Review of The Enemy Below (1957) by Art S — 30 Aug 2014

A fine, rip-snorting war movie ... yeah, I actually said "rip-snorting". A cat and mouse game between a US destroyer captained by Robert Mitchum and a U-Boat captained Curd Jürgens (or "Curt Jurgens" as he's credited here for ease of consumption).

I find it a bit hard to buy Mitchum's laid-back screen persona as a Naval officer, but he is supposed to be a civillian captain only recently enlisted, so it works here. The film gives you quite a bit of the personality of both captains, so while it's clearly on the American side, the Germans are no simple movie villains.

There's a lot of good supporting performances, particularly Theodore Bikel as the German second in command.