Very well executed

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Good start, but then it gets ruined

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Noel Coward's brilliant In Which We Serve set the standard and one year later We Dive At Dawn was a very, very, pale imitation. Taking a lead out of Coward's book Puffin Asquith filmed the crew on shore as well as at sea and attempted to blend the two as seamlessly as the Master but this one suffers badly in comparison with a Classic. I write this an a great admirer of Puffin Asquith but everyone is entitled to an off-day and who's to say it wasn't foisted on him by the powers that be wanted a quick cashing-in on Coward's coat-tails. Had it not been for In Which We Serve this would have been a fairly decent story but when both are freely available - as they are - why settle for light ale when you can have champagne.

This is an excellent tub-thumper from the war years.John Mills leads a fine cast of regular British B-movie stalwarts in a solo submarine attack upon a fictitious enemy battleship.Filmed in black and white, it's well paced and also well placed considering that a war was going on at the time. If anything, it shows how seriously the authorities took positive propaganda.The mission-side of the movie takes place in genuine submarines. Things are cramped and claustrophobic. The actors look suitably grimy and sweaty without being too offensive to the heroic palate. Other commentators have already drawn attention to the authentic little details like keeping the vessel trim and forgetting to read instruments, as well as the engine-room activities.This probably is the first movie in which debris (and a dead German) is blown from the torpedo tube to fool an enemy destroyer. And it's the ONLY time I have seen part of the vessel exposed in a pretence of sinking - a high risk gamble if ever there was one.I'm a little sceptical as to whether or not a submarine could punch its way through a wire-rope net. Submerged speed was barely twice that of human walking speed, and the net would have had a great deal of 'give'. Also, the engineer was at the same work-station and operating the same levers both on the surface and submerged. This, too, seems implausible as either diesel or electric engines were used and they were in different sections of the ship - or so I'm told.There was a wee bit too much shore-side drama for my tastes. But then, this was a propaganda effort, and clearly contained a subtle message for civilians to mind their behaviour as it could adversely affect service morale and therefor the war effort.These niggles aside, it's a pretty entertaining little adventure. Nowadays movies of such vintage tend to be screened in the afternoon, whilst far more modern and inferior movies enjoy prime-time. But then; it's no longer politically-correct to mention the war in the presence of our European friends (Too many of them have guilty consciences), or our own left-wing fascists (non of whom have ever fought for the freedoms they now take for granted).As a submarine movie it is eminently collectible. Better than 'The Enemy Below', I think, though less demonstrative. Not so authentic as 'Das Boot' by any means, but not so gross either.

It is always pleasant to see John Mills acting but the constraints of wartime mean this is not much more than a propaganda piece – plucky Brits pulling off a near impossible mission. The film quality is good but I had trouble hearing some of the dialog – British accents have changed a lot in 60 years - even for a native speaker.The underwater scenes where the crew is hunted by two German destroyers lacks the tension of later movies – in particular the superlative Das Boot. I was impressed by the calculations for torpedo firing, Mills trying to get angles and his officer working out trajectories on a slide rule. Funny to think they were still using such technology on the Apollo Missions. The special effects are lacking, although the "bathtub" scenes where Mills looks through the periscope are well done as are the real submarine scenes.The film lacks the pace and production values of later (and some earlier) war movies. It has the feeling more of docudrama.

It's hard not to judge a film made 60 years ago against today's standards. I saw this film on DVD but it's obvious that the film had degraded before it was put on disk. Even at that, the film still can be called good (not great, however). The sound quality is not very good and, as another reviewer stated, the English accents are very thick. As an American, it takes me a few minutes to learn to properly "hear" those accents. Once that's accomplished, what you have is a pretty decent old flick. It's the story of a British submarine and the men aboard her who go on a mission that very well may be their last. The story may seem a bit old-fashioned by today's standards, but it's overall a pretty decent flick. The main star is John Mills, one of the great British actors of all time.