Last of the Summer Wine) and Roland Culver (To Each His Own).

A screenshot from the re-released Ship That Died of Shame (Image: Ealing Studios)

Basil Dearden directs the film, based on a short story by Nicholas Monsarrat.

Attenborough plays George Hoskins, who persuades his former Second World War crewmates to buy their old boat the 1087 for some ‘harmless’ smuggling.

However, the crew find themselves falling into the criminal underworld.

Produced by the great Ealing Studios and written and directed by Ealing stalwart Basil Dearden (The Gentle Gunman, The Green Man), this film is thought of as a 'lesser-seen gem'.

It's said to be a notable example of a grittier side to the studio’s output and a welcome antidote to the flag-waving patriotic post-war films like The Dam Busters and In Which We Serve that were so prolific at the time

BFI curator Dylan Cave said: “If The Ladykillers gives us a darkly comic vision of post-war Britain struggling to escape the strictures of tradition, The Ship That Died of Shame is a gritty noir-shaded flipside, confirming that the joy of the immediate post-war years – Britain’s (and Ealing’s) finest moments – are long past.”

A scene from The Ship That Died of Shame (Image: Ealing Studios)

In the course of a career that spanned 60 years, Richard Attenborough (29 August 1923 – 24 August 2014) was a prolific actor, director and producer. The winner of two Academy Awards, four BAFTAs and four Golden Globe Awards, Attenborough was also recipient of the 1983 BAFTA Fellowship for Lifetime Achievement.

The Ship That Died of Shame will be released on Blu-ray for the first time and will also be on DVD and digital from September 11 (Image: Ealing Studios)

Although perhaps best known for the raft of epic films he directed including Ghandi and Chaplin, Attenborough started his career as an actor; his breakthrough role was as “Pinkie” in Brighton Rock (1947), still perhaps his most iconic. In 1952, he appeared on the West End stage, originating the role of Detective Sergeant Trotter in Agatha Christie's ‘The Mousetrap’ which has since become the world's longest-running play. The Ship That Died of Shame (1955) cast him as a memorable villain once again. In the late 50s, he formed a production company, Beaver Films, with Bryan Forbes, which saw them produce such acclaimed British films as The Angry Silence (1960), Whistle Down the Wind (1961) and Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964).

The restored The Ship That Died of Shame will be available to own on Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital from September 11.