MINESWEEPER
US, 1943, 67 minutes, Black-and-white.
Richard Arlen, Jean Parker, Russell Hayden, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Emma Dunn.
Directed by William Berke.
The main reason for looking at this film is to see the kind of small budget propaganda films that contributed to the US war effort in 1943.
The film focuses on the role of minesweepers, background from British experience in the Atlantic and the English Channel, but closer to home with German submarines and mines near the United States. The budget of the film was not large and, while there are some underwater sequences, there are no big action pieces, searching for mines, explosions… There are some explosions and some deaths but presented in a fairly modest-budget way.
Richard Arlen was a popular screen presence at the time, is seen as a hitchhiker picked up by a genial Guinn Williams, persuaded to enlist, their both finding some camaraderie with the various minesweepers. They are also welcomed into the family home, a genial mother and her meals, and an attractive daughter, Jean Parker, and a young man who is in love with her.
Clearly, there are the ingredients for some drama pieces. Richard Arlen, claiming to be a Smith from Tennessee, is actually a man who graduated from the academy, has a skill with mines, but got involved with gambling and money difficulties and deserted. The authorities discover who he is. There is also a complication that he falls in love with Jean Parker and there is trouble with the young man who was to propose to her.
There are scenes of life at home, there are scenes of the men relaxing, there are scenes of action on and under the water.
There is a crisis about the mines, the discovery of a new mine and the need for somebody to dive, find the mine and describe it for the authorities. Arlen has gone on a gambling binge in order to raise money to buy an engagement ring for Jean Parker. Williams has covered for him and goes out in his stead and is killed in action.
Needless to say, Arlen who is under suspicion and restraint because of his past, volunteers to go down, gets the information, saves the other diver and, in the spirit of World War II, sacrifices his life, admitting that he had made mistakes, and dies in action.
