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This is yet another example of the fantastic films that Britain USED TO MAKE. Great acting, powerful direction and real emotion.

I saw in at the cinema a few weeks back and it really still packs a punch. I must get this one and others like the Cruel Sea on DVD.

If only we could make films like this again.

Why is it that we could make such great films 30 or 40 years back and now we have so many problems? Actually I think I know that answer to that one already.

I think that it would be interesting to remake this film but it would have to be made by a top flight director I think

John Mills sets off to convince a sceptical Admiral (James Robertson Justice) of the merits of "midget" submarines in active warfare. His intention is to use these tiny craft to lay high explosives underneath the hull of the mighty Nazi battleship "Tirpitz" that is safely anchored in a steep-sided Norwegian fjord. John Gregson and Donald Sinden join him on the mission deep into the heart of enemy territory fighting both the elements and the novel technology. You get a sense of he claustrophobic conditions - and of the close teamwork that engenders, as well as the fragility of their craft and; tempered by the odd light-hearted moment, this is quite a gripping little wartime tale.

I first saw this in the 1960's and revisited it some fifty years later.

Of course it is of its time. It combines a story based on fact that is compelling and courageous, with a modest budget. The special effects are clunky, the costuming erratic, and armoury dubious, but it doesn't really matter. The story is well told, and dramatic. Submarine movies are at their best underwater where the claustrophobic drama is intense, and at their worst when that leaves them with nowhere to go. Here, fortunately the climax is on the surface, and incidental gems like a passing German patrol vessel playing music loudly also take place topside.

The portrayal of toffs in charge and salt of the earth ranks grate a little now, but John Mills is a sound, reflective toff.

Modern adrenaline junkies will not be impressed, but the simple heroism and determination portrayed is as impressive now as it was then.

This is a brilliant Naval film. The failed midgit submarines, that caused heavy casualties, when attepmting to sink the so called "Unsinkable" Tirpitz. John Mills plays the part of a captain very well, in the struggle to prove them, and then failing. With Lyndon Brook, and Lee Patterson to, it makes a great movie. Deffintaly worth seeing!

As I recently said about SINK THE BISMARK, UK film industry in the fifties and early sixties brought us great films, war films, I mean. DAM BUSTERS, SINK THE BISMARK, this very one, CARVE HER NAME WITH PRIDE, BATTLE OF RIO DE LA PLATA, WE DIVE AT DAWN.... Not necessarily dumb propaganda films, such a most of Russian movies or even patriotic US features. Those British films were pretty well made, with solid characterization, suspense, and excellent camera work. German enemy was also not always showed as dumb Nazis whom we could nearly laugh at. These English features were for me the best war movies before THE LONGEST DAY like huge production emerged in the sixties. The rest of "Allied"( but not German !!!) cinema war films - except some rare items such as Bob Aldrich's ATTACK - the other war films are garbage for me. Good American and British against Evil Nazis. Evil, maybe, but certainly not jerks.....This submarine war film is not at the level of DAS BOOT, from director Wolfgang Petersen, of course - no film will ever arrive at its ankle - but I highly recommend it to any war film buff.