Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

"Torpedoes... Los!" Kapitan Von Stolberg

On this Memorial Day 2004 I decided to watch the new DVD of The Enemy Below (1957) as a suitable reminder of the heroism and sacrifices of our gallant sailors at war. I owe thanks to my pal Colonialpara, a great fan of war films, for directing my attention to this film in his comments to one of my earlier reviews. Paul, this one's for you!

The Enemy Below is the story of a duel to the death between a US Destroyer and a German U Boat, commanded by two of the wiliest captains you can imagine.

As the film opens, the USS Haynes is a Buckley class Destroyer Escort on patrol in the South Atlantic, based out of Trinidad. It is 1943 and the crew are shown doing their tasks and wondering who their new captain, locked in his cabin, is and whether he will be able to effectively command. Rumor has it he was torpedoed on his previous ship and worse, he was a merchant marine, worthy only of contempt from real salts on a warship. They needn't worry, as a blip on the ship's radar brings the captain forth to the bridge and he correctly guesses the return, which could be a fishing smack or the conning tower of a submarine, is worth following up.

Through a series of shrewd maneuvers, Captain Murrell (Robert Mitchum) determines that the ghostly signal is a submarine and reasons that if he maintains the same relative position to the sub, the sub's captain will dismiss it as a false return on his radar. If the German skipper thinks he is being followed, he can dive and scoot and there will be no way the destroyer can find it. It turns out that the U Boat is assigned an important mission: to retrieve a British logbook from its base somewhere in South America and return it to Germany, with emphasis on returning to Germany. The crew is battle-weary and looking for home leave. Therefore, despite the fact that the Kapitan (Curt Jurgens) knows he is being tailed, he keeps returning to the same course.

Producer/Director Dick Powell split his time equally between the Americans and the Germans, contrasting the conditions on the two ships. The Americans are in the sun and feeling the breeze while the Germans spend a goodly time below in their cramped and odorous tin fish being knocked about by the depth charges the American destroyer incessantly rains on them. Unlike most war movies of its era, The Enemy Below takes a sympathetic view of the Germans and the viewer might have a difficult time choosing who to root for. Besides the main protagonists and their first officers (Robert Michum, Curt Jurgens, David "Al" Hedison, and Theodore Bikel) the crews are stereotypes but well played nonetheless. The real conflict is revealed by a long soliloquy by Robert Mitchum who says in effect the enemy is an evil nature within ourselves; no matter how many times we cut off the head of the snake he always grows another one.

Despite the philosophical side trip, Captain Murrell (Mitchum) proves to be business-like and extremely good at his job, out guessing the German Kapitan Von Stolberg (Curt Jurgens) at every turn. The one difficulty the Americans have is the limited amount of depth charges they carry. If they run out, the tables will turn and the Germans will have the initiative. I will leave the conclusion of this exciting sea duel to your viewing pleasure.

The one con I found with The Enemy Below was the revisionist attitude towards he mindset of the warriors. Both captains were shown to be too understanding of their enemy and this was a product of post-war thinking, certainly not persons involved at the time. Das Boot, another fine film, was also guilty of this revisionism. Contrast that with the blind determination of Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster in Run Silent, Run Deep or Tyrone Power in Crash Dive. Even Richard Widmark in The Bedford Incident, a cold war submarine-destroyer duel, had the correct attitude towards the enemy. Despite this misplaced antiwar sentiment in a movie purporting to depict World War II action, The Enemy Below is a fine entertainment DVD and deserves a place in every war movie fan's collection.

The scenes involving the surface operations are beautifully photographed, and the depth charging sequences are gripping, showing what is basically an oversized hand grenade explosively hurled from a launcher only to explode at a preset depth with remarkably beautiful patterns of explosions as geysers of water spurt hundreds of feet in the air. The special effects were good enough to snag an Academy Award. The camera does not show many of the explosions from beneath the surface as U-571 did, but mainly shows the effects on the sub's crew as they are buffeted around and subjected to leaks and so forth. Director Powell also shows an interesting transition, following a fishing line from the destroyer panning below the surface to the submarine lying on the bottom of the sea.

The Fox War Classics DVD is presented in absolutely pristine 2.35:1 Cinemascope format in color by De Luxe, with Dolby 5.1 sound. The movie looks and sounds brand new, which is remarkable considering it was made in 1957. The theatrical trailer, three WWII era "FOX Movietone Newsreels", and subtitles in English and Spanish, and English, Spanish, and French audio are included as extras.

Other great submarine classics available on DVD

Crash Dive

Run Silent, Run Deep

Das Boot

The Bedford Incident

Watch a good movie tonight!







Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening