I love this movie so much

The Worst Film Ever

Thanks for the memories!

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

This movie is pretty awful! The only thing bringing me back to watch it is the chemistry between Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy Davis. Seeing them both onscreen together makes me smile, and the chemistry they had together makes me smile even more. The simple onscreen time together reflects the intimacy of their relationship that guided them to the white house.Besides that, the acting, story, editing, and characters are tough to handle.

It seems to me a few reviewers are letting their feelings for Reagan as a president seep into their views on the movie. Probably doesn't help matters that this was his only on-screen pairing with his future first lady, Nancy Davis.This movie is pretty generic in its conflicts. A captain has to make tough decisions in wartime, decisions that cost people their lives. Considering the budget, the scenes were well shot.This was one of Reagan's last movies, before he went on to be a pitchman and then a politician.Also surprising is the participation of Admiral Chester Nimitz playing himself. perhaps Nimitz felt the submariners didn't get their due, with all the war movies being made about pilots and infantry, so he lent his credibility to this film.If you check your feelings about President Reagan at the door, you can enjoy this film for what it is.

I've seen this film a few times and it makes me cringe......And believe me I know my sub films!Ronny is as stiff as a board throughout the film....In fact, he conveys the claustrophobic feeling of being cooped up in a fleet boat during WWII better than any other film does...He's grim and wooden...It's nigh unto impossible to build up any feelings or emotions for anyone in the cast.Arthur Franz shines - as always, as the exec.......He's the one guy that manages to rise above the banal (make that abysmal) script and Nathan Juran's limp-wristed direction....It's kinda' like "Ed Wood does WWII".....Araggh!You can see swipes from all over the place.....The scene with the guys swimming underwater with flaming fuel above was lifted from 1943's "Crash Dive" done by Fox!!!! Also the footage from the scene with the jap sub surfacing was actually Dana Andrew's sub from the same film! Neat huh?....Then you take the underwater scenes with the divers wearing 1950's scuba equipment(!) dealing with the japs....Looks like it too was influenced by Fox - this time from 1951's: "The Frogmen"....Ouch!The few high points in this film stem from good location shots which appear to be off of Long Beach and Palos Verdes Penninsula aren't bad...No doubt shot on an old Gato class sub that was part of the active reserves....Take note of the typical cheesy Columbia budget-that's all too obvious! Mischa Bakaleinikoff's (Columbia's in-house composer)hokey soundtrack sounds like sloppy seconds from Columbia's 1955 sub/sci-fi flick: "It came from Beneath the Sea".This film might have been credible with a decent script, decent direction and decent acting.....But it isn't....If this movie were a sub wreck, even Bob Ballard wouldn't touch it!Try watching "Hell Below" if you want to see an outstanding sub film...They don't get much better!

Most of the comments about this very ordinary war film concerns the fact that it is the only film that co-starred Ronald and Nancy Reagan. Both of them did better work in Hollywood.The real story is that Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, CINCPAC Pacific Theatre in World War II chose to make a personal appearance in this film about submarines. That's like having Eisenhower or MacArthur make a personal appearance in an army war film. Unheard of.Nimitz's background was in submarines and our submarine fleet may very well have been the tipping factor in the Pacific War. We did to Japan what the Nazis tried to do to Great Britain, cut off their raw material and food. Nimitz was no hypocrite however. He admitted as much during the Nuremberg trials and that fact saved the Nazi U-Boat commander Karl Doenitz from the hangman for war crimes.All the clichés about submarine warfare in the pre-atomic era are present in this film. It's a B Picture made just as B Pictures were being phased out of existence. The cast is competent enough, but it's all been done before.I think the real story is why did Admiral Nimitz choose this submarine film to make an appearance in.