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Torpedo Run
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Wikipedia article
'Torpedo Run' is a 1958 American war film directed by Joseph Pevney and starring Glenn Ford as a World War II submarine commander in the Pacific who is obsessed with sinking a particular Japanese aircraft carrier. The film's working title was 'Hell Below'. It was filmed in CinemaScope and Metrocolor.
A. Arnold Gillespie and Harold Humbrock were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
Plot
In October 1942, ten months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, ComSubPac directs the American submarine 'Greyfish', under Lieutenant Commander Barney Doyle (Glenn Ford), to the convoy containing the 'Shinaru', one of the Japanese aircraft carriers that led the attack. Doyle also receives word that the target's escort includes a transport ship, 'Yoshida Maru', carrying all the American prisoners from the camp in the Philippines where his wife and child were being held. (Flashbacks show that Jane refused to leave Manila.)
Doyle's second in command, Lieutenant Archer Sloan (Ernest Borgnine) first tries to talk his friend into letting him handle the torpedo run, sparing Doyle from being directly responsible for his family's death. In the end, the transport is so close to the carrier that Sloan begs Doyle to abort the attack. Doyle proceeds, hoping to time the shots to miss the 'Yoshida Maru' and hit their target. Carefully counting the seconds, they realize that one of their torpedoes has hit the transport. Hoping to lure the sub to the surface, the Japanese make no attempt to rescue the survivors. Through the periscope, Doyle can see women and children grasping for pieces of floating wreckage. He is forced to leave the prisoners to die.
Doyle follows the 'Shinaru' into Tokyo Bay itself and tries again to sink his nemesis, but he fails. After a relentless bombardment of depth-charges from a Japanese destroyer, he escapes by making it look as if the sub has been destroyed by a mine. The 'Greyfish' heads for Pearl Harbor, and Doyle goes to his cabin and sleeps, fitfully, for three days. At Pearl, Sloan meets with Admiral Setton (Philip Ober), who tells him he has been promoted to Lieutenant Commander; a sub of his own is waiting. Sloan asks about Doyles future, and when the Admiral asks what happened after Tokyo Bay, Sloan tells the truth. The Admiral accepts Sloan's assessment that Doyle is fit and agrees to give him one more trip to get the Shinaru. The Admiral has only a long-shot hunch about where the 'Shinaru' will be, and when the Greyfish and another sub, the Bluefin, are assigned to a quiet, out-of-the-way patrol area off the Alaskan coast, Doyle (now a Commander) thinks he has been betrayed by both the Admiral and Sloan.
Then word comes that the 'Shinaru' is heading for Kiska Harbor (occupied by Japan from June 1942 to July 1943). Nearing the harbor, Sloan recommends diving the boat; Doyle rejects the idea. A broad band of sonar blips appears, and Sloan realizes that it may be the log-and-chain boom reported by intelligence. The Bluefin dives, but Doyle delays for another confirmation, and when the Greyfish dives, it is too late. The conning tower is dragged under the log boom. Both periscopes are disabled and the radar antenna is carried away. Doyle's left arm is broken, but he refuses morphine. It wouldn't help my shooting. He plans to make a sound attack, a long shot with a one in eight chance of success. When it is time to push the buttons, he tells Sloan to do it. After the six torpedoes are away, the 'Shinaru'
Cast
* Glenn Ford as Lieutenant Commander/Commander Barney Doyle
* Diane Brewster as Jane Doyle
* Ernest Borgnine as Lieutenant/Lieutenant Commander Archer 'Archie' Sloan
* Philip Ober as Vice Admiral Samuel Setton
* Richard Carlyle as Commander Don Adams
* Dean Jones as Lieutenant Jake 'Fuzz' Foley
* Robert Hardy as Lieutenant Redley (R.N.)
* Paul Picerni as Lieutenant Burt Fisher
* Don Keefer as Ensign Ron Milligan
* L. Q. Jones as 'Hash' Benson
* Fredd Wayne as Orville 'Goldy' Goldstein
Reception
Bosley Crowther of 'The New York Times' was unimpressed, writing, "Stereotypes of pig-boat [submarine] fighting that were stale in 'Destination Tokyo' are played and replayed in this picture as if they were freshly inspired. ... it is also played in a highly hackneyed fashion and often faked with preposterous miniatures."
According to MGM records, the film made $1,145,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $1,435,000 elsewhere, resulting in a loss of $195,000.
Home media
The film has been released on VHS and DVD, the latter in Warner's Archive Collection.
See also
* List of American films of 1958
References
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