Batalha Contra o Medo

I could not disagree more with CHRIS from South Adelaide who I feel really gave this film short shrift. Alec Austen is a commercial artist and Naval reservist called to active duty in WWII. Having long forsaken his Quaker upbringing he is thus completely blindsided when after reporting for duty on a destroyer he finds himself seriously conflicted regarding the taking of life. Alan Ladd, though in decline personally and professionally at this point in his life, is, nevertheless, very good as the troubled Alec. This film is further buoyed by an absolutely outstanding supporting cast including: James Whitmore, Keenan Wynn, William Bendix, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Jeanette Nolan and Joey Bishop. Other familiar faces include Perry Lopez,(Cowhand Pete Ramirez in THE LONE RANGER movie and a crewman in MR. ROBERTS) and Ross Bagdasarian who, aided by his chipmunks Alvin, Simon & Theodore, would later gain recording and TV fame as David Seville. The storyline is also unique in that the main WWII theater of operations setting is the Northeast Pacific and the Aleutians. Director Rudolph Mate's other credits as Director or Director of Photography include GILDA, SAHARA (1943) and PRIDE OF THE YANKEES. Alas, it has not yet found it's way to DVD. THE DEEP SIX is not SAVING PRIVATE RYAN or TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH, it is a solid production worthy of a look.

Raised by a peace-loving Quaker mother, artist Alan Ladd (as Alexander "Alec" Austen) is nevertheless enlisted for World War II service. This interrupts his romance with attractive younger Dianne Foster (as Susan Cahill). In the Navy, Mr. Ladd meets a typical group of movie sailors. These include frequent co-star William Bendix (as "Frenchy" Shapiro), secretive Keenan Wynn (as Mike Edge), commander James Whitmore (as Warren Meredith) and roommate Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (as Doctor Blanchard). Stand up comic Joey Bishop plays an oddly attractive young sailor, and future "Alvin and the Chipmunks" creator Ross Bagdasarian provides the crew with dozens of Armenian woman. Ladd is made gunnery officer, but his pacifist past causes him to freeze when it's time to shoot. Ladd must learn how to kill or put his crew in danger...

***** The Deep Six (1/15/58) Rudolph Mate ~ Alan Ladd, William Bendix, Dianne Foster, Joey Bishop

THE DEEP SIX made a big impression on me as a kid. (I don't recall seeing more than bits and pieces since then.) At that time, World War II movies were big, as were afternoon matinees. After watching this we turned a friend's backyard tree into a submarine conning tower, which gave us hours and hours of play.

Two scenes I particularly remember:

One is when the Japanese, on the pretext of surrendering on a beach, have a machine gun hidden on the back of one of their soldiers. Suddenly he bends over and the guy behind him opens fire with the machine gun, mowing down the helpless and gullible Yanks.

And of course the key scene is when the conscientious objector, played by Alan Ladd, finally fires his gun in defense of his fellow soldiers.

8 out of 10 for the fond memories of youth....

Alexander 'Alec' Austen (Alan Ladd) flirts with Susan Cahill (Dianne Foster). They work at an ad agency on Madison Avenue. It's September '42. He is called back to active duty in the Navy. He's a Quaker and has pacifist leanings. He struggles with his beliefs in the midst of the war.

My initial issue is Alan Ladd's age. He's in his mid-forties. It's a little old to be so conflicted in his beliefs. It's an interesting subject matter, but the movie is struggling to handle it. I don't know what he's doing in the Navy anyways. It would make more sense if he got drafted, but he's at the upper most age. He seems to be a lapsed Quaker, but he never says it outright. Maybe the point is that everyone is supposed to fight or there are no pacifists in the foxhole. Edge is too overly hateful. This ends up being an average war movie in its execution. That would be fine, but the interesting subject matter is lost in a muddle.

This movie was really quite bad. No action, the conflicts were not well dramatized. Alan Ladd did not seem to be giving much of an effort here at all. He looked about 15 years older than his 45 years. However, there are a lot of famous actors in it and only fun part of this was in guessing their names. "Hey, that was Jerry(the beaver) Mathers!" From beginning to end this movie never really got off the ground. The pacing seemed very slow and if I'm not mistaken it was done with a small budget. At one point the destroyer they were on changed to an aircraft carrier during a Japanese strafing run. All the action scenes and scenes were rushed and seemed uninteresting. William Bendix was probably the best of the bunch at the time. The story lines of the side characters were never developed to a point where anyone could care about them.