The Enemy Below (1957)

Touches You

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

An excellent war film, almost comparable with "Run Silent, Run Deep" also about submarine activity, but this one is in colour with outstanding photography, which makes the monotonous sea scenery a never boring thing; while Robert Wise's war drama in Japan is much more intense and dramatic. Here the two captains are poised against each other fighting out a sea duel with their ships at stake, Robert Mitchum waging his destroyer and Curt Jurgens staking his u-boat. Jurgens is the better actor and plays out his part with convincing power, while Robert Mitchum is just cool as always. It's a rather slow film, only gradually the real drama is building up but rewarding in the end with a finale that no one could have expected. There are some breath-taking sequences, as when the Americans go fishing without knowing the submarine is right under them, and when the destroyer passes exactly above the u-boat, so it could have chafed its bottom.It's a classic indeed, and notable is also Theodore Bikel as Curt Jurgens' second, a great character player always appearing in great quality films. He was the original Captain Trapp on Broadway.

Not a documentary, this movie focuses more on the personal interactions between men in a war they have learned to hate...Robert Mitchum is the American Captain of a Buckley class Destroyer Escort, operating independently in the North Atlantic...Kurt Jurgens is the crusty German skipper of a submarine, who has experienced two World Wars. Both of them have felt the horror of war, the utter futility of constant conflict, but both still do their duty...The Enemy Below is a portrait of two men's inner demons, and their struggle to overcome those demons...there is a lot of action as well...Overall, the film brings technically accurate depictions of war at sea, a good bit better than many others...but it is drama, first and foremost, with the accuracies set as the backdrop...This is always well worth watching...

This is up there on my list of war movies. It does not compare to Saving Private Ryan, but it's good movie nevertheless. If you did not know that age of the cast, you might think the movie was made 20 years later. In other words: it seems ahead of its time for a number of reasons.The new captain (Robert Mitchum) of a U.S. destroyer has to prove himself to his crew. He does that by initially outsmarting a German U-boat captain (Curd Jurgens) who is no idiot himself. It becomes a good cat-and-mouse story with the U.S. destroyer being more the hunting cat than the defensive mouse. The movie shows the hellish stress of being in a submerged submarine under attack.A good movie with solid performances.

The South Atlantic during World War 2. The US destroyer USS Haynes spots and engages a German U-boat. The U-boat is commanded by Captain Von Stolberg (played by Curd Jurgens), a wily veteran U-boat commander. The captain of the Haynes is Lt Commander Murrell (Robert Mitchum), a Naval Reserve officer who was previously in the merchant marine. Because of this background, some of his crew doubt his abilities. he soon proves them wrong and a battle of wits ensues between the two adversaries. Great WW2 naval drama. Pretty good portrayal of submarine and anti- submarine warfare. Suspenseful and engaging. Also shows a good balance between the US and German sides.Great performances from Robert Mitchum, as the US captain, and Curd Jurgens, as the German captain. Good supporting cast too.