RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP
This 1958 US submarine film was marketed as ‘Moby Dick’ meets ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’. Captain Ahab here is Commander Richardson (played by Clark Gable) who demands to be given command of a sub a year after his previous command was sunk by a Jap destroyer, the Akikaze, in the Bungay Straits off Japan (quite how Richardson survived and got safely back to Pearl Harbour is glossed over). As the film progresses it becomes clear that Richardson is determined to return to the Bungay Straits in order to sink the Akikaze despite explicit orders not to do so. Christian Fletcher here is EO Bledsoe (Burt Lancaster) who is aggrieved that he hasn’t been given command. The mood of the crew, who are very loyal to Bledsoe, becomes mutinous due to endless drills (among other things) but Bledsoe is having none of it even when Richardson orders the sub to the Bungay Straits. Things then hot up considerably, what with an unsuccessful attack on the Akikaze, the US sub having to play dead, ...