Up Periscope (1959)

Well starred by Edmond O'Brien and James Garner , Warner Brothers' "Maverick" Man and with agreeable cast ; there's plenty of emotion and thrills in the final action scenes keep you eyes peeled . This is a great production ready right now in his big-screen , meticulously mounted and efficiently directed by Gordon Douglas . In 1942, Navy Lieutenant Kenneth Braden from the underwater demolition team is sent to a Japanese island to photograph secret radio codes . As a rebellious demolition expert ,James Garner, assigned to serve on Edmond O'Brien's by-the-book sub . His assignment : to sneak onto Japanese-held island and steal a top-secret code book . This underwater actioner contains suspense , thrills , intrigue , a love story and many other things . Although being a routine submarine movie also packs some thrilling moments and results to be pretty good . This nail-biter is a tightly-knit drama centered on the relentless sea maneuvers of a submarine sailing undercover toward a Japanese island . Thrilling as well as exciting battle of wits between two officers : James Garner-Edmond O'Brien , who gradually come to respect each other . Trouble is Commander Paul Stevenson/Edmond O'Brien , may not wait for Lt. J.G. Kenneth M. Braden/James Garner to complete his assignment before taking the submarine back underwater . Both of whom are a compellingly balanced match as two clever as well astute commanders . Interesting screenplay , being based on the novel by Robb White and script written by Richard Landau . The film is famous as one of the best WWII submarine movies though some scenes at sea , however, suffer from the utilization of obvious models in a just as obvious studio tank . Adequate special effects , though all underwater miniature submarine shots were reused from the film Destination : Tokyo (1943) . The main cast , support actors and technicians spent about a month filming on board this ship . Inexorable duel of great stars into a submarine , as nice acting by James Garner as a demolition expert unwillingly assigned to a sub and Edmond O'Brien as stiff-upper-lip commander . Secondary cast is frankly good such as a likable veteran Alan Hale Jr. as Lt. Pat Malone , beautiful Andra Martin , a very young Edd Byrnes as Pharmacist Mate Ash , Frank Gifford , Bernie Hamilton , and this picture marks the feature film movie debuts for Wareen Oates as a sailor who is constantly eating and always to be found in the mess hall heating . Colorful and vivid cinematography by Carl E. Guthrie in excitement Technicolor smash , including spectacular maritime scenes . Thrilling as well as suspenseful musical score . The motion picture was compellingly directed by Gordon Douglas who captures the claustrophobic up and undersea tension . Rating : 6.5/10 . Better than average , well worth watching . This nail-biting sea epic represents one of a select group of a few World War II submarine movies which have nice special effects and breathtaking sound editing . These movies include ¨Crash Dive¨ ; ¨Torpedo Run¨ and ¨The Enemy Below ¨. Furthermore , other important films about submarines are the followings : ¨Run Silent Run Deep¨ by Robert Wise , ¨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 .

I really like some submarine movies -- "Destination Tokyo" is fun and "Das Boot" is unique -- so I hate to say it but "Up Periscope" is pretty bad.Edmond O'Brien is the skipper of the Barracuda and he's given the task of taking specialist James Garner to a remote Japanese-held island in World War II. Garner must swim ashore from 2000 yard out and steal an important code book before a coming invasion. O'Brien refuses to put his boat at risk after some earlier traumatic incidents, while Garner argues that he is being sacrificed because of O'Brien's excess of caution.Both the leads are professionals and they're okay as far as that goes. They've each given better performances -- O'Brien in "DOA" for instance, and Garner in "Barbarians at the Gates." But then what could they, or anyone else, do with these dumb roles? The script, a rude lump of malignancy, was written by Richard Landau. It's as if someone had handed him a fistful of Benzedrine and told him to sit down and write an action/submarine script in 48 hours -- and make it exciting. Oh, and include an unnecessary love interest.If there's a cliché missing, I missed it. There's the injured man dying below decks because the skipper can't take his boat to the surface, the submarine stuck on the surface for repairs in enemy waters, the strafing by the Japanese airplane (which gets shot down), the depth charges by the Japanese destroyer (which gets sunk), the wounded officer on the deck ordering, "Take her down!" at the sacrifice of his own life, the comic crew member who isn't nearly as funny or charming as the writers think he is (Alan Hale, Jr., son of a genuinely charming cook on the Copperfin in "Destination Tokyo"), the grumbling seamen who don't like the by-the-book captain, men saluting with their caps off below decks. "Dive, dive!" "Rig for silent running!" You will be pardoned if you pendiculate.There IS something striking about the movie. It's startling in its lack of imagination. It's not an innocent flag waver like "Destination Tokyo" and it doesn't even pretend to the realism of "Das Boot." And it isn't even as funny as "Operation Petticoat."

Youthful, handsome James Garner plays a womanising frogman. He is seconded for a solo-mission to penetrate Japanese security on an occupied Pacific island and clandestinely copy their radio-codes. Secrecy is paramount.It sounds like something by Alistair McClean or an early 'Mission Impossible'. He has to be taxi'd to his destination by submarine. And there are issues between himself and the sub's commander played by reliable Edward O'Brien. The seas are shallow and he risks discovery, but there are limits to how far Garner's frogman can swim.That's about it. The rest of the movie is made up of adventures along the way and the stealthy secret mission on land against the Japanese. There's no particular surprises. It's nicely filmed in colour. Most of the sets are believable. The story and moments of tension are well paced. It's a sturdy little matinée adventure with some decent submarine footage. Good support cast features an equally youthful Warren Oates.Just remembered, I saw this at the flea-pit as a kid!

I was expecting a fairly mediocre and routine "sub flick" and was pleasantly surprised to find an above average and pretty engrossing movie. The story has some grit and conflict, especially in the hostility of the crew for its "by the book" captain, played with convincing war-weariness by the always-reliable Edmond O'Brien, whose efforts are matched by a very young James Garner. Production values are high, and it's worth catching it in letterbox format. Some of the mistakes in commando procedures have been noted, to which I would add the lack of facial camouflage, as Garner's strikingly white face floats conspicuously above the water in his nighttime swim, an easy target for lookouts. None the less, a pretty good war flick.