It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

This is one of very few films shot partly at the submarine base in Groton, CT, aka Submarine Base New London, CT.A few naval combatants rarely seen in Technicolor are visible in the early part of the film. The PT boats seen near the beginning are the 77-foot Elco type. The submarine primarily featured as the fictional USS Corsair is the experimental USS Marlin (SS-205), with a conning tower modified to resemble her sister USS Mackerel (SS-204). A few O-class and R-class submarines, built in World War One and used for training in WW2, are visible in the background of some shots. For wartime security reasons, no submarine classes used in combat in WW2 appear in the film. The USS Semmes (AG-24 ex-DD-189) is seen in one shot; there are probably not many good Technicolor views of a four-stack destroyer available today. The Semmes was being used as a sonar testbed at the time.I personally did not like how the love story progressed, as Tyrone Power is consistently deceptive and gets the girl anyway.Another reviewer has assumed that the Nazi base would have to be near New England on the basis that WW2 submarines had a short range. This is incorrect. US submarines in WW2 routinely went from Pearl Harbor to Japan's home waters, patrolled for several weeks, and returned to Pearl Harbor on a single tank of diesel fuel. A Gato-class submarine could cover 11,000 miles without refueling, thus could have patrolled in German home waters while based in Groton if necessary. My assumption is that the Nazi base would be in Greenland, not likely given the realities of the war, but the raid on it still makes for good action.

This is an enjoyable flick, even though every moment of it is done by the wartime numbers. I don't care. Anne Baxter is young, chubby, and cute. I can understand why Dana Andrews is in love with her, and why Tyrone Power falls too. The problem is that Power has been recently transferred from PT boats to Andrews' submarine, so he has no idea that while he's courting Anne Baxter, she has any connection with his skipper. The romantic triangle is resolved in the expectable fashion. (Everything about this movie is expectable.) Which of the two gets the girl? Ask which man has the lead part. Andrews may be handsome in a stiff, solid, thin-lipped way, but Power is exorbitantly handsome -- reckless and dashing and charming to boot. Also he's rich.But that's the B story.The A story involves missions of the submarine called the Corsair, which is a misnomer unless there is a fish called the corsair. Andrews is the captain and Power his new exec, still in thrall of his glamorous PT boats. There's a bit of not altogether friendly conflict of allegiances here. The two officers call each other "Mister." But they bond when Andrews is knocked out by a depth charge, and Power takes over the boat and sinks the ship attacking them. After that, it's "Ward" and "Dewey", not "Mister." The C story centers around an asymmetric relationship between an African-American Steward's Mate, Ben Carter, and the Chief Engineer, James Gleason. Gleason is mean to everyone and when he finds out that Carter knows about his weak heart, he's even meaner to the Steward. Carter, in turn, is solicitous towards the chief and follows him around like a dog, though in this case the dog is periodically kicked. Of course Carter's character would be intolerable on today's screens but it would be a mistake to call this element of the film "racist." It's handled good-naturedly. Carter gets to make a joke about his color and in the climactic scene his behavior is heroic.Reliable cliché is piled upon reliable cliché in the script and the heap is garnished with plenty of corn. When Andrews and Power return from their patrol, they arrange for a platter of fresh vegetables and react to it orgasmically. They attack it in a way men don't. And when one of them says, "Let's split a bottle," the dissolve takes us to a scene in which they drink milk.The action scenes correspond closely to those in Warners' "Destination Tokyo" or -- well, name any other submarine movie. Under depth-charge attack, Andrews fools the Germans by shooting some debris through the torpedo tube and releasing a little fuel oil. Evidently the German captain has never seen a submarine movie. But his performance is outstanding nonetheless. He rubs his palms together, glowing with evil, smiles, and says, "Erl -- wunderbar!" (What a dummy.) There's also a landing party. There is often a landing party at a secret enemy base. This leads to extravagant fireballs, innumerable dead Germans, a hair-raising escape, and the resolution of that question about who gets the girl.The only scene in which the corn was a little too overdone for my taste was an extended interlude at Tyrone Power's aunt's Massachusetts mansion. The aunt is Dame May Witty. She calls Power "Stinky." Anne Baxter is the guest and I suppose this is designed to humanize Power's sometimes reckless pursuit of the girl.The direction is pedestrian. Little real acting is called for. The special effects -- in fully blown color -- were quite good for the period, although we can spot the miniatures easily now. Nothing innovative in the sound or in the musical score.Power ends the movie with one of those patriotic, rechauffe "let's all pull together" speeches of the kind that so many war-time flag wavers did. He lauds ALL the ships of the Navy, not just the PT boats but the submarines too, and goes on to list the battleships, the cruisers, the aircraft carriers, and even "the Coast Guard ships," for which he should get the Navy Cross.A colorful and entertaining trifle.

A rather lumpen Miss Anne Baxter is the love interest for messrs Power and Andrews,one a Nob Hill type,the other a working slob who needs a pay rise before he can propose to her.Power is dashing,debonair and mega - rich,has a real good dentist,and has his uniforms tailored. He ends up with the girl - not perhaps the best message to send out to your boys fighting on all fronts,the vast majority of whom lacked these advantages,but,hey,it's only a movie. And,perhaps surprisingly,rather a good one at that.James Gleason is excellent as the veteran Chief with a concealed health problem that stops him going for promotion and a strong urge to redeem himself for faking sickness during WW1 to avoid going into action. When the crew go ashore to destroy a German base he redeems himself by making the ultimate sacrifice. His best mate is black - a daring move for 1943,and played absolutely straight,no eye - rolling Stepin Fetchit stuff here. The special effects are excellent,the raid ashore is particularly well - handled.It is a propaganda movie of course,but one with rather more merit than most. There is a deft mixture of comedy and tension,never an easy trick to pull off,and one doesn't get the impression that it was a quota picture the studio hacked out to help the War Effort,more that considerable time and care was put into "Crash Dive" by people who were proud of their craft. First - Class entertainment that more than fulfills its purpose.

I was working at Wright-Patterson Airforce Base during the war, and I saw this movie three times. As a young gal, I was enthralled with Tyrone Powers and Dana Andrews in their handsome uniforms. I was in the purchasing department at Wright. I worked for Col. McAlpin.