clmrshll-203-370035 For some reason i.e. a patronizing view that US cinema audiences would never watch a film unless it had an American star in it, several British film studios in the 50's and 60's billed American actors in the leading role of what were essentially British War Movies. These include such as 'Bridge on the River Kwai' -William Holden ', 'Sailor of the King' -Jeff Hunter '633 Squadron' – Cliff Robertson, 'Cockle shell heroes'- Jose Ferrer, The Great Escape' -McQueen, Bronson, Coburn etc. all top Billed. Most Played Canadians. Submarine X-1 does the same.It is essentially a navalised version of '633 Squadron'. The parallel is startling. A Canadian Officer leads a diverse group of heroes on a suicide mission, to Norway in both cases, to destroy a strategic target. This entails hazardous and relentless training in Northern Scotland with the new weapons, against a increasingly tighter deadline and unsympathetic top brass.The Germans do their best to stop the mission by sending respectively air raids and a commando raid to the bases concerned. The missions go ahead nevertheless with the unit adjutant getting to go on the mission at the last moment when a trained member drops out. After many tense (?)setbacks the mission is competed but only with the destruction of majority of the attacking force.Both films suffered from very poor special effects but at least 633 had footage of real Mosquito's possibly its only redeeming feature. Submarine X-1 does not have this. There is no humour or even a romantic interlude and very little tension. As stated elsewhere what tension there is, was contrived i.e. the mutinous attitude of some of the men which not developed and in the minefield sequence. It is ironic that production values were good enough to provide a realistic sub interior and authentic German Paratrooper uniforms and weaponry. Stock footage was of the correct type of aircraft, even if they would have never been able to reach their supposed targets. So I think the potential was there to make a half decent film but no one bothered.The commando raid scene was confused and filmed too dark The final mission with frogmen hopping in and out of subs like they were buses was incoherent.The Previous film depicting this true mission ' Above us the waves' with John Mills is far better.

verbusen Bad comic book war film. James Caan is supposed to be in the British (?) Navy and is a high ranking Officer at that (LOL!). The movie opens up with 4 or 5 sailors coming out of nowhere in the water all washing to shore at the same time(?). There is no lifeboat of life preservers to be seen and they all pop up out of the waves together (!). So the story is that Caan got his submarine sunk and 50 of the crew is killed, and the rest hate Caan for the mess he got them in. Then Caan is promoted (?!) and he gets the old survivors back to train them to be in midget subs. They take on the Nazi's and win the war no doubt single handed. I sped it up to a random point where I thought they'd be ready for their attack and jumped into a scene where they are piloting 3 midget subs into a minefield. The genius of Caan decides to go through the mines at the same depth of the war heads not thinking to dive deeper, also he assumes they are all contact mines and not magnetic mines, then the subs all bounce against the mines and none go off, then Caan has to get out of the sub underwater and untangle a mine stuck to his sub. I mean it's bad folks, really bad. No really I stopped watching the movie it's terrible and why James Caan was picked in a British navy war movie is anyone's guess. Maybe in 1968 it flew as plausible but I cannot comprehend the British giving a Canadian his own sub like that, I mean Canada had a Navy too (I thought). I just can't see British sailors taking orders from a guy who talks like he's from the Jersey Shore (New Jersey that is). After we have seen Caan as nothing else but an Italian American tough guy for over 40 years the only thing that may interest you is to watch this as a spoof, ala MST3K. Hey I love comic book war films and this was made by the same company that did Mosquito Squadron 633, but this is pitiful, no wonder Hulu had it to show, no one else would dare, only a free web site could. 4 of 10, it is in color so it has that going for it.

ma-logan I just saw this movie, which was interesting as I saw a documentary on the same thing earlier this year. Just to correct the previous viewer the shoulder flashes on the Commander (James Caan) show "Canada", so I assume he was an Canadian not an American. I did not hear any explanation why a Canadian was in charge during the movie, as often happens. The British did not let colonials command that much, so it would have been interesting to see why, but it most likely they used a Canadian because James Caan is an American actor and the accent is similar, and it is more likely an Canadian would be involved rather than an actual American Navel person. So they just put Canada flashes on his should and all it good.The movie itself was kind of methodical, and the special effects so-so, but overall, I found it interesting anyway being interested in this kind of fiction based on fact WWII movies.

bob the moo After being cleared for all blame for a manoeuvre that cost him his submarine and the lives of 50 men, Commander Bolton is given the command of a secret training mission based from Scotland. With a small group of men, he trains to operate several 3-man submarines that will be used to infiltrate German waters and ambush key boats within the German navy. However, men within the group blame him for the deaths and also are under a great deal of pressure with the tight training schedule.Despite being based on a true story, this film manages to be very dull with very few worthwhile features. This film is very slow and a B-movie without having any of the good qualities that B-movies can often have. The plot is simple but that is no excuse for it not actually being fun: the idea of training followed by the mission is no barrier and has been done many times to good effect (think Dirty Dozen). The problem here is that the script manages to take this premise and do practically nothing with it. The total lack of characters is a major failing – contrast it with Dirty Dozen's rogues gallery and you'll see what I mean. It is practically impossible to tell the men apart (even after the film ends) simply because they have no character to speak of.This is mostly the scripts fault – most of the time the men just stare with heavy resolve and say dialogue that sounds clichéd and basic. Men have gruff faces and stare, men stare into the sea, men stare out of the submarine periscopes etc it's typical B-movie acting but usually it isn't as totally lacking in fun as it is here. Caan is the main reason I watched this film but he has nothing to work with here. Like I said, there is not even one role in the whole support cast that was memorable enough for me to remember them long enough to write this review!Overall this film is plodding and dull. It feels like the war movie made in the 1940's and is all the worse for being made in the late 60's. It is has enough value to act as a passable bit of mindless filler if you are looking for the film equivalent of background music but really it is a very poor film. Being based on a true story it is surprising how undramatic it is and it doesn't even manage to do what the rest of the 'training/mission' genre clichés do reasonably well. A very basic film with very little to enjoy and barely worth watching.