"Hell and High Water"

[dcushing]

Amazon.com is taking preorders for the DVD release of this fairly decent submarine movie staring Richard Widmark. I believe it was made back in the fifties.

Duncan

[Kpt. Kozloff]

I'll give it a bash if you recommend it...:up:

[Sailor Steve]

Cool! I'll look it up, too.

[Bill Nichols]

Plot summary for
Hell and High Water (1954)


A privately-financed scientist and his colleagues hire an ex-Navy officer (Widmark) to conduct an Alaskan submarine expedition in order to prevent a Red Chinese anti-American plot that may lead to World War III. Mixes deviously plotted schoolboy fiction with submarine spectacle and cold war heroics.

Hell and High Water brings an intriguing Cold War slant to a standard submarine melodrama. Richard Widmark plays a soldier-of-fortune sub commander who agrees to sell his services to noted atomic scientist Victor Francen and his assistant (and daughter) Bella Darvi. Francen (http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/filmography.html?p_id=24643) intends to prove that the Communists intend to launch a nuclear attack on Korea from an Arctic island, then blame the attack on the United States. Widmark frankly doesn't give a fig about politics, but he is won over by the sincerity of Francen (http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/filmography.html?p_id=24643) and his idealistic cohorts, and by the beauty of Ms. Darvi. Before the Reds' evil intentions can be thwarted, however, Widmark must face down a Communist Chinese submarine loaded with highly volatile atomic weaponry. The special effects are very impressive, especially for a mid-1950s 20th Century-Fox production.

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In this exciting adventure tale about an attempt to stop communist atomic plans in the north Pacific, a famed French atomic scientist (Victor Francen) and his assistant-daughter (Bella Darvi), organize a group of international scientists and military men, and rent a submarine and its soldier-of-fortune American commander (Richard Widmark). The scientist intends to prove his theory that the Communists are planning an attack, and they trail a freighter to an Arctic island where they observe it delivering charges for an atomic bomb, to be dropped on Korea and blamed on the United States. Widmark doesn’t have an interest in politics, but he is won over by the sincerity of Francen and the beauty of his daughter, Darvi! Before the Reds can carry out their evil intentions, the submarine load of idealists see that it is the island itself which is atomically blown up, creating a marvelous opportunity for the studio’s special effects department.