Duelo en el Atlántico Norte

This was a Great WWII DE versus Sub movie. One of the few movies that actually used proper Navy voice procedure and a radar with no sound.

I liked it better than "Run Silent, Run Deep" and "Dos Boot", though I liked both.

An almost perfect Navy movie with the one exception of always returning to course 140. If one as ever navigated or plotted via radar, you know that if you've vectored off course , e.g. zigzagged for any length of time, to get back on your original course, it would not be the same exact 140 as it started.

I can't wait for this movie to be released on DVD and in Wide Screen.

What's really impressive about this movie is the photography. When you see Robert Mitchum actually standing on the deck of a destroyer with depth charges going off behind it, you know somebody went to a lot of trouble to get all this on film. That destroyer is no movie set. You'll find very few backdrops and special effects here except for underwater shots of the enemy U-boat, and even those are above average. It all seems ahead of its time somehow, the brilliant color footage, the musical score, and the attention to detail.

The Enemy Below is a fascinating study of WW2 anti-submarine warfare. Although the ending is a little corny, the anti-war message is timeless and quite appropriate. Especially now (Oct. 2004) as America is being dragged into another real conflict. It's certainly worth a look.

Don't get me wrong,this one of the best Navy/Destroyer movies made but there are some problems I would like to point out. 1. "we will trail him until dawn and attack". the idea that a DE commander with a radar advantage would waste it by waiting until day light when it would be almost impossible to surprise a surfaced sub.He would go right after the sub and if could get close enough switch on his searchlight or fire a star shell,then open fire with every thing that could brought to bare. 2.In the opening credits that shows the full ship clearly shows the ship is equipped with Headgehogs as were all the Buckly's, there is no mention of these in the movie. 3.The Radar/Sonar operator,s giving course changes of the sub. These folks can only give a range and bearing to the target. It would be up to guy on the DRT (Dead Reconing Tracer), that was the guy making doodles on a board. Anyway I still think it was a good movie.

A test of cunning and courage between the commander of an American destroyer (Robert Mitchum) and the captain of a german U-boat (Curt Jurgens).

The movie was one of the first to portray the enemy of WWII sympathetic.Jurgens made his American film debut after being a star in European films.Director Dick Powell (who had crooned in Warner musicals in the early 30s,and became a considerable actor in the part of Philip Marlowe during the War) injects the film with exciting pace and a clinical observation of men at war.There are no unnecessary heroics in this movie.

Robert Mitchum is the new Captain of a destroyer on patrol in an area of the South Atlantic where there will be little chance for any action, or so the crew thinks. This is a new command for him, he lost his last vessel and was 21 days on life raft. Mitchum though he was in the merchant marine before World War II is as new to the navy as most of his crew.

Lurking beneath is Curt Jurgens in command of a U-Boat. Jurgens is a career navy man who's already given much for the fatherland, two sons lost. His submarine is on courier duty, not looking in fact for any combat.

But they find each other and The Enemy Below is about the cat and mouse game each of them play in trying to destroy the other.

With twelve years in between the end of World War II and the present it was now possible to portray Germans as three dimensional people, something rarely done during the war years. Jurgens at this time was a very big star on the European continent and was now getting roles that would introduce him to American audiences. He's very good as the professional, but tired U-Boat captain who just wants to get home.

He's matched all the way by Mitchum who's got a lot of doubts now having lost one ship already. The crew has some doubts too, but Mitchum proves worthy of the command he's been given.

The Enemy Below won the Academy Award that year for special effects. No ships in a tank, these are real vessels being used for this film.

Look for good performances by supporting players Theodore Bikel as the Executive Officer of the submarine, David Hedison as the Executive Officer of the destroyer and Russell Collins as the ship's doctor on the destroyer. You might note a small role for Doug McClure at the beginning of his career.