Brian Easdale and The Battle of the River Plate

The Battle of the River Plate is a 1956 British war film directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It relates the story of the 1939 naval battle between the British Royal Navy and the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee. The film focuses on the bravery and strategic manoeuvres of the British crew as they engage in a tense and dramatic confrontation with the German ship in the South Atlantic Ocean. The battle leads to the scuttling of the Graf Spee by its own crew to avoid capture.

Brian Easdale (1909-1995) was a distinguished British composer known for his contributions to both film and concert music. Born in Manchester, he studied at the Westminster Abbey Choir School and then at the Royal College of Music under Gordon Jacob and Cecil Armstrong Gibbs. Easdale's early career included some large-scale orchestral works and his first opera, Rapunzel, written at the age of seventeen. During the Second World War, Easdale served in the Royal Artillery and collaborated with the Public Relations Film Unit in India, where he developed an interest in Indian music. This experience led to his first major film score, Black Narcissus (1947), produced by Powell and Pressburger. His most renowned achievement, however, is the score for The Red Shoes (1948), which earned him an Academy Award.

Despite his success in film music, his concert works, such as the Missa Coventriensis for the consecration of Coventry Cathedral, receives little attention. Christopher Palmer in The New Grove described Easdale’s music as "an eclectic English idiom that owes something to Britten as well as to the Bax-Bridge generations". 

The film features a big star cast, including John Gregson as Captain Bell of H.M.S. Exeter, Anthony Quayle as Commodore Harwood of H.M.S. Ajax, and Ian Hunter as Captain Woodhouse also of H.M.S. Ajax. Bernard Lee portrays Captain Dove of the sunk merchant ship Africa Shell. The cast also includes Lionel Murton as the American reporter Mike Fowler, Andrew Cruickshank as Captain Stubbs of the Doric Star, and finally, Peter Finch takes on the role of Captain Langsdorff of the Admiral Graf Spee.

Brian Easdale's score for The Battle of the River Plate is a remarkable piece of film music that effectively captures the tension and drama of the naval battle. His style blends lush Romanticism with "ethnic" colour, influenced by his wartime exposure to Indian music. This unique combination creates a rich and evocative soundtrack that heightens the film's atmosphere. The score's dynamic range, from the powerful and heroic themes to the more sombre and reflective moments, helps to convey the emotional journey of the characters and the significance of the historical events. Overall, Easdale's score is a testament to his skill as a composer and his ability to create music that not only complements the visuals but also stands on its own as a powerful and evocative work of art.

A long critique was given in What's On in London, a weekly booklet with "News, Reviews and full details of all London's entertainment: (2 November1957):

It is easy to see why, after all the uproars of past years, Powell, and Pressburger's The Battle of the River Plate (Odeon, Leicester Square) was selected as this year's Royal Film. The story of a British Naval victory (if an inconclusive one in a sense) could cause no controversy, surely. Ah, but I wonder ...

Long, meticulous in its Naval detail, a little confusing sometimes to the landlubber like myself, wonderfully photographed, the film shows the story of the battle between three small cruisers ("Exeter", "Ajax" and "Achilles") and the very large German pocket-battleship "Graf Spee". The battle is savage (though, commendably, not repellently bloody on the screen), exciting and extremely well staged and one gets some idea of what this kind of long-distance fight at sea must be to those who took part in it.

But some of the best scenes are the earlier quieter ones between Capt. Langsdorff (Graf Spee) and his prisoner Captain Dove (Bernard Lee). Finch, Lee, John Gregson (Capt. of the gallant "Exeter") and Anthony Quayle (of the "Ajax") all give performances above the average.

(With thanks to The Powell & Pressburger Pages website).

Although I concede that the music for The Battle of the River Plate is not quite as impressive as Walton’s original score for The Battle of Britain, (the film release used music largely prepared by Ron Goodwin), there is something quite dark and menacing in both the Prelude and the March that is perhaps less romantically overblown but has a touch of seriousness that is entirely appropriate to the story of the Graf Spee and its scuttling. Great stuff!

Listen to extracts from Brian Easdale’s score for The Battle of the River Plate, on YouTube, here. It is a rather poor recording but allows the listener to get a measure of the music.