L'inferno dei mari

The small town gathers to cheer the departing heroes, officer and crew of a submarine in the Great War. Then it turns into two movies: the men on the submarine, as they hunt a ship in the Atlantic that will bring supplies and personnel to Russia, and then become the prey of a spy ship; and the people -- mostly the women -- left behind to worry and grieve and get on with the daily routine of life and war.

It has two directors: Gustav Ucicky, at the peak of his fame and power (he would wind up in Vienna after the Anschluss. His directing would tail off, only to begin anew in 1947), and Vernon Sewall,. Sewall would not receive another directing credit for ten years, although he would be a key player behind the camera, part of the team that made EDGE OF THE WORLD

The result is a well-made movie, an early talkie submarine movie that includes most of the tropes of submarine movies to this day: the cramped space; the constant companionship of death; the nearly sexual ecstasy when torpedoes sink the enemy craft, and the dull, blank despair of a mortally wounded submarine with its crew trapped within. THe crew refer to the boat as a living thing, stubborn and defiant, and the movie makes it easy to see why. For 1931, it's an amazing film. It's still very good ninety years later.