Details

Release year: 1959

Storyline

In 1942, Navy Lieutenant Kenneth Braden from the underwater demolition team is sent to a Japanese island to photograph secret radio codes.

Top credits

Directors

Gordon Douglas

Writers

Cast

James Garner — Lt. J.G. Kenneth M. Braden
Edmond O'Brien — Commander Paul Stevenson
Andra Martin — Sally Johnson
Alan Hale Jr. — Lt. Pat Malone

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Did you know

• This film inspired many comparisons to Destination Tokyo (1943) and, in fact, uses some underwater footage from the earlier film despite being in black and white. This production did not bother to tint the black and white footage blue, but since the underwater shots were already quite dark, it helped to slip them by 1950s audiences.

• Debut of Warren Oates.

• In the Robb White novel on which the film is based, it was Commander Stevenson (Edmond O'Brien), the submarine skipper, who refused to consider entering the lagoon to facilitate Lt. (j.g.) Braden's (James Garner) mission and was killed in the strafing by a Japanese plane while the sub was on the surface, ordering the boat to submerge while he was still alive and wounded in the water. The novel has the more sympathetic Lt. Carney, the sub's executive officer (Carleton Carpenter), take command and enter the lagoon and wait on the bottom for Braden's return. The film substitutes Stevenson's gallant death in the novel for that of Carney's, with Stevenson remaining in command and eventually entering the lagoon and wait for Braden.