La dernière torpille

The movie has a pretty interesting approach for '50's standards, by inserting lots of flashback sequences, with the home-front, that however also happen to be incredibly sappy. It does at parts make the movie a melodramatic one.

Submarine movies just never have been any of the best or most exciting, action packed movies because of their restraints, with a couple of well known exceptions of course. The movie has a good beginning but as it heads toward the ending the movie starts to drag and become less interesting, when the movie becomes more personal and gets filled with some more emotional aspects.

It even manages to put in a personal and family dramatic main plot-line in the movie. What an accomplishment for a submarine movie! Yes, it helps to make the movie more original and less formulaic but it also of course isn't the most interesting approach thinkable, especially not since it gets stretched out for the movie its entire duration.

The miniature effects were pretty good looking. I mean I have seen far worse, even from movies that were made much later. Although they are hard from convincing by todays standards of course.

Glenn Ford was a great choice for the main lead, as the tough looking but sensitive commander. Ernest Borgnine forms a good duo with him, as the submarine's lieutenant. The rest of the character remain mostly in the back.

A decent enough genre attempt.

7/10

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In 1942, the commander of the submarine USS Grayfish, Barney Doyle (Glenn Ford) commands a motley crew such as : Lt. Jake 'Fuzz' Foley (Dean Jones) , 'Hash' Benson (L.Q. Jones) , Lt. Redley (Robert Hardy) , Lt. Burt Fisher (Paul Picerni) and especially the second-in command Lt. Archer 'Archie' Sloan (Ernest Borgnine) with whom Barney has a special relationship . Doyle is a stiff captain who plans to sink a Japanese carrier . As their main target is the Japanese aircraft Akagi, which led the attack on Pearl Harbor. But there is a freighter in the way , and on board are his wife and child . Doyle is tormented by the fact that his spouse and baby daughter were taken prisoner when the Japanese invaded the Philippines and he has no word from them for almost 10 months . They're really prisoners of the Japs and whom we have grown to love in flashbacks . Shortly after , Barney is overjoyed when reliable sources confirm that they are alive . There was good reason for the Japanese to let him know however : all of the civilians are being transported to Japan . At the end takes place the confrontation and square off in the Pacific Ocean and Tokyo bay .

Standards submarine melodramatics about an US submarine that must torpedo a Japanese carrier which holds some of the crews family members . Glenn Ford gives a good acting as an able ship's captain well respected by his men and effective at sea , who pursues the ship that led the attack on Pear Harbour back Tokyo . Although the film relies heavily on the deep relationship between Lt. Cmdr. Barney Doyle/Glenn Ford and Lt. Archer 'Archie' Sloan/Ernest Borgnine . This nail-biter is a tightly-knit drama centered on the relentless sea maneuvers of a sub going after a carrier and vice versa . Sometimes slow , generally worthwhile watching . As a main premise results to be an engaging issue : a ship transporting his family is acting as a shield for the Akagi carrier forcing Doyle to make a terrible decision, as his country comes first and he blows the freighter out of water . The film is known as one of the most famous WWII submarine movies, though some scenes at sea, however, suffer from the utilization of obvious models in a just as obvious studio tank . Secondary cast is frankly good such as : Diane Brewster, Dean Jones , L.Q. Jones , Philip Ober , Richard Carlyle and Robert Hardy . George J. Folsey's colorful and vivid cinematography , including spectacular maritime scenes , set in the Pacific Ocean of World War II ; in fact , this movie's ocean scenes were filmed in the Pacific Ocean. .¨Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1958) wishes to thank the Department of Defense and the United States Navy for their assistance in the production of this motion picture."

The motion picture was professionally directed by Joseph Pevney who also made other WWII films as ¨Away all boats¨. Pevney shot all kinds of genres as Comedy , Film Noir , Mystery , Drama , such as : ¨Who is the black Dahilia ?¨, ¨The strange door¨, ¨Man of a thousand faces¨, ¨Mysterious Island of beautiful women¨, ¨Cash McCall¨, ¨Tammy and the bachelor¨, ¨Istanbul¨, ¨Because of you¨ and Westerns as ¨Night of Grizzly¨ .



