Up Periscope (1959)

Too much of everything

One of my all time favorites.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Why anyone would want to waste their time with "Up Periscope" beats me. True, it does feature a mildly exciting climax, but you have to wait impatiently through nearly two hours of relentless tedium! It's true too that the script has a few mildly witty lines, but what's a witty line or two surrounded by three or four thousand dull ones? Condensed to a reel or a reel and a half, Up Periscope might make a fair featurette, but at 112 minutes...Made on the cheap with obvious studio and stock shots, "Up Periscope" is further burdened with a second-string cast including Edd Byrnes as a medical orderly and Andra Martin as the love interest. However, despite her prominence in the credit titles, Miss Martin's role is slight. Behind-the-camera personnel are no better. The photography is tired and the direction TV-weary with lots of monotonous and uninteresting close-ups as the characters talk and talk and talk.I never understood the cinema appeal of James Garner. As a general rule, television stars, no matter how super-popular they may be on the box, fail to achieve anything like that sort of success on the big screen. Remember George Gobel? Or Alan Young? Or Edd Byrnes? Charlie Drake? Judy Cannon? Benny Hill? Merv Griffin? The only television people I can think of who made it really, really big on the big-big screen are James Garner and Norman Wisdom.

BY THE YEAR of Anno Domini 1959, Television had take the upper hand in the struggle for supremacy of filmed stories. IOt was during this era that the small screen in our living rooms managed to dim the lights on so many, many of the old neighborhood movie houses that once populated our cities. It was by this time that the big Studios capitulated to the Networks; albeit in one, particular area.FOLLOWING YEARS of actively opposing any venturing into active participation in TV production; even to the point of forbidding their stars to do guest shots on television.* EVEN THESE Studio Moguls were compelled to rethink this position; opting that, "if we can't lick 'em, we might as well join 'em!" Before long, the Studios were in TV; enthusiastically supporting what they formerly held out against.STARTING OUT IN a manner that would seem to have been borrowed from Walt Disney's DISNEYLAND Show; MGM, 20th Century-Fox and Warner Brothers all had weekly hour long anthology series. In them, there would be some look at the history of movies, showcasing some of their old successes. They might interview a current Star and plug his/her current release. (Can you say, "Infomercial?" SO WAS THERE and then a sort of "cross pollination" between Actors on the Big and Small screens. Movie Stars did Guest Shots on TV and those starring in popular series would.............YES, THEY WOULD be featured in theatrical films. Our honoree of today, is just such an example.WITH THE PRODUCTION of UP PERISCOPE, the wheel had, indeed, the wheel had spun a full. The film starred James Garner (star of WB's hit series, MAVERICK) and also prominently featured Ed Byrnnes (popular as supporting character,"Kookie", on the same Studio's hot detective show, 77 SUNSERT STRIP.IN WHAT HAD echoes of Warner's DESTINATION TOKYO, the production team had assembled a great cast. Edmund O'Brien, Andra Martin, Alan Hale, Jr., footballer Frank Gifford and gruff, perennial Sgt. or Chief Petty Officer, Henry Kulky. Also look for a young Warren Oates as a seaman.THE STORY WAS somewhat similar to the previously mentioned DESTINATION TOKYO: but it had more of a "back home" subplot featuring Mr. Garner and his love life than the other film. There was a sort of modernization in the storyline; which was not made during the War, and hence lacked any element of propaganda.THE ACTION WAS good and it was filmed in Warnercolor; an advantage that the old, wartime productions lacked.WE DO RECOMMEND it, if you haven't viewed it, you may be pleasantly surprised. It's just too bad that they didn't make more movies like this in the 1950's. Maybe then there would be more Neighborhood Movie Houses still open today!NOTE:* This boycotting of television was a direct reversal of the Studios' policies about old time Radio; where they used it to their advantage at every possible instance. (Perhaps the Movies and Television were too similar, no?)

**SPOILERS*** It's 1942 and things are not looking that good for the US Navy with the Japanese now in control of the entire South Pacific west of Midway Island. It's under these dangerous conditions that US Navy frogman, or Navy Seal as they would later be called, Lt. Kenneth Barden, James Garner, is hand picked to sneak onto a Japanese held island and photograph, with his mini-spy camera, the Japanese secret code that in the end would save thousands of American lives in the upcoming invasion of the Solomon and Gilbert Islands in the South Pacific!Before he takes off on his mission Barden was having a affair with local California girl Sally Johnson, Andera Martin, who fell madly in love with the handsome hunk of a sailor. What Barden didn't know is that Sally was working for US Naval intelligence and ironically picked him, by his qualifications both under the sheets and underwater, to go on what is considered to be a suicide mission that he may never come back from!A bit slow at first with Braden on the USS Baracuda being shipped out in Japanese infested waters to get on shore and photograph and come back with the secret Japanese naval code with the Japs , in him doing everything possible to avoid contact with them, completely in the dark about it! We have as a sidelight in the film with the by the books and take no BS submarine commander Camdr. Paul Stevensen, Brian O'Brien, who's fanatical going by the book almost has him thrown in the brig by not following US Navel regulations that in fact turned the tide of the war in the Pacific in the US' favor!***SPOILERS*** Nothing really exciting happened in the movie with the exception of a Jap Zero attack on the Baracuda, and a few Jap boats being sunk, until Barden finally goes ashore on the Japanese held island in his what was to be a mission impossible mission that no one believed, including himself, he would survive anyway. It's here where Camdr. Stevensen finally used some common sense and gave Barden some slack in getting back safely to the awaiting sub, that was quickly exhausting it's oxygen supply,that made the mission a success! Even though the stupid and robotic jerk, Camdr. Stevensen, was more then ready to get himself court-martial-ed for doing it! P.S There's also in the film it's beautiful sweet and haunting theme song "Please be Kind" everythime we have both Braden and Sally together. You don't know until later in the film the reason Sally burst into tears when she was with Barden in that it was her recommendation, that Barden was totally unaware of, that may possibility send him to certain death! Luckily for her as well as Barden things didn't turn out all that bad for both of them.

In 1942, in California, the diver Lieutenant Kenneth M. Braden (James Garner) from the navy demolition team falls in love with Sally Johnson (Andra Martin) and proposes her. The reluctant woman asks for more time to decide, but Braden is summoned to travel to a base in the Pacific. Sooner he discovers that Sally is actually a military from navy assigned to check his qualifications for a classified mission. He must travel on board of the submarine Barracuda commanded by Commander Paul Stevenson (Edmond O'Brien) to a Japanese island and photograph their secret radio codes in a very dangerous mission."Up Periscope" is a good war thriller with an unbelievable plot that entertains. I would never dare to compare this film with the stunning masterpiece "Das Boot", but there are good action scenes. I decided to see this movie with very few expectations but in the end I had a pleasant surprise. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): Not Available