The Frogmen (1951)

This is a fairly good movie about a little known unit of the US Navy; the elite Underwater Demolition Team (UDT) commonly called The Frogmen.  These divers do reconnaissance and demolition work by surreptitiously sneaking into the target area doing their scouting or setting their charges and returning to a rendezvous from which they are picked up by a speeding boat that holds out a noose to the men, pulling them into the craft without skipping a beat.  The precision by which they go through their paces is impressive and they are undoubtedly an early version of our US Special Forces, the Navy's current version being the SEALs (Sea Air & Land).

The skipper of UDT-4 is played by Richard Widmark, a replacement who is trying to fill the shoes of a legend, the former commander who was killed in action just before we joined the story.  This conflict fuels the story as Widmark tries to be a stern disciplinarian while the legend was lenient and a friend of all the enlisted men.  Alas the script alternates between the trite scenes of the new officer locking horns with his enlisted men and some interesting action sequences.  The script is saved by these compelling action scenes that give some of the earliest  views of the underwater world filmed prefiguring the popularity of Sea Hunt starring Lloyd Bridges, a favorite show of many boys who watched it back in the early 60s.

The action covers three missions the frogmen performed in the South Pacific, late in the war against the Japanese.  While the places are not specified they are somewhere in the Pacific islands that the Navy was making too hot for the Japanese. Iwo Jima was mentioned as happening in the past so it was sometime in early to mid 1945, not too long before the defeat of Japan.  Two of the missions involved clearing obstacles set in the shallows to impede invasion of their beaches.  The UDT swam in, placed high explosive charges and set them off with waterproof fuses.  The underwater photography by Norbert Brodine is quite impressive.

Widmark cut his leg on a coral reef and had infection set in so that stopped him from going on the second mission, which he assigned to CPO Flannigan (Dana Andrews) - one of the team leaders.  Andrews and his buddy, played by Jeffrey Hunter, went on the beach and put up a Welcome Marines! sign but Hunter was shot by the Japanese and of course Widmark again felt it necessary to reprimand Andrews for insubordination.  The whole team tendered their written resignation on that note.  The skipper of the vessel that carried them around was played by Gary Merrill (All About Eve) and he was a calming influence and led Widmark to lighten up, finally. This role was one of the best I've seen Merrill portray.  

The third mission required the team to rendezvous with a submarine, infiltrate an enemy sub installation, and blow up the sub pens, the only ones outside of Japan.  The action sequences give a good idea of how the real frogmen operated and are worth seeing. It's a pity that the surface scenes drag and do not contribute much, despite having a much better cast than the script warranted.  Dana Andrews, Gary Merrill, Jack Warden, Jeffrey Hunter, and Richard Widmark have all done better and it was the script that was the culprit here.

The Fox DVD gives a good copy of the 96 minute black and white movie in 1.33:1 full screen format, like it appeared in theaters.  Subtitles and a couple of film trailers are the extras.

War movie fans and fans of the actors will enjoy The Frogmen.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV