Submarine Command

The nightclub pictured in Submarine Command was the Club Royal located at 3rd and C street in downtown San Diego. The wallpaper was black with chartreuse horses pictured, the booths were red. Walter Fuller was the band leader and played trumpet. This nightclub was owned at the time by Albert Bertolino who appears briefly in the bar scene. His wife,Una was the attractive blond seated at the bar. William Holden and Nancy Olsen were on the set at the time and were kind enough to visit with me and my family during the filming of this scene at a restaurant next door to the club. Third street at that time consisted of one bar after another. These clubs were razed in the latter part of the 20th century.

I couldn't disagree more with the reviewer who credits this as Mr. Bendix's best roll. He was good in most of the rolls he took on with the possible exception of The Babe Ruth story. I have three best William Bendix films: Life Boat, Wake Island, and Kill the Umpire. In this film he's play the chief torpedo-man on the Tiger Shark a boat and crew haunted by the loss of their captain on the last day of the war. Bendix's character blames the man who took command during the emergency that resulted in the loss of the captain. After the war William Holden's character has to come to grips with the memory of that day and the loss of his friend. The piece time navy and his conscience put to much pressure on his marriage and he finds himself redeployed aboard the Tiger Shark with many of the old crew for a new war in Korea. The sub is used to assist in the rescue of some commando's stranded ashore in Korea. During this mission the captain finds he has to use tactics he wouldn't have used before.

Not the best movie from director John Farrow, whose reputation was to direct movies about ships, some kind of Frank Lloyd, if you wish. Here, I could have imagined another Paramount star of this period: Alan Ladd, maybe because of the presence of William Bendix. This a melodrama for me, not a tough, rough war film, nothinng to do with any other submarine film, not DAS BOOT for instance, nor TORPEDO RUN or RUN SILENT RUN DEEP, but I admit that film is rather rare, hard to find, despite its cast and prestigious production company: Paramount. I guess you can live without it.

William Holden did a nice job in this patriotic movie but for the most part this film seemed be the same plot from so many war-time movies. A commander had to make some hard decisions by letting people die in order to save the ship. Of course, at least a few of the people disagree with the decision- and there we have the rub of the story. The only difference in this tale than others. is the fact that most of the mental conflict about the decision comes at the close of the war instead of playing out during the war. So this seemed like a reused plot with names being changed for the audience approval.

Do not get me wrong, the movie has some gifted actors that gave nice performances. Along with Holden, William Bendix and Nancy Olson did a nice job keeping the story interesting and the viewer involved in the story. Even when the writing (at the end) was rushed and forgiveness came like a flash, the actors made the transition flawlessly. Perhaps a bit more time should have been planned for the ending instead of feeling rushed to an conclusion. But since this was not to be, we are left with a film that is at least entertaining and we can enjoy the talent of the actors. Nice watch.

This film begins in the waning days of World War 2 with a new officer by the name of "Ken White" (William Holden) being assigned as the Executive Officer to the American submarine U.S.S. Tiger Shark. Although the boat and crew have recorded 18 confirmed kills Lt. Cmdr. White feels somewhat disappointed that he had no part in any of them having spent most of the war on shore with other duties. He finally gets his chance when the commander allows him to take temporarily take command of the U.S.S. Tiger Shark after a small Japanese convoy is spotted. He then manages to sink two enemy ships before they take evasive maneuvers to escape. Having now resumed command "Cmdr. Joshua Rice" (Jack Gregson) orders the submarine to surface to look for survivors and is the first to go topside. It's at this time that a Japanese Zero attacks the submarine requiring Lt. Cmdr. White to dive immediately. Needless to say, this order seals the fate of both Cmdr. Rice and another sailor who were on deck at the time. It also infuriates one of the senior enlisted men by the name of "CPO Boyer" (William Bendix) who feels that there was sufficient time to bring both of them back inside despite the fact that a Japanese destroyer has spotted them and is approaching fast. From that point on Lt. Cmdr. White is wracked by guilt even though everyone within his chain-of-command concurs with his action once they get back to port. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a rather somber submarine film which focuses heavily upon the post-traumatic stress that Lt. Cmdr. White had to endure which also affected his marriage and his relationships with others as well. Admittedly, I didn't care for the rather quick ending but all in all I found this to be an enjoyable movie for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.