Submarine Seahawk

1958
Approved
1h 23m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

John Bentley, Brett Halsey, and Mabel Rea in Submarine Seahawk (1958)

For his first command in the Pacific war, a by-the-book officer is ordered to take his submarine on a reconnaissance mission to locate a fleet of Japanese fighting ships the Allies have lost... Read allFor his first command in the Pacific war, a by-the-book officer is ordered to take his submarine on a reconnaissance mission to locate a fleet of Japanese fighting ships the Allies have lost track of. At first, the rest of the crew resent his distant manner and the way he keeps a... Read allFor his first command in the Pacific war, a by-the-book officer is ordered to take his submarine on a reconnaissance mission to locate a fleet of Japanese fighting ships the Allies have lost track of. At first, the rest of the crew resent his distant manner and the way he keeps avoiding taking on the Japs.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.0/10

415

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos12

+ 6

User reviews15

5.0415

Featured reviews

1johneastlund

worth it only for the laughter value

dumb dialogue, lousy acting, silly story, overly dramatic background music. It ends up being a satire or caricature of all the good submarine movies even though they were being serious when they made it.

It uses every cliché of a submarine movie, crew members going nuts, sneaking thru minefields, torpedoes that miss, the captain following orders in conflict with the crew, getting depth charged, having to make repairs while the enemy is around.

It's not a crew I would want to go to sea with, untrained, undisciplined. The main plot is implausible. I could see a movie of this quality coming out 20 years earlier when they cranked out propaganda movies for the war. The character development needs a little work. I'm not surprised the actors are unfamiliar to anybody.

5richardchatten

The 20 Year Old Marilyn Hanold

For once a British actor plays the lead in a cheap Hollywood movie rather than vice versa (playing a Yank, John Bentley's dodgy accent covered by a c.v. including time spent studying at Oxford).

Set in the Pacific in 1944, with the aid of a heroic score by Alexander Laszlo and slickly cut so that the interiors shot by veteran cameraman Gilbert Warrenton well match the library footage (some of it pretty ancient looking) it competently works it's way through the usual friction between the officers followed by enemy mines and a Gung Ho finale; capped by a surprising appearance by the statuesque Marilyn Hanold, soon to shed her uniform as June 1959's Playmate of the Month and later usually cast as bad girls.

searchanddestroy-1

Forgettable underwater war story

This movie directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet is only for those searching desperately a time waster at all costs. This is probably the less interesting war films about submarines I have ever seen. Not a crap, because it is a B picture from the late fifties, and I have great tenderness for this period. I don't know any of the characters and I guess poor Spencer Gordon Bennet had great financial issues to direct this. I highly prefer from him the serials he made for Republic Pictures in the forties and his last two movies: BOUNTY KILLER and REQUIEM FOR A GUNFIGHTER. Nothing more to say about this feature.

7crossrad

Engaging Movie that adds some human drama to the mechanics of submarine warfare

From humble beginnings this movie proved to be fairly engrossing, because you can't be sure which way it will go. It creates characters with some real human characteristics, both good and bad, and you will keep watching to find out just how they measure up to the rigours of submarine warfare. Sure it is low budget, but it still manages more realism and is more believable than many of today's Hollywood blockbusters.

No problem with the sound quality or general image quality, and the battle scenes and submarine manoeuvres are fairly impressive. Some of the opening scenes which try to inject a bit of levity will seem a bit forced and dated to today's eyes, but this film is unusual in that it gets better as it proceeds, with the best bits at the end.

5Space_Mafune

Not Bad

When one Lieutenant Commander Paul Turner (John Bentley) unexpectedly gets assigned the lead of the Submarine Seahawk for an important undercover mission (to find out where missing Japanese warships are being hidden), the crew becomes more and more anxious as Turner again and again refuses to fire on enemy ships while taking them further and further into dangerous enemy territory.

This is decent enough entertainment for a Saturday or Sunday afternoon if one is in the mood for a submarine war adventure tale. A couple of familiar faces in the cast doesn't hurt any either nor does some of the early lighter scenes which help us to identify more with the crew.

Trivia
Brett Halsey (Lt. David Shore) was the great-nephew of Admiral William F. Halsey, the commander of the US Navy's Third Fleet during World War II.