goldfussmikey This movie is pretty awful! The only thing bringing me back to watch it is the chemistry between Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy Davis. Seeing them both onscreen together makes me smile, and the chemistry they had together makes me smile even more. The simple onscreen time together reflects the intimacy of their relationship that guided them to the white house.Besides that, the acting, story, editing, and characters are tough to handle.

ourilk I have watched this film more than once and like it better each time. If Ronald and Nancy Reagan in leading roles are not enough, it has Admiral Chester A. Nimitz, Commander in Chief, Pacific, during World War II, in a speaking role. And it is not just a bunch of flag waving (except in the best sense, of course). It addresses the burdens of command and making difficult decisions unemotionally on the basis of good judgment. Reagan is a submarine commander who has to dive fast, leaving a crew member overboard, because a Japanese destroyer is bearing down on them. His exec and some of the crew despise him for what looks like cowardice. The captain tells his exec exactly how and why he made the decision, but the exec is unconvinced. The exec demands and gets a Navy board hearing, which confirms the decision. It is a remarkable film if only for seeing a president and first lady in romantic film roles discussing marriage. He declines marrying, telling her, "I want a wife and children not a widow and orphans." Stern stuff there. Then when the "hellcats" (submarines dispatched to cut off shipping across the Sea of Japan) are ready to go Admiral Nimitz gives their captains a preparatory speech on camera. I found watching the film in this and other ways exceptional and not your standard Hollywood war rattler. The story wraps up with the exec having to make the same decision Reagan made in the earlier scene. Movies used to have braver messages than today, but that figures.

tieman64 Notable for starring a young Ronald Reagan, "Hellcats of the Navy" (1957) is a barely competent submarine thriller by director Nathan Juran.The plot? Reagan plays Commander Casey Abbot, a submarine commander who locks horns with his executive officer, Lt Commander Landon. Landon feels Abbot is negligent and too often risks the lives of crewmen, Abbot feels Landon isn't ready to make the tough decisions necessary of all submarine commanders. As is typical of such war films, "Hellcats" climaxes with deference to the White Man's Burden. Military men make harsh, often life-taking decisions, we're told, both only so you don't have to and so others may live. Similar false-binaries would get Reagan the US Presiency some years later.At its best, "Hellcats" offers a glimpse of early 20th century ports, harbours, bulwarks and military vessels. Compared to better maritime thrillers of the era ("Enemy Below", "Run Silent, Run Deep", "Destination Tokyo", "On the Beach", "The Cruel Sea", "Sink the Bismark"), it's mostly inept. The film was based on a non-fiction book by US Vice Admiral Charles Lockwood.4/10 – Worth no viewings.

bkoganbing Most of the comments about this very ordinary war film concerns the fact that it is the only film that co-starred Ronald and Nancy Reagan. Both of them did better work in Hollywood.The real story is that Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, CINCPAC Pacific Theatre in World War II chose to make a personal appearance in this film about submarines. That's like having Eisenhower or MacArthur make a personal appearance in an army war film. Unheard of.Nimitz's background was in submarines and our submarine fleet may very well have been the tipping factor in the Pacific War. We did to Japan what the Nazis tried to do to Great Britain, cut off their raw material and food. Nimitz was no hypocrite however. He admitted as much during the Nuremberg trials and that fact saved the Nazi U-Boat commander Karl Doenitz from the hangman for war crimes.All the clichés about submarine warfare in the pre-atomic era are present in this film. It's a B Picture made just as B Pictures were being phased out of existence. The cast is competent enough, but it's all been done before.I think the real story is why did Admiral Nimitz choose this submarine film to make an appearance in.