Le Raid suicide du sous-marin X1

After being cleared for all blame for a manoeuvre that cost him his submarine and the lives of 50 men, Commander Bolton is given the command of a secret training mission based from Scotland. With a small group of men, he trains to operate several 3-man submarines that will be used to infiltrate German waters and ambush key boats within the German navy. However, men within the group blame him for the deaths and also are under a great deal of pressure with the tight training schedule.

Despite being based on a true story, this film manages to be very dull with very few worthwhile features. This film is very slow and a B-movie without having any of the good qualities that B-movies can often have. The plot is simple but that is no excuse for it not actually being fun: the idea of training followed by the mission is no barrier and has been done many times to good effect (think Dirty Dozen). The problem here is that the script manages to take this premise and do practically nothing with it. The total lack of characters is a major failing – contrast it with Dirty Dozen's rogues gallery and you'll see what I mean. It is practically impossible to tell the men apart (even after the film ends) simply because they have no character to speak of.

This is mostly the scripts fault – most of the time the men just stare with heavy resolve and say dialogue that sounds clichéd and basic. Men have gruff faces and stare, men stare into the sea, men stare out of the submarine periscopes etc it's typical B-movie acting but usually it isn't as totally lacking in fun as it is here. Caan is the main reason I watched this film but he has nothing to work with here. Like I said, there is not even one role in the whole support cast that was memorable enough for me to remember them long enough to write this review!

Overall this film is plodding and dull. It feels like the war movie made in the 1940's and is all the worse for being made in the late 60's. It is has enough value to act as a passable bit of mindless filler if you are looking for the film equivalent of background music but really it is a very poor film. Being based on a true story it is surprising how undramatic it is and it doesn't even manage to do what the rest of the 'training/mission' genre clichés do reasonably well. A very basic film with very little to enjoy and barely worth watching.

Remember how the Stones and the Who and the Kinks were all rebelling against the establishment in England around 1968? Apparently, the establishment was busy making movies like "Submarine X-1." This movie was a major step backward for cinema, bereft of innovation and dynamic action. I Tivo'd this movie because the description "a Canadian commander trains midget submarine crews" made it sound like there were little people in little subs. Alas, there are normal sized people only. And Jimmy Caan.

Caan plays the Canadian, which is only slightly easier to believe than if he were playing an Englishman. He's rugged and manly and wears great knitwear while he looks harshly at people, sailors, who then take offense at his harsh Canadianness. Caan looks harshly into the distance and, as his men train at cutting fences underwater, he looks harshly at the sea. THIS IS THE ENTIRE MOVIE. A whole lot of underwater fence cutting, harsh looks, sweaters and the aforementioned midget submarines. Thank god for the ill-conceived Nazi commando attack on the secret base which reminds the viewer that there ARE stakes, there IS a war and it's with the NAZIS, so everything better go as planned or else V-E Day might not happen until May 9th or 10th.

Aside from the submarine interiors tilting for realism, there's very little that's progressive about the movie's construction. The camera is just kinda there in the room, not doing anything remarkable. The pace is monotonous, the sets are stagy and the performances are mannered, except for the harsh staring, of course. William Graham did a lot of television both before and after "Submarine X-1," so it would be easy to write off the clumsy filmmaking at the hands of a TV director. But Richard Lester, Ken Loach and John Frankenheimer came up as TV directors and were busy inventing and pushing cinema forward in 1968.

Keep in mind that the rest of the world has been watching movies influenced by the French New Wave. In 1968 Hollywood made "Bonnie and Clyde," "Rosemary's Baby" and "2001: A Space Odyssey." In other words, there was a new filmmaking realism established by then that "X-1" refused to acknowledge. At a glance, someone could mistake this movie as being made twenty five years earlier. No wonder Pete, Mick, Ray and even Ringo were such angry young men.

Yes, I agree with the average 4/10 rating. This is another marginally watchable, below average mid-60s fare, worth your time only if you have absolutely nothing else to do with your time. Not horrible, but nothing remarkable either. Little in the way of character development, no memorable dialogue, and a plodding, straightforward plot (if you can call it that).

If you make it all the way through, follow the crew's example, and break out the brandy; after that, you deserve one.

This movie is another one not to bother with. I prefer my historical movies as accurate as possible as reality is usually more dramatic and entertaining than hokeyness. There was an X-craft squadron, they did train rigorously for a raid against the Tirpitz (the movie calls it the Lindendorff-why fictionalize it?), they almost succeeded, the did penetrate the Tirpitz's defenses, damaged it badly enough that it could never sail at full speed again. Why not pay tribute to these brave men who fought for our freedom by telling their story straight? And the special effects are cheesy-the ships look like the models I built as a kid in the 1960s.

Remember, it's a B movie from 1968--before the days of computer graphics, Star Wars and the like. As such it's an entertaining ninety minute war movie. There's no sex, no nudity, no swearing. You can watch it with your kids.

It's an old fashioned good guys triumph movie. What spoiled it a bit for me were some of the factual inaccuracies. In particular, the scuba equipment is 1968 issue, not WWII. The actors are using modern single stage compressed air scuba gear. Besides not being available in WWII, it would have been a dead give away. If anyone has seen the bubbles on the surface such gear causes, you'd know stealth is not the word you'd use.

In WWII they used double hose, oxygen re-breathing apparatus. No air was released into the water so there were no air bubbles to give away the whereabouts of the diver. As well, in WWII, the divers used goggles rather than face masks.

The second inaccuracy was the commander's hat. It was not a naval hat but a guards regimental hat with its visor coming down over the eyes of the wearer--the brim on a naval officer's hat was much narrower and higher enabling him to see out across the sea.

In spite of this, I enjoyed it.