For some reason we have a festival
of submarine movies around my house at this time of year. It
seems to happen naturally and without planning like our post-Christmas
Back to the Future marathon and our Mid-winter gangster movie
extravaganza. Anyhow, these are our perennial favorite sub-surface
war flicks.
Glenn Ford is a sub skipper
in the Pacific. Every sub flick needs tension among the crew
and this is the best deus ex machina of them all. Ford must hunt
down a Japanese destroyer being shielded by a freighter that
his own wife and infant daughter aboard. By attacking the target
he risks his family. Not as much bathos as it sounds. Ford gives
a marvelously touching yet restrained performance aided by Ernest
Borgnine as his XO. Great special effects.
This one stars Clark Gable and
Burt Lancaster. The original ad campaign said TERRIFIC TOGETHER!
And they are. The tension rises when Gable pulls rank to get
command of his old sub back, acing Lancaster out of the job.
More action in the Pacific as the men face the Japanese navy
and themselves. Look for Don Rickles in a supporting role.
James Garner is an underwater
demolitions expert assigned with a dangerous mission. By-the-book
sub captain Edmund O'Brien has to get him deep into Japanese
waters. The two clash immediately and things go from bad to worse
on a mission that seems doomed before it begins. A very suspenseful
surface action against a strafing Zero is the highlight of this
one. This is my wife's favorite. It's very good but suffers from
being set-bound in the final act.
This time the good guys are
on the surface and the badguys below. Robert Mitchum is the new
skipper of a destroyer escort in the South Atlantic. He finds
a German U-boat captained by Curt Jurgens on its way back to
the fatherland. An excellent cat and mouse game ensues as the
two warriors use trickery and raw courage to outwit one another.
This one benefits from lots of outdoor locations and the full
use of an actual US Navy escort.
The German point of view this
time in an excellent and absorbing film by Wolfgang Peterson.
But it's a typically German flick full of dour moods and a downer
ending. But the claustrophobic feeling of the film and the dynamite
performances make this one a winner. German subs were more cramped
than American ones. They were slightly smaller and crowded. One
bunk served two men as they went off and on shifts. This film
puts that across in a big way.
A wartime entry. Cary Grant's
the skipper and John Garfield shines as usual as a feisty torpedo
mate. Nail biting suspense as Grant and crew enter Tokyo Bay
to shoot Tojo's shipping like fish in a barrel. But how the hell
are they gonna get out?
ABOVE US THE WAVES
A British film based on the
true story of the mini-subs designed and built for use in the
Scandanavian fjords where German warships thought they were safely
anchored. This one chronicles the ultra-secret mission to sink
the German battleship Tirpitz moored far up a Norwegian fjord.
Exciting and nerve wracking.
That rarity of rarities, a TV
movie worth seeing again. Armand Assante is brooding and driven
in his role as the Captain of the Hunley, the experimental Confederate
submarine built to break the Union blockade of Charleston, South
Carolina during the Civil War. It's a great period piece and
the action is thrilling. The sacrifice and valor of the men entering
this new and frightening theater of war are highlighted without
the usual quibbling about the Southern Cause.
Another British film. A straight
ahead wartime adventure that takes time to show the suffering
of wives and family left behind. John Mills leads a cast of intrepid
submariners who are obsessed with sinking as much Nazi shipping
as they can. Refreshingly, none of the stodginess of other Brit
war flicks made at this time. These guys are as gung-ho as their
American cinema counterparts. Fun stuff.
John Wayne looks too darn big
to serve in a submarine. But this is a sturdy wartime flick with
plenty of action and a woman's touch thanks to Patricia Neal.
Nowhere near as good as Wayne's other WWII naval flick, THEY
WERE EXPENDABLE, but it's good nonetheless.
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You've already noticed by their
absence, HUNT FOR THE RED OCTOBER, CRIMSON TIDE, U-571 and ICE
STATION ZEBRA. The last one is fun if silly. The others don't
make the cut. OCTOBER is dull. CRIMSON TIDE is derivative Hollywood
junk with tension aboard that is contrived and ultimately stupid.
And U-571 gets my vote as the worst submarine movie ever made.
And there have been some stinkers. What can I say? We're picky
about our sub movies around my house.