Movies : Action : DVD Rip : English
January 15, 1951
THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; 'Operation Disaster,' About a Sunken British Submarine, Arrives of the Criterion
By BOSLEY CROWTHER
Published: January 15, 1951
That good old English tradition of the stiff upper-lip comes through with dignity and conviction in a taut British submarine film, "Operation Disaster," which arrived at the Criterion on Saturday. And with John Mills heading the muster of men of the Royal Navy who face death at a depth of fifteen fathoms in a sunken undersea boat, you may be sure that a model of courage is heroically set in this film and that man in his helplessness and pathos is effectingly demonstrated here.
To be sure, there is nothing original about the situation contrived. Dramas set in sunken undersea boats have been staged and screened for years. And Kenneth Woollard, who wrote the London stage play, "Morning Departure," on which the film is based, apparently worked on the assumption that there was no new change that he could ring.
Thus you can presuppose what happens. A British submarine puts out to sea on a routine peacetime operation off the British coast. Shortly after submerging, she contacts an old floating mine—one of those electrically activated devils—and her bow and stern compartments are blasted wide. With twelve men alive amid-ship, in watertight compartments, she sinks. And then begins the drama, of waiting for rescue and of testing the men.
On the bare bones of this old setup, however, a tense and tingling drama has been draped, thanks to a trimly written screen play, good direction and good performances all around. The sheer melodrama of anxiety, of releasing eight men from the hull by means of rescue devices after drawing lots to see which men should go, of frantic operations on the surface to raise the sunken ship, with four men remaining in her—all these are absorbingly displayed. Except for some minor suspicions that some technical wool is pulled over our eyes, we would say that this has the appearance and the ring of a documentary film.
And so are the human emotions inspired by such crisis revealed in a sure and authoritative fashion by members of the cast. Mr. Mills is quiet and resolute as the commander (remember him as a cocky rating in Noel Coward's "In Which We Serve"?); Richard Attenborough is tense as a young sailor who goes mad with claustrophobia and then quiets down. Nigel Patrick makes a fine subordinate officer with a cynical attitude toward life and James Hayter, Andrew Crawford and Michael Brennan are superior in other roles.
It would not be fair to tell you how this drama ends, but it does so with gratifying candor and that stiff upper-lip in firm control.
OPERATION DISASTER, screen play by W. E. C. Fairchild, based on the stage play. "Morning Departure," by Kenneth Woollard; directed by Roy Baker; produced by Jay Lewis for J. Arthur Rank and released by Universal-International. At the Criterion.
Lieut. Comdr. Armstrong . . . . . John Mills
Helen . . . . . Helen Cherry
Stoker Snipe . . . . . Richard Attenborough
Rose Snipe . . . . . Lana Morris
Lieut. Harry Manson . . . . . Nigel Patrick
Warrant Officer McFee . . . . . Andrew Crawford
C. P. O. Barlow . . . . . Michael Brennan
A. B. Higgins . . . . . James Hayter
A. B. Nobby Clark . . . . . Wylie Watson
L/Sea. Kelly . . . . . Jack Stuart
L/Sea. Andrews . . . . . Roddy McMillan
L/Sea. Brough . . . . . Frank Coburn
Sub/Lieut. Oakley . . . . . Peter Hammond (Navigating Officer)
L/Tlg. Hillbrook . . . . . Victor Madden
E. R. A. Marks . . . . . George Cole
Comdr. Gates . . . . . Bernard Lee
If the claustrophobia gets a bit too much for you, you might like to speculate upon the fact that this was originally a stage play.
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