The FRiday Night Movie - The Enemy Below (1957)

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[DemforBush]

Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens square off in this taut WW2 film of cat-and-mouse between a U.S Destroyer and a German U-boat.

In English with Korean subtitles.

[DemforBush]

This is just a darn good movie. 'Nuff said. 7.5/10

[DemforBush]

As always, if you want on or off my ping list, feel free to let me know.

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[DemforBush]

Ping.

[DemforBush]

Previous week's offerings:

The Stranger7/10

Decision Before Dawn7.5/10

The Woman in the Window8/10

Plunder Road6.75/10

The Hitch-Hiker7/10

The Big Heat8.5/10

Stalag 178/10

[JennysCool]

Yup. Great flick.

[Celtic Conservative]

It was also the inspiration for the star trek: TOS episode “balance of terror”.

CC

[DemforBush]

Indeed it was! One of my favorite TOS eps, too.

[Nepeta]

A wonderful movie. One of my favorites.

AND there is an episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea which lifts the plot of the movie AND uses extensive footage from the movie! Season 2, episode 15, "Killers of the Deep"

[bobby.223]

And David Hedison was in both! As Capt. Crane in the TV series, ‘Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea’, and as Lt. Ware in ‘The Enemy Below’. ‘The Enemy Below’ was one of R. Mitchum’s best acting jobs imho.

[tophat9000]

This in the movie that Star Trek ripped off that introduce the Romulan.. and to mimic the stealth nature of submarines had to invent the plot device of the Romulan cloaking device

[MasterGunner01]

“The Enemy Below” is such a good script that Star Trek used variations of it twice; “Balance of Terror” in the original series and the second ST movie “The Wrath of Khan”. The TV series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea recycled the storyline as “Killers of the Deep”.

For Navy buffs, the Buckley-class destroyer escort does a very credible job demonstrating how submarines were hunted in WW2. Especially good is the actual use of live depth charges from rolloff racks and K-guns. The sound track even captures the “thunk” when the hydrostatic pistol fires to detonate the depth charge. The gunfight and ramming sequence at the end of the film is compromised by inadequate special effects. The models of the DE and U-boat and models look like models due to the composition of the flames and the water that cannot be scaled.

The fictional USS Haynes (DE-181) was actually the USS Whitehurst (DE-634) captained by LCDR Walter R. Smith. Twentieth Century Fox leased the ship from the Navy for filming over a six week period in 1957. USS Whitehurst was sunk as a target by a torpedo from USS Trigger (SS-564) on 28 April 1971.

[Gefn]

Ooh, I love Star Trek, I’ll see this tomorrow afternoon.

Thank you.

[21twelve]

Dem4Bush got me started on these old movies. Found the following “Destroyer” with Glenn Ford and Edward G. Robinson (1943). A bit hokie, but okay. Especially when thinking of that year, and my old man going through his training and getting put on a ship that same year iirc.

[21twelve]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nOT7DxvujY

Oops - above is the youtube link to “Destroyer”

[onedoug]

I remember this movie from when I was a kid. I must have seen it some hundred times by now, and it still holds up.

A real credit to Dick Powell who directed.

[MasterGunner01]

“They Were Expendable” (1945) with Robert Montgomery and John Wayne uses real PT boats and was shot in and around Miami, FL. None of original 77-foot Elco boats were gone from serve by the time filming began and so two 80-foot Elco and four 78-foot Huckins PT boats were used as stand-ins. In real life, Robert Montgomery was a Naval Reserve officer qualified in PT boats!

The “They Were Expendable” movie has the usual Hollywood wartime propaganda but it is watchable because of the boats in action. By the end of 1946, most of the boats had been sold off or scrapped.

“Tora, Tora” Tora” (1968) is THE Pearl Harbor att movie that set the bar high for Hollywood docudramas. All these years later it is still a “must see” to understand the run-up to the attack.

[98ZJ USMC]

It was also the inspiration for the star trek: TOS episode “balance of terror”.

It sure was. Great, great movie. Falters, just a little, compared to "Das Boot" in the set realism and grittiness department but fantastic character development and it's always nice to see an actual DE in a movie.

[98ZJ USMC]

Found the following “Destroyer” with Glenn Ford and Edward G. Robinson (1943). A bit hokie, but okay

It is, but I still kinda like it.

[21twelve]

“Tora, Tora” Tora” (1968) is THE Pearl Harbor movie that set the bar high for Hollywood docudramas.

As a kid I went to two movies with my family. The first was “The Sound of Music”. The second was “Tora-Tora-Tora”. I can’t believe it was in 1968! My memory of going there with my mom and dad is still vivid. (Big brother was off to college, and I guess my sisters didn’t want to go!). I’m not so sure mom wanted to go either - but...

[MasterGunner01]

One of the guys on our ship was at Pearl Harbor doing filming of “Tora, Tora, Tora”. He was a extra in a scene where a Japanese bomber dropped a bomb on a barracks. As an extra, he was to run away from the barracks just before the pyro man blew up the building. On the signal, all the extras ran like their lives depended on it (they did) and the building went up in a magnificent explosion. He said his big scene was later cut from the final print. That's showbiz I guess.