Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Filmed only 15 years after the end of WW1, "Hell Below" recounts the exploits of a US submarine (AL-14) and her crew, both at war and on shore-leave in Italy. The action sequences are outstanding, especially the sinking of the German destroyer (as recounted elsewhere, the producers actually purchased a decommissioned USN destroyer and sank it for the film) and the bomber/fighter attack on the US sub. Like most submarine movies, there is much emphasis on the claustrophobic conditions on board, the tension of being stalked by surface ships, and the fear of the crushing weight of water outside the hull. The scenes were AL-14 is trapped on the bottom, below her safe depth, as chlorine gas begins to seep out from her batteries are excellent. For a film supported by the DoN, I'm surprised that the film-makers were allowed to show submariners dying such grim, unheroic deaths (including suicide). The shore-leave scenes (and the associated love story) are not as good as the action sequences (possibly because they don't date as well) but they're not bad (a boxing match with a kangaroo not withstanding). Jimmy Durante, a major comedy star at the time, provides the comic relief with his standard 'schnozzola' shtick -- a little bit goes a long way, but the British Marine with huge buck-teeth constantly referring to him as 'the pelican' is pretty funny and the scene where he gets set up with an Italian girl with an even bigger nose is priceless (the movie is 'pre-code' - the line "I wonder if my old man ever taught here" probably would not have got by the censors a year later). The ending is pure Hollywood heroic-hokum but that doesn't detract much from an altogether excellent war movie from the inter-war period.

It's World War I and a US submarine under the command of Walter Huston is battling German destroyers and minelayers in the Atlantic.There's a rather routine romantic plot. Huston's executive officer is Robert Montgomery. He meets and falls in love with Huston's daughter, Madge Evans, and vice versa. It's only later that he discovers she's already married to a paraplegic RAF (or RFC) officer. Evans is perfectly willing to leave her bedridden husband because she's truly in love with Montgomery. Of course when Huston discovers the affair -- and it WAS physical because of the emphatic way Montgomery delivers lines about "we were in each other's arms" -- he's extremely disturbed and protests the arrangement.Already at odds with Huston, Montgomery defies him at sea, manages to get himself cashiered from the navy, then rediscovers his conscience and completes a self-sacrificial mission that saves many lives.The romance is dull, but the scenes at sea are surprisingly well done. Even the visual effects, primitive by today's standards, aren't jarring in their lack of verisimilitude. The scenes aboard the boat are interesting technologically. We've all gotten used to the equipment on the submarines of World War II. At least I think we have. There seems to be hundreds of them lurking about, surfacing on TV from time to time.It's curious to see that in the first world war, the equipment available looked quite different but did just about the same jobs. It's also a little amusing to see that the submarines of the day were subject to the same sorts of perils as those of the World War II movies -- strafed by enemy fighters, depth-charged by destroyers, bombed by enemy bombers, firing back with small arms on deck, having to submerge and leave men stranded on the surface, having to reach the bottom although that depth exceeds the builders' specifications. This one adds the liberation of chlorine gas from one of the batteries.I suppose it's understandable that these elements should run through just about every submarine movie ever made, up to and including World War II. How many dangers can an undersea vessel be subject to? I mean, nobody is going to parachute out of one of them. The crew can't be trapped in a trench behind enemy lines. Nobody is going to run about and clean out an enemy machine gun nest with a tommy gun and a grenade.Robert Young has a minor role as the nice guy who is left on the surface to die because the boat must dive under attack. Jimmy Durante is the cook who makes wisecracks and funny faces. Eugene Palette is along for the ride. Some scenes generate more tension than you might think -- when the boat is nose-deep in mud and the engine won't start -- and sometimes tragedy -- as when Sterling Holloway is stuck in a dogged-down compartment filling with chlorine and can't be let out.The plot isn't to be taken seriously. Montgomery, now a civilian, sneaks back aboard for the final mission and Captain Huston gruffly orders him to "take your post." What IS his post? And, when Montgomery merely hints at his honorable reasons for deserting Huston's daughter, Huston seems to grasp the entire situation as if by an avalanche of intuition.Small stuff though. It's an exciting movie for its time.

As I type these comments I'm watching a DVD of this movie that I just got from a mail-order dealer, and I'm finding that it holds up extremely well, with strong characterizations, believable situations, and well-staged action scenes.It's been a good 45 years, maybe 50, since I saw HELL BELOW, but the one scene that made an extremely deep impression on me was Sterling Holloway's death scene, which several other commenters have mentioned here. I haven't gotten to that scene yet on this viewing, but I can vouch for what other comments have said: once you see Sterling Holloway's death scene in this movie, you will absolutely never, ever forget it. Judging from how strong the film so far is holding up, I fully expect that scene to live up to the memory of it -- as unquestionably one of the greatest death scenes in movie history. The movie's worth seeing for that moment alone, but even without it, it would be a first-rate early submarine drama.

The crew of an American submarine discover it's HELL BELOW while fighting in the Adriatic in 1918.Although nearly forgotten, this excellent war film still delivers solid entertainment, thanks to a literate script, superior performances and highly believable action scenes.Robert Montgomery & Walter Huston play submarine officers under the stress of war who quickly are at odds with each other, with dramatic and tragic results. Since Montgomery is in love with Huston's daughter, Madge Evans in a well-played role, the situation becomes even more complicated, both on shore and beneath the waves. The viewer is torn between the two strong characters, one of whom is governed by his heart and the other by the rules.Robert Young makes an effective appearance as Montgomery's buddy. Sterling Holloway creates a brief, vivid, portrait of a doomed seaman.Eugene Pallette as the torpedo master & Jimmy Durante as the sub's cook make for a very funny comedy team and provide the story with plenty of laughs. Durante's nose comes in for lots of ribbing and his obsession with amateur dentistry leads to some chaotic encounters with British tars.Movie mavens will recognize Babe London as an obese Italian miss; Maude Eburne as the wife of a British admiral & Paul Porcasi as an Italian admiral - all uncredited.MGM has given the film absolutely first-class production values, with the undersea sequences especially well produced. Both the claustrophobic compactness of the ship and the inevitable tension associated with submarine warfare are accurately portrayed. Other moments of unexpected drama (Montgomery & Miss Evans caught on top of a stalled Ferris wheel during an air raid) and hilarity (Durante boxing a kangaroo) are expertly threaded into the fabric of the movie to provide a totally satisfying viewing experience.