Whether the target is an enemy ship or their common love interest, Tyrone Power's character always goes straight for the kill, and Dana Andrews' character tries to think a couple of moves ahead. Both of them are quite believable and watchable in those roles: Power's charm is obvious, and Andrews has a way of being outwardly undemonstrative but somehow putting across the impression of a lot going on inside.
One expects of a submarine film that the drama will come from claustrophobia, that these two men will come to know that they're both after the same woman, and immediately afterwards they're going to be sealed into a metal box and put under the sea. This isn't really the case: the claustrophobia is never very sustained, there's nothing particularly submariney about the movie - without too much change to the script it could have been Tyrone Power and Dana Andrews in a seaplane, or in a tank. In fact, I'm not even sure if there's anything very submariney about the actions of the submarine: if a real life submarine had stumbled upon a secret enemy base, surely the thing to do would have been to radio its position to the nearest battleship fleet or bomber base. What it actually did seemed to be more out of a James Bond film.
Oh yes, forgot about Anne Baxter for a while there. This is the problem: the film is either in girl-chasing mode, with the characters going on country drives, or in ship-chasing mode, where the girl can't be any part of the action. Similarly, the male characters are either in friend mode, when the call each other by their first names and offer each other cigarettes, or not friend mode, when they address each other by their formal titles and don't share cigarettes.
The movie is slow to get started, since it has to establish both the sea action and the shore action, and this isn't helped by a prologue with Tyrone Power at action not in a submarine but in a PT boat. There's a possible dramatic justification for this in that Power's character is meant to be more suited to armed speedboat manouevres than to the patience and coolness of submarine warfare, and it establishes Power as an interloper in Andrews' world. But the epilogue spoken by Power is less about submariners doing a great job and more about all branches of the navy having an essential part to play, and I assume that was the specific message that the propaganda officials wanted to get into the film. So I wonder if the business about Power being a PT boat man was in order to set up this propaganda message of all branches pulling together.
One expects of a submarine film that the drama will come from claustrophobia, that these two men will come to know that they're both after the same woman, and immediately afterwards they're going to be sealed into a metal box and put under the sea. This isn't really the case: the claustrophobia is never very sustained, there's nothing particularly submariney about the movie - without too much change to the script it could have been Tyrone Power and Dana Andrews in a seaplane, or in a tank. In fact, I'm not even sure if there's anything very submariney about the actions of the submarine: if a real life submarine had stumbled upon a secret enemy base, surely the thing to do would have been to radio its position to the nearest battleship fleet or bomber base. What it actually did seemed to be more out of a James Bond film.
Oh yes, forgot about Anne Baxter for a while there. This is the problem: the film is either in girl-chasing mode, with the characters going on country drives, or in ship-chasing mode, where the girl can't be any part of the action. Similarly, the male characters are either in friend mode, when the call each other by their first names and offer each other cigarettes, or not friend mode, when they address each other by their formal titles and don't share cigarettes.
The movie is slow to get started, since it has to establish both the sea action and the shore action, and this isn't helped by a prologue with Tyrone Power at action not in a submarine but in a PT boat. There's a possible dramatic justification for this in that Power's character is meant to be more suited to armed speedboat manouevres than to the patience and coolness of submarine warfare, and it establishes Power as an interloper in Andrews' world. But the epilogue spoken by Power is less about submariners doing a great job and more about all branches of the navy having an essential part to play, and I assume that was the specific message that the propaganda officials wanted to get into the film. So I wonder if the business about Power being a PT boat man was in order to set up this propaganda message of all branches pulling together.