Overlooked Movies -- The Frogmen

In the summer of 1951 I was 10 years old, and my aunt and grandmother took me and my sister and brother to Corpus Christi, Texas, on vacation.  We always stayed in the cheapest place available, and that meant no maid service.  Did anywhere have maid service in those days?  I don't remember, but I do remember that we didn't provide much in the way of our own maid service, either.  When we left, the floor was as sandy as the nearby beach.  Also, I left behind one of the shirts I took.  It had pictures of pistols and holsters on it, so naturally it was my favorite shirt.  I still miss that shirt.

Having digressed before I even got started, I should mention that there really is a connection to The Frogmen here.  One of the big treats for me on any vacation was going to see a movie or two.  I loved going to movies in theaters away from home, and my aunt was always ready to accommodate me.  The movie we went to see on this trip was The Frogmen.  I thought it was the greatest movie ever made, and after we left the theater, there was nothing for it but to go somewhere and find me a diving mask and some swim fins.  I was going to be a frogman for the rest of the vacation.  This was a problem because while those items weren't exactly expensive, they were expensive for us.  Especially me, as I had no money at all.  However, my aunt came through once again, and soon I was flippering through the foot-deep surf, looking at the brown, sandy bottom.  For the rest of that summer and all of the next, I was the terror of the public pool in Mexia, Texas, as I'd glide along below the surface on the lookout for enemy submarines.

Now about the movie.  Richard Widmark takes over as the commander of an Underwater Demolition Team after the death of the previous chief, who was beloved by all the men.  You can write the plot yourself from that point.  The men don't like Widmark.  Situations arise in which he acts in the correct ways but which the men, not knowing the whole story, consider cowardly.  Things continue to get worse, but then he performs heroically when a torpedo hits the ship but doesn't explode.  He performs even more heroically on a dangerous underwater mission, and the men are won over at last (I hope this doesn't spoil it for you).  

There's some solidly professional acting here from Widmark, Dana Andrews, and Gary Merrill.  Also featured in a couple of their very early movie appearances are Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter.  The underwater scenes are great, by far the best part of the movie (or they were to me in 1951) even if they weren't done by the actors.

As far as I'm concerned, this one is right up there with the best war movies ever.