Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

MORNING DEPARTURE is another exemplary seafaring thriller from British director Roy Ward Baker, who was definitely one of our most interesting talents during the 1950s and 1960s. Baker directs the tale with a steely eye for realism, refusing to fall for overt sentimentality and creating a rough, tough tale that is all the better for it. It's almost as good as Baker's Titanic classic A NIGHT TO REMEMBER (still the definitive re-telling of the disaster).The story is simple enough, about a submarine which is accidentally damaged and grounded on the sea bed. While rescue vessels are sent to help out, the men on board the sub begin to work out their own predicament and come up with ways that they can help themselves. To say more of the plot would be to spoil the experience, and this is definitely one film you don't want to get spoiled before watching.The cast is one of those fantastic all-star ensembles, headed by the reliable John Mills and Nigel Patrick as his second in command. Richard Attenborough cements his reputation for creating a lot out of a little, while the scene-stealer of the piece is the delightful James Hayter playing the cook. Others like George Cole, Bernard Lee, Kenneth More, and Victor Maddern do their bit with aplomb. MORNING DEPARTURE is a tense, gripping, character-focused piece of drama that proves to be another highlight of British film-making in the 1950s.

One of the finest and most realistic military dramas that ever came out of the English speaking cinema was Morning Departure about Captain John Mills on a British submarine that goes to the bottom, but intact. Mills faces a challenge that would daunt any captain in this drama keeping his crew together until rescue comes.Some definite influence of In Which We Serve is present here as well, especially accented by the presence of Mills and Richard Attenborough in the cast. The submarine is based in a small English coastal town where the officers and crew live as well. The domestic scenes with some of them including Mills and wife Helen Cherry (who was Mrs. Trevor Howard in real life) are taken straight from In Which We Serve.When disaster strikes the men with the exception of Attenborough behave like the professional sailors they are. Attenborough who volunteered for submarine duty because of the extra pay suffers from claustrophobia, carefully hidden except in a crisis it comes out. Eventually Attenborough proves to have the right stuff as well.The film benefits from the highly realistic rescue scenes when the Navy learns of the disaster. It also benefits from the superb playing of Mills and the rest of the cast. No John Wayne heroics here, these are just ordinary people doing their jobs under extraordinary circumstances. Even Mills has some trouble keeping it together, but he does.The ending is at once harrowing, intense, and sublime. It caps off a fine bit of motion picture film making that everyone associated with this film can be proud.

A Rank production, with passable production quality and excellent acting. Much stock footage and a healthy amt. of rear projection, par for keeping costs down on Rank dramatic quickies. Since the screenplay was adapted from a play, its stage origins are still somewhat apparent. The performances of Mills, and a very young Attenborough, plus seemingly one-half the J.R. Rank stable of regulars are very good. The sets and costumes were surprisingly ratty--long in the tooth! Still, this is only a few years after the war, and things were still very hard-up in England. Ultimately, this is a "talker" and not an "actioner", and it does fairly well for all that, though not spectacularly so. The ending, to me, disappointed. I do recommend this for classic movie fans.

I saw this in first run when I was about 7 years old. It was on a double bill with a Francis the Talking Mule film. My older sister made a deal with me: She'd sit through Francis if I'd sit through OPERATION DISASTER.I remember nothing of the Francis film, but scenes from this film are still vivid in my memory. In the late 1950s John Mills was a guest on the JACK PAAR SHOW and spoke of how life imitated art in that a British submarine was lost in the North Sea under very similar circumstances to those portrayed in the film between the completion of shooting and release in the UK. He said there was criticism in the British press at the time for it's release.I wish it was available on VHS or DVD in the Unites States, but I haven't been able to find it. I would love to see it again.