Submarine Raider (1942)

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It's easy to dismiss today the "slanty eyed Japs" statements and atmosphere in this film (why is "Kraut" not deemed "racist"?). However this took place only four years after the Imperial Japanese carried out the most appalling atrocities in China ( See here. WARNING EXPLICIT PHOTOS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanking_Massacre#Massacre ). Compare with similar ISIS/Daesh atrocities and Presidents Trump's statements about Jihadist terrorists being "dirty, sneaky rats" and this film takes on an interesting dimension. At one point the intelligence agent refers to the Japanese 5th columnists as "rats". So where this film is relegated to obscure Freeview channels, deemed to be of exclusive interest to war movie die hard's, it actually throws a light on the peculiar modern tendency to deem criticisms and lurid remarks about the enemy as "racist" when lives are at stake. As noted above, the plot, acting and effects are not top notch but this piece has an interesting 1940's feel to it that can appeal to an audience beyond that of the historian.

In an era when propaganda films were coming out of Hollywood in a rush there were many that were A class, some which were B class, and then there was this one. I won't even comment on the bone-headed decisions the the two ship captains make or the historical accuracy that was missing. Rarely have I seen such obvious special effects such as planes making almost 90 degree turns in flight and clearly light weight model planes landing on the Japanese carrier. This was poorly written and planned and must have been rushed into production with a budget of about $1.38. If you want a good WW2 sub movie watch almost any film but this one.

As a WWII history buff, I try to watch every WWII film I can find. This one was watchable, but for the informed it was more for comedic effect and an understanding of the racial prejudices of the time than for anything else.I don't even know where to start with this one but it plays to all of the boogeymen of the immediate pre and post Pearl Harbor attack with it's focus on subversion and sabotage when we later learned that even the Japanese themselves put little faith in the Japanese-Americans in Hawaii.Perhaps the most laughable aspect was the presentation of a SINGLE Japanese aircraft carrier as being capable of the destruction wrought at Pearl Harbor, when, in fact, it took SIX carriers and on top of that, they portrayed the carrier as operating completely ALONE, when nothing of the sort would've happened.There is also a scene in which the US Submarine remains on the surface with a single gunner dueling with the attacking Japanese plane when Navy doctrine would've had the sub crash diving upon detection of the incoming plane.All in all, there are simply too many factual errors to even believe that this film actually had a technical adviser... at least one who had ever gone to sea in anything bigger than a rowboat! The only misinformation missing from this film that I can see is that they didn't try to pin on the blame on FDR as many other crackpots did!

***SPOILER*** The film Subrmarine Raider" instead of making the Japanese look bad in their sneak attack on Peral Harbor on the morning of December 7,1941 makes them look far more effective then they actually were! Instead of having a major 100 fleet task force with some 300 to 500 warplanes carry out the dastardly and successful sneak attack they only have a dinky looking aircraft carrier with about two dozen Jap zeros to pull the whole thing off! Were also given in the movie the totally false assumptions that there was a major Jap fifth column on the Hawaiian islands who were secretly giving the Jap task force, via shortwave radio, the position of were the US Pacific fleet was stationed at in Pearl Harbor which then ended up for the most part sunk and destroyed in the Japanese sneak attack! It's odd that the main target of the Japanese attack on base the US navy aircraft carrier fleet was not only out to sea at the time of the attack but not but even noticed by the Japanese spies who were supposed to be tracking it!***SPOILERS*** Where the Japs screwed up according to the movie was in the aircraft carrier Hirnamu giving away its position to US attack submarine Sea Serpent by attacking a yacht that was in the vicinity. This bonehead attack on the harmless pleasure boat alerted the sub's captain Commander Charles Warren, John Howard, which eventually lead to the carrier being sent to the bottom of the Pacific! Something that never happened in real life!As for the Japs themselves they were so obnoxious and off-the-wall in their actions that it was a miracle that they could have ever pulled off the whole deal without their aircraft carrier being sent to the bottom together with its Keystone like Kop, or sailor, crew before it ever pulled out of Tokyo Bay!P.S I noticed that the film was released on June 4, 1942 the very day that a real and turning point battle took place in the far off Pacific that the US Navy really won. The Battle of Midway that turned the tide of battle in the Pacific Theater for the US. Not the phony baloney battle that took place in the movie with the sinking of the fictitious Japanses aircraft carrier Hiranamu!