L'ennemi silencieux

THE SILENT ENEMY is a fine WW2 movie of the kind the British used to make so well. This one boasts an interesting, fact-based story about a little known theatre of war and an exceptional ensemble cast who really bring life to the various roles. Laurence Harvey plays an enthusiastic young officer who is shipped off to Gibraltar to help combat the threat of Italian frogmen who have been mining and destroying Allied shipping trying to access the Med.

Harvey, who sports stubble and blond hair in this film, is playing the real-life wartime diver 'Buster' Crabb, the man who died in mysterious circumstances shortly before this film was made. Harvey usually plays insufferable characters but he's very good here, strong-willed and perfectly heroic. I'm not usually a fan of underwater-themed movies as I found they're usually let down by lacklustre underwater photography, but this film's different; the action scenes are highly suspenseful and complimented by strong special effects work.

I liked the way that THE SILENT ENEMY is a film that focuses on technology and the apparatus of war while being readily accessible to the layman viewer at the same time. The supporting cast includes a great role for Sid James who brings some of his dry humour to a serious production and the likes of Michael Craig, Dawn Addams, Nigel Stock, and David Lodge. I was also pleased to see a bunch of youthful and famous Italian actors playing their countrymen: Gianna Maria Canale, Massimo Serato, and Giacomo Rossi-Stuart are all present here before they became big faces in Italian genre cinema of the 1960s.

A romanticised tribute to Commander Lionel Crabb (who's mysterious death was currently making headlines, a fact not mentioned in the film), strangely personified by Laurence Harvey in bleached hair and a beard.

Set in Gibraltar, it's of historical interest as containing probably the only depiction in a feature film of the plane crash that killed General Sikorski, while the ensuing underwater battle between rival frogmen almost certainly inspired the climax of 'Thunderball', which also employed underwater specialist Egil Woxholt to do the photography.

In the glamour stakes it fully matches the James Bond movie thanks to the presence of Dawn Addams uniformed as a W. R. N. And the awesome Gianna Maria Canale.

A superb wartime adventure, the Silent Enemy is the true story of Lieutenant Crabbe, a Royal Navy bomb and mine disposal officer sent to Gibraltar on a urgent mission to undo damage being inflicted on the fleet by sly Italian frogmen led by a brilliant underwater engineer. Though he has never dived before Crabbe takes to the underwater world like a fish, and with the help of a plucky NCO and dedicated but tiny band of men turns back the hidden menace. Crabbe and his courageous crew ultimately stop the Italian 10th Flotilla divers from turning the tide of the war.

Characters and acting are sharp. Cinematography and staging on land and especially underwater are very good. Writing is great too. The military historical significance is that these underwater demolition techniques and technologies are the precursors of modern Navy SEALs, Special Boat Squads, etc. The movie significance is that the characters and plot elements foreshadow every James Bond and action movie that's ever had frogmen, underwater fight scenes, secret ships, mini-subs, or stealty sub-surface saboteurs. Being drawn from real life, I found The Silent Enemy even more compelling.

They don't make them like this anymore. Rousing drama action based on the real life exploits of British Navy Lieutenant Lionel Crabbe and his contributions to underwater demolition work during World War II and later on in salvaging operations.

World War II history buffs will appreciate the military technology depicted in this film and the impact it caused to Allied as well as Axis shipping.

Exciting underwater action combined with a decent cast and good dialogue contribute to the suspense.

The Silent Enemy is a tribute to controversial British war hero Lionel Crabb who later got to be known as Buster after the American swimming champion. It wasn't medals that Crabb did his swimming for, he swam for the very survival of king and country.

Laurence Harvey plays the sometimes irascible Crabb who gets assigned to Gibraltar, a key point on the lifeline of the British Empire in the Near and Far East. Holding the mouth of the Mediterranean as it does and still does, Gibraltar by its location has been a non-negotiable item since the British got it 1704.

Neutral Spain with its nest of spies on both sides of the rock was giving British shipping fits at the time. The Italians developed the technique of planting limpet stealth mines on British ships so they sink later on, when not in port. Crabb discovers this and applies that old maxim, if you can't beat them, join them. And above all make yourselves than the enemy.

Crabb's original assignment is simply to find and dispose of the mines, but he puts together a team of frogmen and they become better than the Italians. Crabb's war on Gibraltar is a personal one because he knows who the Italians are operating over in Spain, he can almost reach out and touch them. But Spanish neutrality was a vexing problem for both the USA and the UK during World War II. MI5 who you would think would be dealing with such matters isn't doing it. It gets to be a personal war with Harvey and Arnoldo Foa playing the Italian frogman team head.

Some of Harvey's crew are played by such British cinema veterans as Sid James, Nigel Stock, Alec McCowen, Ian Whittaker, and Michael Craig. John Clements is the Royal Navy Admiral in charge at Gibraltar and the beautiful Dawn Addams plays his efficient WREN secretary. I think she'd like to have gotten something going with Harvey, but in this case Harvey has his mind strictly on the business at hand.

Lionel Crabb mysteriously disappeared in Portsmouth harbor in 1956 and a headless, legless, armless trunk was later recovered that could have been him. His disappearance has led to speculation for years that even in the post Soviet Union world hasn't been answered. The only one who's disappearance has gotten more speculation in my lifetime was the Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt.

This film which made two years after Crabb's disappearance goes into none of that. It concludes with the landings of the Allied army in Morocco and with Crabb and his small team, literally frustrating the plans of several nations at war with their country. It's that Lionel Crabb that the British people prefer to remember and he's remembered well in this accurately told tale of his exploits.

One man in the right spot really can make a difference.