Laikals
The greatest movie ever made..!
Chirphymium
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Spikeopath
Crash Dive is directed by Archie Mayo and written by Jo Swerling and W.R. Burnett. It stars Tyrone Power, Dana Andrews, Anne Baxter, James Gleason, May Witty and Harry Morgan. A Technicolor production out of 20th Century Fox, music is by David Buttolph and cinematography by Leon Shamroy.It's flag waving time, 1943 style as Power and Andrews vie for the love of Baxter whilst conducting a submarine offencive against the Nazis. The love triangle feels twee but Mayo manages to keep it in check and not let it bog this particular sub movie down. When the pic is out on the water it's grand entertainment, nicely filmed and featuring Oscar winning effects work. Momentum is gradually built until the finale comes and delivers an action packed bonanza. Hooray! 7/10
rob-du
This is one of very few films shot partly at the submarine base in Groton, CT, aka Submarine Base New London, CT.A few naval combatants rarely seen in Technicolor are visible in the early part of the film. The PT boats seen near the beginning are the 77-foot Elco type. The submarine primarily featured as the fictional USS Corsair is the experimental USS Marlin (SS-205), with a conning tower modified to resemble her sister USS Mackerel (SS-204). A few O-class and R-class submarines, built in World War One and used for training in WW2, are visible in the background of some shots. For wartime security reasons, no submarine classes used in combat in WW2 appear in the film. The USS Semmes (AG-24 ex-DD-189) is seen in one shot; there are probably not many good Technicolor views of a four-stack destroyer available today. The Semmes was being used as a sonar testbed at the time.I personally did not like how the love story progressed, as Tyrone Power is consistently deceptive and gets the girl anyway.Another reviewer has assumed that the Nazi base would have to be near New England on the basis that WW2 submarines had a short range. This is incorrect. US submarines in WW2 routinely went from Pearl Harbor to Japan's home waters, patrolled for several weeks, and returned to Pearl Harbor on a single tank of diesel fuel. A Gato-class submarine could cover 11,000 miles without refueling, thus could have patrolled in German home waters while based in Groton if necessary. My assumption is that the Nazi base would be in Greenland, not likely given the realities of the war, but the raid on it still makes for good action.
mikeolliffe
The quality of the print I saw was superb. It could have been made yesterday - instead of DURING the war - in Technicolor!In the initial romance scenes, I think Miss Baxter would have had the smitten man locked up - if he hadn't been played by Tyrone Power. His charm somewhat overcomes the creepy aspects of the portrayal.The romantic episodes in any event didn't merge all that well with the rest of the movie. Despite what others have written, the black character did undergo verbal abuse, yet still followed the white guy around like a lap-dog. (Although the white guy's abusive attitude is explained later in the film).But you do get to see Washington DC in the early 40s and some spectacular action set-pieces.
blanche-2
Fantastic special effects highlight this World War II submarine drama starring Tyrone Power, Dana Andrews, and Anne Baxter - Power's last before going into the Marines.Power is charming as a man who captures the heart of Anne Baxter, who though he doesn't know it, just happens to be the girl of Dana Andrews, Power's new commanding officer.Out on the submarine, there's some exciting action as the sub searches for a secret base set up by the Nazis. One interesting subplot is the friendship of Oliver, a black soldier, with Mac, portrayed by James Gleason. Ben Carter, who played Oliver, does a great job, and his role as a concerned friend and brave soldier is not the usual stereotypical one blacks were often forced to play. The ending, of course, is pure propaganda as Power, supposedly talking to his uncle, talks about the fighting men, subs, PT boats, and the like all doing their job. I'm in no way trying to denigrate it - propaganda is a fascinating part of film history and at that time was deemed important to the war movement. It's all very interesting to view today. And Power is gorgeous.
