Nicholas Montsarrat's The Cruel Sea became the classic British novel of naval warfare of the Second World War.

It presented a hard, cold world where the very real heroism was masked by bitter gales and sleet, and where battle was often a silent long-distance affair when the enemy's presence was only detected when a torpedo exploded within your vessel's bowels.

This 1953 movie inevitably lacks the dense reality of the novel. But it is a fine effort. In its way it is as a good a depiction of men who go to war as the American movie The Caine Mutiny - there is weakness here too, to accentuate the valour.

For most of the time the sea is portrayed as a rolling, relentless enemy. This is the ice-cold Atlantic, not our balmy Pacific. The bitter ice and sleet never cease to dominate the movie. This is not just man against man, this is a war of man against nature.

The Cruel Sea is set during the Battle of the Atlantic, when Britain was trying to keep a lifeline of supplies coming into its beleaguered island, with the convoys and escorts prey to the circling packs of U-boats. This battle was every bit as crucial as the more famous aerial Battle of Britain; it was a fight for freedom of the cruellest kind.

There is only one false note in this movie - when an officer is introduced who is "just not the right type, old boy". Set that touch of snobbery apart, and the rest is a definitive account of the type of naval encounters which helped win the war.

This is a decent full-screen transfer of this 1953 black and white movie, with the picture quality as good as could be expected from this vintage. Sound is clear and adequate, while the historical trailer is of reasonable, but not outstanding, quality.