The Enemy Below
| The Enemy Below | |
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 Movie Poster |
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| Directed by | Dick Powell |
| Produced by | Dick Powell |
| Written by | Wendell Mayes Denys Rayner (novel) |
| Starring | Robert Mitchum Curt Jürgens Theodore Bikel David Hedison |
| Music by | Leigh Harline |
| Cinematography | Harold Rosson |
| Editing by | Stuart Gilmore |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | December 25, 1957 (NYC premiere) |
| Running time | 98 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Enemy Below is a 1957 war film which tells the story of the battle between the captain of an American destroyer escort and the commander of a German U-boat during World War II. It stars Robert Mitchum, Curt Jürgens, David Hedison and Theodore Bikel. The movie was directed and produced by Dick Powell. The film was based on a novel by Denys Rayner, a British naval officer involved in anti-submarine warfare throughout the Second Battle of the Atlantic.
Walter Rossi received the 1958 Academy Award for best special effects.
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[edit] Plot
The movie revolves around a battle between an American Buckley-class destroyer escort, the USS Haynes (DE-181), and a German U-boat that is attempting to rendezvous with a German merchant raider in the South Atlantic Ocean. Captain Murrell (Robert Mitchum), a former officer in the merchant marine and now an active duty Lieutenant Commander in the Naval Reserve, has recently taken command of the Haynes, even though he is still weak from having survived the sinking of his previous ship. Before the U-boat is first detected, a loud mouthed sailor, dumping garbage, questions the new captain's fitness and ability, calling him a 'feather merchant'. However, as the battle begins, Murrell shows himself to be a match for wily U-boat Kapitän von Stolberg (Curt Jürgens) in a prolonged, deadly battle of wits that tests both men and their crews. Each man grows to respect his opponent.
In the end, von Stolberg succeeds in torpedoing the destroyer. However, Murrell has one last trick up his sleeve. Ordering his men to abandon ship, he tells them to first set fires on the deck to make the ship look more damaged than it actually is. This, he hopes will cause the U-boat's captain to surface and sink the destroyer with the U-boat's deck gun instead of using another valuable torpedo. His ploy works, and when von Stolberg surfaces to finish off the Haynes, Murrell orders his gunners to disable the submarine and destroy its deck gun. Ordering the skeleton crew manning the engine room to set the engines at full speed and abandon ship, he then turns the sinking Haynes towards the U-boat. Von Stolberg orders his crew to set the sub's detonators and abandon ship. The Haynes rams the U-boat almost cutting it in two, ensuring that the submarine would not escape.
Murrell, the last man aboard his ship, is about to abandon ship when he notices the German captain (von Stolberg) on the conning tower of the U-boat with the submarine's wounded executive officer (Korvettenkapitän Heini Scwaffer). Respectfully, Von Stolberg salutes Murrell, who returns the salute. Murrell then tosses a rope to the submarine and pulls each man on board, he then says they should abandon ship, leaving the dying "Heini" Schwaffer (Theodore Bikel), but von Stolberg refuses to leave his dying friend. At that point members of both crews scramble on board, helping the three men into a lifeboat. They manage to clear the tangled wrecks just before the sub explodes. The film ends as the German survivors, now on another American destroyer, consign Schwaffer's body to the deep, as the American crew watches respectfully.
[edit] Cast
- Robert Mitchum as Captain Murrell
- Curt Jürgens as Kapitän von Stolberg. Jürgens was imprisoned by order of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels during World War II.
- Theodore Bikel as Korvettenkapitän 'Heinie' Schwaffer, von Stolberg's second in command. Bikel is an immigrant Austrian Jew who was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1924. He and his family fled to America by way of Palestine in 1937.
- Al Hedison as Lieutenant Ware, the executive officer of the Haynes
- Russell Collins as Doctor, USS Haynes
- Kurt Kreuger as Von Holem
- Frank Albertson as Lieutenant, Junior Grade Crain, USS Haynes
- Biff Elliot as Quartermaster, USS Haynes
- Doug McClure, in his film debut, as Ensign Merry, USS Haynes
- Clint Eastwood, as Seaman (uncredited)
[edit] Production
The destroyer escort USS Haynes was portrayed by USS Whitehurst (DE-634), filmed in the Pacific Ocean near Oahu, Hawaii. Many of the Whitehurst's crewmen acted in the film: The phone talkers, the gun and depth charge crews, the sailor fishing, and all of the men seen abandoning ship, were Whitehurst sailors. The ship's commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Walter Smith, played the engineering officer. He is the man seen reading comics (Little Orphan Annie) during the lull before the action.
[edit] Comparisons with real life
The original DE-181 was the USS Straub (DE-181), a Cannon class destroyer escort. She did serve off the coast of Trinidad, but after the battle with a German U-boat. The Straub also recovered a U-boat crew, but the submarine was sunk by aircraft in 1944 off the coast of Recife, Brazil.[1]
The U-boat in the film is very unrealistic in its size. It has passageways and side rooms, with the captain having a private stateroom off the control center. No World War II U-boat had staterooms and the captain's bunk was little more than a shelf across a small passage from the radio room, which was itself merely a small closet. Even the final U-boat class of the war, the Type XXI, was cramped and allowed for only very close quarters.
Fresh water was also extremely limited, and the crew is also much neater and cleaner than a real crew would have been. (For a more realistic portrayal of life aboard a U-boat, see Das Boot).
The turntable the record was played on was an American turntable not made until after the war.
The movie plot resembles the ramming and sinking of U-405 by the destroyer USS Borie (DD-215). The Borie was too badly damaged to salvage and was sunk the next day. The Royal Navy had more success with U-574 rammed by HMS Stork on 19 December 1941 and HMS Fame ramming U-353 on 16 October 1942 & U-69 on 17 February 1943 also in December 1942, convoy HX 219 came under attack and HMS Hesperus counter-attacked and destroyed U-357 by ramming it.
[edit] Music
The tune sung by the U-boat crew on the ocean floor between depth charge attacks is from an 18th century march called "Der Dessauer Marsch". As a more popular song, it's also known by the first line of lyrics as "So leben wir" ("That's how we live").
[edit] "Remakes"
- The 1966 Star Trek episode "Balance of Terror" is closely based on this film, with the USS Enterprise cast as the destroyer and the Romulan vessel as the U-boat.[2]
- The Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episode "Killers of the Deep" was not only based on this movie, it also re-used substantial amounts of footage from it. Also David Hedison (then Al Hedison) who played Lieutenant Ware, the executive officer of the Haynes, played Commander Lee Crane.
[edit] In popular culture
At the beginning of the movie Crimson Tide (Tony Scott, 1995), the crew of the USS Alabama goes on board and talks about submarine movies, quoting The Enemy Below.
[edit] References
- ^ US Naval History: USS Straub
- ^ Asherman, Allan (1993). The Star Trek Compendium. New York: Pocket Books. p. 40. ISBN 0-671-79612-7.
- Rayner, D.A., The Enemy Below, London: Collins 1956
[edit] External links
- The Enemy Below at the Internet Movie Database
- The Enemy Below at AllRovi
- The Enemy Below at the TCM Movie Database
- DVD review at dvdtalk.com
- DVD review at dvdcult.com
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