The Enemy Below

An American destroyer picks up the trail of a German submarine in the South Atlantic. Neither commander can see the other or knows his name. What follows is a game of calculation: one reads the sonar, the other silences the engines; one drops depth charges, the other changes course. Each is trying to predict what the other will do. Dick Powell directs, in one of the films he made behind the camera after his career as an actor. Robert Mitchum plays the American captain and Curt Jürgens the German commander. Its distinguishing feature is giving equal room to both sides. The German commander is drawn not as a Nazi but as a professional sailor who does not believe in the war, and his crew is treated with the same care. In 1957, twelve years after the war ended, the choice drew attention. Its structure was reused many times afterwards. The template of two commanders duelling without seeing each other recurred well outside submarine films; an episode of Star Trek transposes this plot directly into space. It won the Oscar for special effects. Who it is for: viewers who like war thrillers and submarine films. Who it is not for: there are no women in it, the story runs entirely on tactics, and the reconciliation at the end is too optimistic for some.