Run Silent, Run Deep

A submarine film set in the Second World War. Commander Richardson lost his boat a year ago in a narrow strait in Japanese waters. He has been at a desk since, and the only thing on his mind is going back to that strait. He asks for a submarine again and gets one. But the boat was already promised: his executive officer Bledsoe was waiting for his own command and will now serve under someone else. Richardson drills the crew constantly. Everyone wonders why; he tells nobody his real target, and it emerges that he is going outside his orders. The tension is inside the boat: narrow passages, heat, the requirement of silence and the sound coming from the ships above. The subject at the centre is command: what the second officer should do when an officer's personal account puts the whole crew at risk. Clark Gable plays Richardson and Burt Lancaster plays Bledsoe. Jack Warden is in the cast. Robert Wise directed. The submarine scenes were built with models and studio work; the sequences of being tracked by sonar set the measure for later examples of the genre. A solid production for anyone who likes war films and tension in confined space. For a viewer expecting dense action, the film is built on waiting rather than combat.