Requins d'acier

This was a very enjoyable WWII film, though before I discuss why I liked the movie, I should point out that the film does have one BIG cliché. When Tyrone Power meets a woman (Anne Baxter--here with dark brown hair) and they immediately hate each other, lovers of classic Hollywood films know that this can only mean one thing---they are destined to fall in love by the end of the film!! Aside from this predictable aspect of the film, I really did like the movie.

The first thing I noticed about the film was the gorgeous color film. For 1943, it was terrific--with the most vibrant blues I've ever seen--much like the look of the great film, THE CAINE MUTINY. Twentieth-Century Fox really pulled out the stops to make this film look nice.

As far as the plot goes, it's a pretty exciting and standard submarine film. Now that I write this, I realize that they sure made a lot of great sub films over the years--with hardly a stinker among them. This film maintains the excellent tradition of such lovely films as RUN SILENT RUN DEEP, THE ENEMY BELOW and DESINTATION TOKYO--all lovely films that are both gripping and entertaining.

The film has more plot than just subs and Anne Baxter. It seems that Tyrone Power was very happy and successful aboard PT boats. When he was transferred to sub duty, he wasn't particularly excited, as he thought that patrol boats were the greatest thing since sliced bread. However, over time, he makes good and grows to love the submarine.

CRASH DIVE has some excellent action scenes--particularly the attack on a secret base near the end. The acting good, script very good for a wartime propaganda flick and I particularly liked the sympathetic portrayal of the Black sailor--something pretty rare in a film of the era. Overall, a good and enjoyable film.

This is one of these propaganda and efficienty made warfare movies of the 40s that delivers comic relief in the form of romance . WWII glory movie with a love triangle, submarine battles and agreeable scenes. It deals with second-in-command, a handsome lieutenant : handsome Tyrone Power, who falls hopelessly in love for school teacher : Anne Baxter, only to find out after that she is Submarine Commander Dana Andrews' fiance. Once this little tidbit information is disclosed, things go wrong. Later on, the two sea officers embark on a mission to destroy a Nazi port and a submarine responsible for laying mines in the North Atlantic. And subsequently taking place a terrestrial intervention by a brave commando to vanquish the Nazi enemy fortress, using machine gun, dynamite and other destructive means.

Nice film containing good action, thrills , evocative and impressive sea battles and adequate special effects with a lot of explosions. As FX, miniatures and scale models are pretty well, however, some boats look like toys. Based on a story by prestigious W. R. Burnett and script by Jo Swerling, though it relies heavily on the silly and improbable love story with a non-sense triangular romance. It provides an excessively jingoist view point, as at its final part, it pays a real tribute to Navy, its Cruisers, PTs, Destroyers , Submarines and its crews. Stars three big name actors of the Forties and Fifties, the good-looking Tyrone Power, the always brilliant Dana Andrews and Academy-Award winning Anne Baxter as the woman loved by two naval commanders aboard the same sub. This one has the bonus of a fine support cast, such as : the veteran James Gleason, Dame May Witty, Henry (Harry) Morgan, John Archer, Ben Carter, Frank Conroy, Stanley Andrews, among others.

It contains a thrilling and moving musical score by David Buttolph. As well as shimmering and glimmer cinematography in Technicolor by master cameraman Leon Shamroy who won three Oscars to his name by 1945, and he photographed several super-productions. The motion picture was professionally and skillfully directed by Archie Mayo, though with not originality, being a simple super-patriotic movie. Archie Mayo had a decent cinematic career, directing acceptable films, such as : Night after night, The Mayor of hell, Bordertown, It is love I'm after, Four sons, Confirm or deny, Orchestra wives, Night in Casablanca, being his greatest hit : The petrified forest. Rating : 6/10 acceptable and passable wartime picture that will appeal to genre lovers.

