“Crash
Dive” is a mid-WWII sub movie directed by Archie Mayo (his only war
movie). It starred Tyrone Power who had
enlisted in the Marine Corps. His trip
to boot camp was delayed so he could finish the film. He did not make another movie until
1946. The sacrifices women had to make
for the war effort! Power would
eventually retire as a Major in the Marine Corps Reserve. The movie had the full cooperation of the
Pentagon which hoped for a recruiting boost from it. Mayo was allowed to film at New London
Submarine Base, but no newer subs were allowed to appear on film. The film was made in technicolor, which
indicates its importance as far as the studio was concerned.
The
movie raises a red flag immediately when it plops a PT boat in the middle of
the Atlantic. Lt. Stuart (Power) picks
up survivors of a u-boat sinking, spots the u-boat, and sinks it with depth
charges. None of those things happened
in the Atlantic during the entire war.
Stuart is a huge fan of PT boats.
If he could, he would marry one.
However, his admiral uncle persuades him (for the good of recruitment)
to join the silent service. He is sent
to New London, Connecticut and assigned exec to Lt. Commander Dewey Connors
(Dana Andrews). While on leave he puts
the moves on a teacher named Jean (Anne Baxter) who is taking some girls on a
field trip to Washington. At first, Jean
is turned off by the wolfish Stuart, but he persists in a predatory way. He is so successful that the school marm goes
out on the town with him, leaving the girls alone in a hotel room. Then she guiltily rushes home, thus ending
the girls’ trip early. Did I mention she
is engaged to Connors? That’s right,
she’s a slutty school teacher. Stuart
may be a sexual predator, but at least he does not know that Jean is engaged to
his CO.
The
USS Corsair (with black mess mate on board) goes on patrol in the
Atlantic. Apparently it is the entire
Atlantic sub fleet as every other boat should be in the Pacific. They encounter a Swedish freighter, but it
opens fire. It’s a Q-ship! Those dastardly Nazis. Luckily, the Q-ship is a terrible shot and
cannot hit a stationary sub before it crash dives. Instead of putting a torpedo in the helpless
ship, Connors hides on the bottom. He
uses the classic expelling debris trickery to escape. He and Stuart bond through the depth charge experience. They are best friends when they return to
base for a binge of fruits, vegetables, and milk! This all becomes awkward when they found out
that they have something in common – Jean.
She’s in love with Stuart by now, for plot purposes. The command dysfunction cliché kicks in just
in time for their special mission to destroy the Q-ship base. If you think the love triangle is ridiculous,
wait for one of the most ludicrous commando raids in sub movie history. Try to stick around for Stuart’s paean to
every type of ship in the US Navy. Young
men, I may love PT-boats and submarines, but there are other options. Buy war bonds!
“Crash
Dive” is a propaganda and patriotic soufflé.
It is very fluffy and looks good in its glorious technicolor, but it is
not very filling. In fact, the
technicolor is the only thing that stands out.
Everything else is second-rate. The
script could hardly have been worse. It
attaches the dusty love triangle to unbelievable sub action. It does reinvent the love triangle a bit by
having the female be the weak leg and having all three legs intact at the
end. I do not think the screenwriters
(and most of the audience) bothered to consider that Jean betrays Connors for a
man that manipulated her and she falls in love with that guy. But he’s Tyrone Power, so it’s okay. Even Connors accepts that fact. With the love triangle sucking the air out of
the movie, there is no room for depiction of sailor life. The film does develop an interesting
relationship between the black steward and the crusty Chief. And it gives the steward some action. This for a 1943 movie. Kudos!
The acting is not a detriment.
Power, Baxter, and Andrews are solid, although Power is forced to give
that gag-inducing speech at the end.
“Crash
Dive” is in the “one Oscar club” of sub movies along with “The Enemy Below”,
“Torpedo Run”, “U-571”, and “Hunt for Red October”. In this case the award was for Best Visual
Effects and maybe they were awesome in 1943, but they are underawesome
today. The Q-ship base set is
particularly fake-looking. And the raid
on that base is so full of pyrotechnics and expenditure of ammo that you would
swear you were watching a John Woo film.
A bad John Woo film. The fire and
explosions build to one of the most laughable scenes in sub movie history as
Connors pilots the semi-submerged sub past a shore battery. Try not to chortle. And try not to believe that anything in the
movie is historically accurate. The
movie insults my intelligence. Why place
PT-boats and subs in the Atlantic? I can
understand putting the smoochy stuff in New London, but all oceans look alike
so why isn’t the Corsair in the Pacific with its brethren? The Germans had Q-ships, but so did the
Japanese and the idea of an island base in the Atlantic is crazy. I can only assume the studio felt the public
wanted roasted Nazis more than dead Japs in 1943.
Thanks for the review. I will keep my eye out for this movie.
ReplyDeleteIf the movie came out in 1943 it is likely that the script was written in 1942 or even 1941, when all of the submarine news involved the Atlantic. It must have been a natural move to suppose that American submarines would also be mostly working in that theater.
The Q-ship island base" on the other hand, sounds as ludicrous to me as it does to you, and would have been ridiculous to even partially informed people at the time. I wonder if British audiences watching this film had second thoughts about America entering the war as their ally.