Morning Departure

I first saw this movie at the time of its original release, & it has remained in my memory quite indelibly. Particularly as one of your submissions referred to the sinking of an actual British submarine at the time of the release of "morning departure". HMS "Truculent" was the name of that submarine & the nation was very somber, but I believe the the movie realistically brought home to the public what these submariners went through. My father had served in the Royal Navy during WWII on Destoyers & had his ship sunk under him while in the Mediterranean. So I appreciated the fine acting & portrayal of the courage of the men in the Royal Navy. John Mills always epitomized the character of the rolls he took & this was one of his best for me, except for maybe Scott of the Antartic, but that's another story.

John Mills is a submarine captain, ordered with his crew to take part in maneuvers. On their way to the site, they run into a mine and are sunk. After they settle at 15 fathoms, Mills and his XO are confident their absence will be noted, and they will be located and saved. As operations proceed, however, problems arise, leaving four of them trapped.

It's based on a stage play by Kenneth Woolard, and I can see it in my mind's eye, a one-set piece. Under the reliable Roy Ward Baker, it's opened up with a prologue showing us Mills wife, and later, unsleeping Bernard Miles, leading the rescue operation. At its core, we still get to see the four characters with increasing clarity: Mills, of course, his Number One, Nigel Patrick, stoker Richard Attenborough, who starts out panicky but grows up, and stalwart Able Seaman James Hayter. As the days pass and the characters become more than sketches, the potential tragedy becomes greater.

For those of us who have seen submarine-trapped-on-the-seabed movies from several eras, it's interesting to see the evolution in rescue technology.

John Mills is superb as the indomitable submarine captain who leaves his wife and baby for a routine patrol. Richard Attenborough excels as the young sailor who cracks under pressure.

A wonderful film which may have started as a play. Well formed with portrayals which are both intimate and skilful. The "character" actors are enjoyable and colourful as the submarine sets sail, all leading to heightened drama when tragedy strikes.

If you like British black and white films about stiff upper lips and devotion to duty, you cannot do better.

God save the King.

Submarine commander John Mills leaves home to take charge of his crew on an exercise at sea. We meet some of his team as they set off and submerge. All good so far. This doesn't last long.

This is a well-acted film and stoker Richard Attenborough (Snipe) stands out alongside John Mills. All the cast do well. The majority of the film is set aboard the submarine as it sits at the bottom of the sea and plans to escape are drawn up. However, the plans are dealt a blow as rescue ships try to raise the submarine from the seabed. Someone pass the prayer book - this film will make you cry.

There is some very frank dialogue that is exchanged and it is interesting (and good) to see how claustrophobia was dealt with in those days. Quite right - well done John Mills for his address to the claustrophobic Attenborough. We need more of that attitude in today's work-shy climate where everyone claims they have a mental illness. What a load of nonsense - it's called life and you need to adjust and get on with it.

Another line of dialogue that has stuck with me is when there are four left in the submarine and Mills suggests they all have a brandy but warns "After this, the pub's closed!" It made me think that it's not a bad idea to have a bar built inside all submarines for just such an occasion when things go wrong and there is nothing you can do. "Pub is open!" would come the call to signal that your duty as a seaman has been fulfilled and you can now get plastered if you so wish.

Every now and then we are reminded of the so-called "silent service" - the submarine arm of the navy. It is hard to believe nowadays but active use of submarines in warfare is barely over one century old. There had been three attempts at getting submarines into warfare before the 1880s: in the American Revolution, when Connecticut inventor David Bushnell designed the "Turtle" to attack Admiral Howe's flagship in New York Harbor; when Robert Fulton attempted to interest Napoleon Bonaparte in his submarine as a weapon against the British fleet in 1800; and when the Confederate (and Northern) navies experimented with torpedo boats and submarines - culminating in the success of the C.S.S. Hunley - in the American Civil War. But the real spur was anti-British animus in Irish-American circles in the 1880s, when they financed the researches of John P. Holland. It was his successful submarine that became the model adopted by most navies.

But that was after 1900, and the early submarines were small and unpleasant and smelly craft (due to the closed space and the gasoline fumes). Disasters occurred frequently enough. It was not until the sinking of three British cruisers on one day in 1914 by U-boat Captain Weddingen that their power became widely realized. The number of maritime fatalities (led by R.M.S. Lusitania) demonstrated how deadly these ships could become. So by the end of the war everyone was improving their submarine fleets.

But the ships still had major disasters in the 1920s and 1930s. 1939 was a banner year with major French, British, and American sub disasters. But the last one, the U.S.S. Squalus off Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was important for another reason. For one of the few times in modern history, the crew of a disabled submarine was mostly rescued. Diving bells and decompression chambers saved nearly two thirds of Squalus' crew (and the sub was raised, repaired, and recommissioned to be of use in World War II). But Squalus sank very close to land, and the depth was not an impossibly deep one as a result. Still it was quite a rarity to have survivors of a sub sinking. With a normal shipwreck (of a surface vessel) the crew has a chance to use lifeboats, life preservers, floating wreckage, rafts. You can't readily do that if you are underwater to begin with.

For some reason submarine disaster films have rarely appeared on screen. There were films about submarines (several versions of Jules Verne's TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, for instance), and even of the wartime subs. For instance RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP, and DESTINATION, TOKYO were two. Some misfires also appeared. Charles Laughton appeared as an insanely jealous submarine commander opposite Gary Cooper and Tallulah Bankhead in THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP (he scuttles his own vessel at the end, going down with the ship). But films about actual tragedies never popped up. Except for this British film.

John Mills is the commander of a submarine out on maneuvers in the British Channel. A mechanical failure causes it to sink. Mills is able to get most of his men out using snorkel breathing apparatus, and shooting them out of the torpedo tube. But he is unable to do it for the last three men in the sub with him: James Hayter, Richard Attenborough, and Nigel Patrick.

In their situation they have to just wait out official attempts at rescue. But this is based on the amount of oxygen left on board, and how long it will last. Also, it is turning the ship into a huge tomb for them. And Attenborough, who has claustrophobic problems to begin with, is going over the edge. Patrick turns out to have physical problems that if not treated will possibly be fatal. It is not a happy situation.

It is a gritty little movie, and it has it's moments of unexpected reality. Hayter was not supposed to be on the cruise, but at the last moment he agreed to go in place of a fellow seaman who had to attend an ailing wife. Details like that make one realize what a gamble our daily life experiences can be.

As a look at a disaster that is normally uncommon (but still possible - remember the Russian tragedy of the "Kursk"), with four good performances in it, I strongly urge catching this film.