HELL BELOW
US, 1933, 101 minutes, Black and white.
Robert Montgomery, Walter Huston, Madge Evans, Jimmy Durante, Eugene Pallette, Robert Young, Sterling Holloway.
Directed by Jack Conway.
Audiences became used to submarine stories after the 1930s, with the themes becoming even more popular during the 1990s with The Hunt for Red October, K19 The Widowmaker, The Crimson Tide…
This film was released 15 years after the end of World War II and is interesting in its portrayal of submarines, more sophisticated than might have been expected, and life and work in the submarines.
There is a human story on the submarine, a crusty commander played by Walter Huston, an efficient officer who does not always go by the book, Robert Montgomery, and his friend played by Robert Young. On board are a comedy couple with some comic relief, played by Jimmy Durante as Ptomaine the cook and Eugene Pallette as the torpedo supervisor.
There is also romantic story, the Robert Montgomery character encountering a young woman in a raid and bombardment, attracted to her, she to him. But, she has a fiance whose legs are severely injured in a plane incident. She is also the daughter of the commander. This leads to complications with her, wanting to leave her fiance, go with the officer, the disapproval of her father. The officer visits the injured man and decides to do the right thing, even to remaining on the submarine when it is involved in a do-or-die situation, ramming the ramparts at the opening of the harbour to trap enemy shipping and submarines.
Direction is by Jack Conway who began directing films in 1912 and continued to the mid 1940s, working on more high-powered projects at MGM during the 1940s including Boom Town, Honky Tonk and finishing with the Greer Garson comedy, Julian Misbehaves.
1. A submarine story of the 1930s? 15 years after the end of World War I? World War I memories?
2. The Italian setting, atmosphere, the Italian town, the water, submarines, the ocean, ships, blockades? Black-and-white photography? Musical score?
3. The comparative modernness of large submarines, audience interest, the interiors, the dangers, oxygen, blocking off compartments and consequent deaths, the submarines themselves, in the water, submerging?
4. The portrait of the officers and men in the submarines? The commander and his strictness, Tom and Walters, their efficiency, crises and response? The sailors, the comic pair, cook and torpedo supervisor (and their harsh experiences under fire) and the touches of comic relief?
5. The command, collaborating with the Italians, the role of submarines? The damage to the submarine, the attempts to get the oxygen flow going again, the trapping of the sailor behind the door, accepting his death?
6. The consequences for the submarine, the request for it to ram the fortifications, for the men to jump off and be rescued? The acceptance? The manoeuvre, Tom and his remaining on the deck?
7. The human story, Tom and Walters, their friendship, discussions, Walter’s death, Tom’s attitude towards the commander?
8. The commander, strict, by the book and rules? His personality? The revelation that he was Joan’s father? His attitude towards his daughter, her marriage, the separation, her fiance? His severe attitude towards Tom, rebuking him, the hearing, his being stripped of his rank?
9. Tom and Walters, going to the dance, leaving, the encounter with Joan? Tom and the attraction? Her response? Her husband, pilot, his injuries, Tom meeting him at the hospital, meeting Joan? The fiance and his being a decent chap, trying to walk again? His love for Joan?
10. Joan, the attraction, her fear with the bombardment, in love, prepared to leave her husband, the plans to go, Tom and his hard attitude towards her father? His rebuke? Tom going to the hospital, talking with the fiance, the decision about self-sacrifice?
11. On board the submarine, with the commander, the clash, the rebukes, his staying on the submarine, his death?
12. A blend of a film about active service, informing audiences about submarines, and the romantic situation, love, affairs, divorce, fidelity?
