Crash Dive *** (1943, Tyrone Power, Anne Baxter, Dana Andrews) – Classic Movie Review 12,188

Tyrone Power in Black Swan.

Director Archie Mayo’s Oscar-winning 1943 World War Two film in Technicolor Crash Dive stars Tyrone Power, Anne Baxter and Dana Andrews.

Tyrone Power plays handsome young American lieutenant Lt. Ward Stewart, a naval warfare expert, who is appointed officer on a submarine commanded by Lt. Cdr. Dewey Connors (Dana Andrews), whose fiancée Lt. Jean Hewlett (Anne Baxter) he falls for.

20th Century Fox’s carefully crafted, morale-boosting toast to the US submarine service in World War Two has vim, vigour and verve, plus nice Technicolor, though it is a bit too long-winded in the romantic-triangle prelude till the war footage delivers a punch.

It won an Oscar for Best Special Effects by Fred Sersen (photographic) and Roger Heman Sr (sound) at the 16th Academy Awards.

In real life, Power had already enlisted in the US Marine Corps, and then as soon as filming finished promptly joined up in the US Marines, so it was his last film before assignment to recruit training.

Unusually for the time, there is a significant role for African-American actor Ben Carter as messman Lt Oliver Cromwell Jones.

It is written by Jo Swerling and W R Burnett (original story).

It is partly filmed at Submarine Base New London, Connecticut.

Also in the cast are James Gleason as Lt Chief Mike “Mac” McDonnell, Dame May Whitty as Lt Grandmother, Harry Morgan as Lt J G “Brownie” Brown, Ben Carter as Lt Oliver Cromwell Jones, Charles Tannen, Frank Conroy, Florence Luke, John Archer, George Holmes, Minor Watson, Kathleen Howard, Stanley Andrews, David Bacon, Paul Burns, Frank Dawson, Edward McWade, Thurston Hall, and Trudy Marshall.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,188

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