Run Silent, Run Deep **** (1958, Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster, Jack Warden, Brad Dexter, Nick Cravat) – Classic Movie Review 4930

Director Robert Wise’s 1958 wartime action adventure Run Silent, Run Deep is one of the great submarine movies, with two great movie stars, Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster, both on their best form.

Sparks fly when gruff, dogged, resolute US sub commander Rich Richardson (Gable) and ambitious lieutenant Jim Bledsoe (Lancaster) clash aboard a submarine in the Pacific during World War Two while they are pursuing a Japanese destroyer that sank Gable’s last command. Wise’s suspenseful movie is high on dramatic tension and authenticity, but low on action and comic relief, though that actually proves a relief.

The teaming of the different styled and different generation star actors Gable and Lancaster works a treat and the documentary-type observation fascinates.

John Gay’s screenplay is based on Commander Edward L Beach’s novel.

Also in the cast are Jack Warden, Brad Dexter, Nick Cravat, Joe Maross, H M Wynant, Dick Rickles, Eddie Foy Jr, Mary LaRoche, Rudy Bond, Jimmy Bates, John Bryant, Skip Ward, Ken Lynch, John Gibson, Joel Fluellen and Wayne Dahmer. Don Rickles makes his film debut.

It was a strong influence, along with The Enemy Below (1957), on Michael Schiffer and Quentin Tarantino’s script for director Tony Scott’s Crimson Tide (1995).

Don Rickles (1926–2017).

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 4930

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com