WAR AT SEA FILM SEASON: The Battle of the River Plate (1956) [aka Pursuit of the Graf Spee] The Battle of the River Plateis a 1956 British war film in Technicolor and VistaVision by the writer-director-producer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The film stars John Gregson, Anthony Quayle, and Peter Finch. It was distributed worldwide by Rank Film Distributors Ltd. The film's storyline concerns the Battle of the River Plate, an early World War II naval battle in 1939 between a Royal