Crash Dive is a typical WWII propaganda film with a stirring musical score by Hugo Friedhofer that prompts any young man to want to enlist in the navy. The cast is uniformly good, especially Tyrone Power as he cleverly tries to woo a reluctant Anne Baxter. Sub skipper Dana Andrews always excelled in military roles. The plot borders on the ridiculous. A German naval base in the north Atlantic- where? An American submarine conducting offensive operations in the Atlantic would likely have been attacked on sight by Allied forces who would naturally assume all subs in the Atlantic were German (such was the fate of one U.S. sub which left New London for the Panama Canal and was never heard from again). Good action scenes for a film of this genre with many of the clichés that would be repeated in other WWII submarine films.

There is plenty more of director Archie Mayo's films to be seen, but of the films already seen of his he has generally struck me as a very competent if not exceptional director. Most of the seen films of his ranged for me between average and pretty good, with a few very good ones ('It's Love I'm After', 'The Petrified Forest' and 'Legion'). Tyrone Power is not a favourite of mine either, but starred in a fair share of good and more films and showed more than once that he had acting ability in him.

'Crash Dive' was seen for those two main reasons. Other reasons being my love of classic/golden age film and seeing that the special effects won an Oscar (so wanted to see if the win was deserved and whether they held up today). Finally seeing it, 'Crash Dive' struck me as an uneven film that doesn't completely thrill with some noticeable flaws. Yet it also doesn't crash and burn either, with a lot of great things so there was enough for it to warrant a watch.

A lot of great things can be seen in 'Crash Dive'. First and foremost, the production values which are still mighty impressive. The Technicolor photography is truly ravishing, with colours that really pop up at you. The sets are not elaborate but don't look fake, but the standout visually is the special effects which were wholly deserving of the Oscar. They still look incredible, so much money and time clearly went into the ones featured in the climax, and they are used thrillingly towards the end. The music score is haunting and Mayo's direction in the action is accomplished.

Furthermore, the action does excite and move and does fare a lot better than what is going on in the more dramatic and romantic moments. Some of the script is intelligently done and the acting is fine. Power, in his last role before his military service, is a noble lead, while Dana Andrews is equally amiable and Anne Baxter has enough charm to her to make the romance believable. Really appreciated the sympathetic portrayal of Ben Carter's character, nothing stereotypical or demeaning here and nothing to be offended by either while Carter gives a dignified performance.

Mayo's direction is not as confident however in the non-action scenes and becomes rather undistinguished and like his heart wasn't in it. The romance is both bland and stale and too much of the storytelling borders on the ridiculous, complete with some rather leaden pacing.

It also gets rather heavy handed towards and at the end, don't like being talked down to and that's how the writing towards and at the end made me feel. The writing is on the most part daft and lacking in life and there wasn't enough to the film to make me connect all the way through for the characters, Carter's being the exception.

Overall, uneven with a lot of good but an equal amount of not so good. 6/10

This is one of very few films shot partly at the submarine base in Groton, CT, aka Submarine Base New London, CT.

A few naval combatants rarely seen in Technicolor are visible in the early part of the film. The PT boats seen near the beginning are the 77-foot Elco type. The submarine primarily featured as the fictional USS Corsair is the experimental USS Marlin (SS-205), with a conning tower modified to resemble her sister USS Mackerel (SS-204). A few O-class and R-class submarines, built in World War One and used for training in WW2, are visible in the background of some shots. For wartime security reasons, no submarine classes used in combat in WW2 appear in the film. The USS Semmes (AG-24 ex-DD-189) is seen in one shot; there are probably not many good Technicolor views of a four-stack destroyer available today. The Semmes was being used as a sonar testbed at the time.

I personally did not like how the love story progressed, as Tyrone Power is consistently deceptive and gets the girl anyway.

Another reviewer has assumed that the Nazi base would have to be near New England on the basis that WW2 submarines had a short range. This is incorrect. US submarines in WW2 routinely went from Pearl Harbor to Japan's home waters, patrolled for several weeks, and returned to Pearl Harbor on a single tank of diesel fuel. A Gato-class submarine could cover 11,000 miles without refueling, thus could have patrolled in German home waters while based in Groton if necessary. My assumption is that the Nazi base would be in Greenland, not likely given the realities of the war, but the raid on it still makes for good action.