Directed by Norman Walker, our own Ed Wood, this artificial and inept drama has some good moments when the director shows locations shots of Robin Hoods Bay or Whitby, but for the most part it takes place on a cardboard cut out sea front set . Real location shots of ships at sea and fish being bought into Whitby are welcome but are little compensation for the wooden acting, in which the Kensington drawing room style of the cast overlays the Yorkshire more often in an uncomfortable hybrid of speech. The director Norman Walker moves from scene to scene at one pace, and the conflict and characterisation are simply not dealt with dramatically, so that the piece often seems like an amateur drama, where things are "champion". The best bits are usually reminiscent of the superb and ground breaking documentaries which Grierson was then producing under the aegis of the Empire Marketing Board and the music is good . Also, as an early example of combining drama with documentary footage, it deserves praise for originality, but the film as a whole is poor.
Review of Turn of the Tide
