''Submarine Command'' is a 1951 American

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...

directed by

John Farrow John Villiers Farrow, KGCHS (10 February 190427 January 1963) was an Australian film director, producer, and screenwriter. Spending a considerable amount of his career in the United States, in 1942 he was nominated for the Academy Award for B ...

and starring

William Holden William Holden (born William Franklin Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 – November 12, 1981) was an American actor, and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film ''Stalag 17'' (1953) ...

, Don Taylor, Nancy Olson,

William Bendix William Bendix (January 14, 1906 – December 14, 1964) was an American film, radio, and television actor, who typically played rough, blue-collar characters. He is best remembered for his role in ''Wake Island'', which earned him an Academy ...

, and

Darryl Hickman Darryl Gerard Hickman (born July 28, 1931) is an American former actor, screenwriter, television executive, and acting coach. He started his career as a child actor in the Golden Age of Hollywood and appeared in numerous TV serials as an adult. ...

. It is notable for being one of the first films to touch on post traumatic stress disorder. Holden invested $20,000 of his own money into the film. The film received a mixed reception: it was panned by some critics for its brooding melodrama whilst being praised by others.

Plot

During the Pacific War, Lieutenant Commander Ken White orders the submarine USS ''Tiger Shark'' to

crash dive A crash dive is a maneuver by a submarine in which the vessel submerges as quickly as possible to avoid attack. Crash diving from the surface to avoid attack has been largely rendered obsolete with the advent of nuclear-powered submarines, as they ...

to evade a Japanese aerial attack. Crewman Boyer begs him to wait for the captain, Commander Josh Rice, still topside, but White refuses, and Rice (his good friend) and the quartermaster are lost. When they resurface shortly afterward, they learn that the war is over. No one other than Boyer, not even the captain's widow and father, blames him. White marries Carol and remains in the Navy after the war. Everything is fine, until one day he is assigned to show a reporter around who is doing a story about the Navy's mothball fleet. By chance, the submarine that catches the journalist's attention is the ''Tiger Shark''. The newsman remembers the tragic story of the last day of the war and mentions that the officer who ordered the dive "must feel like a heel", and White's feelings of guilt resurface, straining his marriage. Then Boyer is assigned to his unit. When Boyer sees White, he immediately requests a transfer. As it happens, the ''Tiger Shark'' is being recommissioned, so White sends him there. A fire breaks out on the submarine, trapping a man in a compartment. Boyer wants to charge in to his rescue, but White makes him go "by the book" and put on a protective suit first, fueling Boyer's hatred. White is about to resign from the Navy to escape the ghosts of his past, but changes his mind at the last moment. As a result, Carol decides to leave him.

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

invades

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

the same day, starting the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

. White is given command of the ''Tiger Shark''. He sets sail from the Mare Island Naval Shipyard for the war as soon as the submarine is ready. Boyer is a disgruntled member of the crew. When they rendezvous with an aircraft carrier, White is given a special mission. A colonel and his special intelligence unit are in possession of vital information, but are prisoners of war. A rescue mission is being mounted; White's job is to land men at two points to knock out enemy coastal installations in advance of a paratrooper airborne assault on the prison camp. White's part of the raid is led by Commander Peter Morris, a family friend. However, after dropping off Morris's unit first, one of the ''Tiger Shark'' engines begins overheating, endangering the timing of the second landing. To make up lost time, White makes the risky decision to enter the mined harbor. Once he sees the signal that the mission has been successful, he surfaces in order to notify his admiral, even though that exposes the submarine to fire from shore batteries. When the ''Tiger Shark'' is hit and starts sinking, White orders the crew to abandon ship. He and his men are picked up along with the freed prisoners. His demons finally exorcised, he later attends the launching of another ''Tiger Shark'' with his wife, their baby and Boyer.

Cast

as Cmdr. Ken White * Nancy Olson as Carol *

as CPO Boyer * Don Taylor as Lt. Cmdr. Peter Morris * Arthur Franz as Lt. Arnie Carlson *

as Ens. Jack Wheelwright * Peggy Webber as Mrs. Alice Rice *

Moroni Olsen Moroni Olsen (June 27, 1889November 22, 1954) was an American actor. Life and career Olsen was born in Ogden, Utah to Latter-day Saint parents Edward Arenholt Olsen and Martha ( Hoverholst) Olsen, who named him after the Moroni found in the ...

as Rear Adm. Joshua Rice * Jack Gregson as Cmdr. Joshua Rice * Jack Kelly as Lt. Paul Barton * Don Dunning as Quartermaster Perkins *

Jerry Paris William Gerald Paris (July 25, 1925 – March 31, 1986) was an American actor and director best known for playing Jerry Helper, the dentist and next-door neighbor of Rob and Laura Petrie, on ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'', and for directing the majo ...

as Sgt. Gentry * Charles Meredith as Adm. Tobias *

Philip Van Zandt Philip Van Zandt (October 4, 1904 – February 15, 1958), sometimes billed as Phil Van Zandt, was a Dutch-American actor of stage, film, and television. He made nearly 250 film and television appearances between 1939 and 1958. Life and career ...

as Gavin * Gordon Polk as Ralph

Production

No ship of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

has ever borne the name USS ''

Tiger Shark The tiger shark (''Galeocerdo cuvier'') is a species of requiem shark and the last extant member of the family Galeocerdonidae. It is a large macropredator, capable of attaining a length over . Populations are found in many tropical and tempera ...

'' or ''Tigershark'', but the name is popular for fictional submarines (and real submarines have been named USS ''

Shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachi ...

''). The fictional ''Tiger Shark'' in the film has the hull number SS-306, which belonged to (lost in 1944). , a ''Balao''-class submarine, was the stand-in for ''Tiger Shark''. The loss of a commanding officer on the bridge of a submarine was similar to the death of Commander Howard W. Gilmore on during the war.

Radio adaptation

''Submarine Command'' was presented on ''

Lux Radio Theatre ''Lux Radio Theatre'', sometimes spelled ''Lux Radio Theater'', a classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network (1934–35) (owned by the National Broadcasting Company, later predecessor of American Broadcasting Company ...

'' November 17, 1952. The one-hour adaptation starred Holden and Alexis Smith.

Comic book adaptation

* Eastern Color Movie Love #12 (December 1951)

References

External links

* * * * * {{John Farrow 1951 films 1951 war films American black-and-white films Films directed by John Farrow Films scored by David Buttolph Films set in the San Francisco Bay Area Korean War films World War II submarine films Paramount Pictures films Films adapted into comics American war films 1950s English-language films Pacific War films 1950s American films