This ¨Torpedo run¨ represents one of a select group of a few World War II submarine movies which have won the one single Academy Award in a technical category, that's just only the one Oscar in either special effects or sound editing. These movies include ¨Crash Dive¨ ; ¨Enemy below ¨(57) by Dick Powell with Curt Jurgens, Robert Mitchum , and ¨U-571¨. The non-WW II sub-movie, ¨The Hunt for Red October¨ also won just the one Oscar as did the WW 2 part sub-movie 49th Parallel , but for Best Original Story . Furthermore , other important films about submarine are ¨Run Silent Run Deep¨, ¨Crimson tide¨ by Tony Scott with Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman; ¨K19¨ with Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson and the best ¨Das Boot¨ (1982) by Wolfgang Petersen with Jurgen Prochnow .

These submarine films always follow the pattern of playing out the relationship of the determined Captain and the watchful, suspicious second in command. This one features Ford as the Captain and Borgnine as the Lieutenant. Same old routine. The film starts fine then gradually becomes absurd as feverish Ford turns into Captain Ahab relentlessly in search of his white whale---in this case the Japanese carrier Shinaru. Seems the Navy is perfectly willing to accommodate Ford on his obsessive mission, and Borgnine is even willing to reject the offer of a command of his own vessel in order to stick by Ahab-Ford's side. Oh, sure. And what started all this? In an earlier scene, Ford is "forced" to torpedo a transport filled with 1400 civilians, including Ford's wife and child (caught in Manila) that is being used as a screen to protect the Shinaru. Absurd! Both the Navy and Ford's character, fully aware the transport is there, would never take that kind of chance. The potentially staggering loss would have been a calamity that would never have been sanctioned. This is just a ridiculous contrivance to fuel Ford's obsession. In addition, the filmmakers try to have it both ways by never stating whether or not Ford's family survives or not. Borgnine is merely there as the Voice of Reason. His only other duty seems to be offering Ford coffee in every other scene.

Otherwise, this film is a second-rate action film. The supporting actors have almost nothing to work with, leaving them blanks we could care less about. Interesting to see a young Al Freeman, Jr. on board, since there were few black submariners in the service. So, not historically inaccurate. The stock footage of U.S. destroyers used to play Japanese destroyers IS inaccurate, obviously. And the special effects are variable; effective at times and painfully obvious at others. And the multi-depth charge walloping Ford's sub takes is very impressive, but also hard to believe that the sub isn't blown to pieces considering most of the charges explode right on top of it. One other odd note is the lack of a music score credit. The score is perfectly fine yet whoever provided it was either denied credit or took their name off it. Wonder why.

The Leonard Maltin movie guide describes this World War 2 movie as being "sluggish". To some degree I would have to agree. Despite the movie taking place on the ocean battlefield, there often seems to be some sort of spark missing, with an almost casual feeling taking place instead. While I'm not looking for Michael Bay speed and edits, more adrenaline should have been injected. The leisurely pace is not the only thing dated. While some of the Oscar-nominated special effects *are* good, there are a few special effects shots that may provoke giggles from modern day audiences. And the ending wraps things up a little suddenly, and may be unsatisfying to some viewers.

Fortunately, there is more good than negative stuff. Glenn Ford and Ernest Borgnine give solid and believable performances. (And there is fun seeing L.Q. Jones and Dean Jones among the supporting players.) And while the movie may be leisurely at times, it doesn't get to the point of being boring. If you are looking for a submarine warfare movie, you could do worse.

I rank this up there with any of the other great Submarine movies. Das Boot, Enemy Below, Run Silent, Run Deep and others.

Glenn Ford is always at his best playing this type of character. Conflicted and mentally pained men who have tough decisions. Ernest Borgnine, as usual almost steals the movie though. He is one of the greatest second fiddle players in any movie he co stars in. Being someone who grew up watching him in McHale's Navy as a child and later learning just how great of an actor he can be, is a treat.

I do think the flashback scenes hurt the pace of the movie, but are necessary for context.

The movie is well filmed and makes great use of color. Many other great Sub movies about WWII are in Black and White, but that doesn't seem to take away from them. Here, the color is big plus.

I love Submarine movies probably because I know, that if I had the honor to of served in the U.S. Armed Forces, this would be the last place I'd want to be. Above the water I could tolerate it in battle, under it, I'd be a panicking wonder how I'd get out if we got hit. For that I salute everyone who served underwater, no matter which country you call home.

8/10 Rating.