TORPEDO RUN is a decent film and much of the film is pretty exciting. However, it suffers from a serious glut in the genre--there are just so many really, REALLY good submarine films. Just off the top of my head, DESTINATION TOKYO, OPERATION PACIFIC, RUN SILENT RUN DEEP, CRASH DIVE, THE ENEMY BELOW and the amazing DAS BOOT all come to mind as great sub films--all of which clearly surpass TORPEDO RUN. However, if you haven't had too much of all this sort of film, then by all means give this film a look.
The film stars Glenn Ford and Ernest Borgnine. Ford's character and performance are very quiet and intense--almost reminiscent of Captain Ahab but in a more subdued way. Borgnine, on the other hand, while not the official star of the film seemed to have a better and more interesting role as the second in command who is friends with Ford but a bit worried about his boss' mental state. The reason this is a concern is that apparently Ford's wife and daughter are aboard a Japanese prisoner ship that their sub accidentally sinks (this is WAY too coincidental a plot device--I mean, what are the chances?!?). However, despite the ridiculousness of the plot, the battle sequences are taut, well executed and the special effects are very good. You can't see the sides of the pool in which they filmed the underwater scenes (something you can see in many other sub films--even some of the ones listed above) and only once did I clearly notice a string pulling one of the torpedoes through the water (again, it's unfortunately common to see this in other sub films).
So what we have is a fairly good and typical film of the genre that is impeded a bit by a hard to believe plot twist. However, decent performances (particularly by Borgnine) still make this reasonably good entertainment.
The film stars Glenn Ford and Ernest Borgnine. Ford's character and performance are very quiet and intense--almost reminiscent of Captain Ahab but in a more subdued way. Borgnine, on the other hand, while not the official star of the film seemed to have a better and more interesting role as the second in command who is friends with Ford but a bit worried about his boss' mental state. The reason this is a concern is that apparently Ford's wife and daughter are aboard a Japanese prisoner ship that their sub accidentally sinks (this is WAY too coincidental a plot device--I mean, what are the chances?!?). However, despite the ridiculousness of the plot, the battle sequences are taut, well executed and the special effects are very good. You can't see the sides of the pool in which they filmed the underwater scenes (something you can see in many other sub films--even some of the ones listed above) and only once did I clearly notice a string pulling one of the torpedoes through the water (again, it's unfortunately common to see this in other sub films).
So what we have is a fairly good and typical film of the genre that is impeded a bit by a hard to believe plot twist. However, decent performances (particularly by Borgnine) still make this reasonably good entertainment.