The Enemy Below

There's some shaky acting here and frankly it's impossible to take Curd Jürgens seriously as he both looks like Alec Baldwin and refuses to button his shirt for the entire movie, which further likens him to the scoutmaster in the 'canteen boy' skit from SNL. But the film maintains excellent tension using sound design and music, and especially using silence. Some of the depth charge sequences look jaw-dropping. Notable influence on both Star Trek and Star Wars is apparent.

This is quite good with a solid lead and supporting cast. Excellent action.

Tense, great sub flick that's a battle of wits between two well matched captains. Some other reviews complain that the filmmakers chickened out by not making Jurgens' sub commander a die hard Nazi, but then Mitchum's captain isn't a born in blue patriot himself: he's merely a sunk, defeated man who does what he does because he's surprisingly good at it. Both men have skill and lack ideology, which is probably why the shared cigarettes at the end work so well.

The only real liability here is Mitchum, who appears miscast as the Captain...often reading his lines as though off of cue cards and hardly seeming to change his bearing at all (except right toward the end). And speaking of which...that ending--heroic and noble though it doubtless was--came off as more than a trifle far-fetched. But the movie did indeed manage to keep the suspense level well-ratcheted throughout.

The first half didn't really grab me but then the Oscar-winning effects caught my attention.

Been trying to see this movie for years. Loved it!

Mitchum is great and Curd Jürgens is quite good as the opposing captain. The film goes pretty far into both men's backstory, setting them up as men doing jobs they don't really like but feel they have to do. Dick Powell focuses a lot on the detailed strategy both men are engaged with, so it's really a film for those who love suspense procedurals ... which I do.

If you're looking for an accurate portrait of war, then this is maybe not the movie to go for. If, on the other hand, you're after a very entertaining suspense thriller set around the submarine warfare of WWII, this is probably the best example you'll find.

Nicest war movie ever. No one dies and the enemies become friends at the end. Come on.

I am surprised Robert Mitchum and Curd Jurgens didn't just get it on and lock lips at the end of this paeon to professionalism among WWII naval combatants. Kind of a fun cat and mouse for awhile, but eventually it bugged me how they went to such great lengths to distance this German U-Boat crew from those mean old Nazis who were killing people in Europe. When the Captain sees a guy reading Mein Kampf and he shakes his head in a way that reads, "What an ass!" you know they're trying too hard.

My score is really mean. This is fantastically photographed, edited, etc. As soon as I thought it was doing something wrong, it turns out it was only a setup for major win. Meta-tactical.