
“Gable and Lancaster make the seas boil in the battle adventure that hits like a torpedo!”
The captain of a submarine sunk by the Japanese during WWII is finally given a chance to skipper another sub after a year of working a desk job. His singleminded determination for revenge against the destroyer that sunk his previous vessel puts his new crew in unneccessary danger.
Release Date: 3/27/1958
Runtime: 93 minutes
Languages: English, Japanese
Director: Robert Wise
00Companies: Jeffrey Pictures Corp., Hill-Hecht-Lancaster Productions, United Artists
Countries: United States of America
CinemaSerf
This superior wartime submarine story is about an American captain (Gable) who seeks to avenge the loss of an earlier ship to a Japanese destroyer by perfecting a very difficult "bow shot" technique that would enable him to torpedo this fast moving enemy head on. Burt Lancaster portrays his popular XO who ought, originally, to have had that command but has been passed over; and the film depicts the evolution of their taut and mistrusting relationship. Gable is on good form as his character treads a very thin line between reason and obsession and Lancaster works hard to keep himself and the crew under control. The direction is tense and the chemistry between these two men works really well. This is more than a post-war grandstanding picture; it does touch on the psychology of command and of grief, and is well worth an hour and a half of your time.

Clark Gable
Cmdr. Richardson

Burt Lancaster
Lt. Jim Bledsoe

Jack Warden
Yeoman 1st Class Mueller

Brad Dexter
Cartwright

Don Rickles
Quartermaster 1st Class Ruby

Nick Cravat
Russo

Joe Maross
Kohler

Mary LaRoche
Laura Richardson

Eddie Foy III
Larto

Rudy Bond
Sonarman 1st Class Cullen
Jimmy Bates
Jessie (uncredited)

Joel Fluellen
Bragg (uncredited)
1972