The 1960 feature film 'Sink The Bismarck' is quite accurate in the way it depicts the engagements in the Atlantic, but heavily fictionalised in its portrayal of the co-ordination from London. There was a very good reason for this. In reality, the Director of Operations, Captain R A B Edwards, made extensive use of the Intelligence 'take' and analysis from the codebreakers at Bletchley Park, the very existence of which remained a carefully guarded secret until 1975. The film story, based on the 1958 book 'The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck' by C S Forester, needed to have a protagonist who would instead have to make decisions through 'experience, intuition and character', enabling him to carry the audience through the series of events which involved a large number of RN ships coming and going in different groups. The hero also needed to have a vulnerable side to his character, suggested through a developing personal relationship. As with all adaptations from books to movies, screenwriter Edmund North had to trim down Forrester's narrative and cut out internal musings, replacing these with action sequences, because that is the 'language' of film. He also reinvented the character of Admiral Lutjens as a committed Nazi, which was the opposite of the truth, but the story needed a 'villain', which in 1960 meant 'bad through and through'.
Star billing in the film went to Kenneth More, as the fictional protagonist Captain Jonathan Shepherd, and his assistant Dana Wynter, as WRNS Second Officer Anne Davis, his implied potential romantic interest. Captain Shepherd's wife had been killed in an air raid, and his son was Missing In Action throughout most of the film. Obviously, no heartstrings were to be left untugged. Kenneth More had served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War as a Lieutenant on HMS Victorious, and is a convincing hero.
Very high quality models were built to represent all the major ships involved, and they were filmed in a large studio water tank. Most scenes on the decks of Allied and Axis ships were shot aboard HMS Vanguard and HMS Belfast. HMS Victorious makes an appearance, although now with an angled flight deck which she did not have in 1941. Some liberties were taken with the various engagements, such as when Bismarck sinks the RN Destroyer 'HMS Solent'. Bismarck sank only HMS Hood, and HMS Solent was a submarine in real life. Bismarck is also depicted shooting down several British aircraft, which never happened. These factual 'errors' were made knowingly, in order to emote the audience effectively for the film's climax showing the sinking of the then helpless German battleship, which might have otherwise seemed callous. There are numerous scenes where ships are on the wrong course or engaging on the wrong beam, which was again done knowingly by the filmmakers because in Western cultures, which write from left to right, this is the psychologically 'strong' direction, and a British film had no doubt where its loyalties lay. Particularly when the Producer, John Brabourne, was the son-in-law of Lord Mountbatten, then Chief of the Defence Staff.
The film was a critical success. It remains a staple of late-night TV schedules even today, and always gets good viewing figures. It is a good example of how, in order to make a expensive major film that will attract large enough audiences to cover its cost, the 'language' of a movie will have to address the human essence of a situation, and not attempt to be a pure documentary. 'Sink The Bismarck' is a narrative, a thoughtful hybrid of fact and intelligent invention, which attempted to attract and engage with a wide section of the cinemagoing public. Overall, was it a success? Watch it again and decide.