Hell and High Water (1954)

good film but with many flaws

Crappy film

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

This exciting film contains cold war heroics , non stop excitement , and full of tension and intrigue . Pure entertainment from Fuller , it is set during the Cold War , a privately-financed scientist Prof. Montel (Victor Francen , though Charles Boyer was originally cast for this role) , his assistant (Bella Darvi) and colleagues hire an ex-Navy officer (Richard Widmark) to conduct an Alaskan submarine (Sub used was WW2 ex Japanese sub) expedition (including familiar faces , as sailors appear the followings : Cameron Mitchell , David Wayne and Gene Evans who helped Bella Darvi with her dialogue) in order to prevent a Red Chinese anti-American battle , as well as a deviously plotted plan that could trigger WW3 . As they fit a Japanese submarine to lead them to Arctic Circle . Along the way , they are pursued by a Chinese submarine , stalking each other , and intent on ramming the other .The intriguing premise gets to satisfy completely , as it has breathtaking moments , including an explosive climax and as when two submarines stalk each other through the depths . It mixes a twisted tale with intrigue and schoolboy science-fiction about a scheme that may lead to World War III . This sometimes little objective film lacks a sense of definitive character undermining its important message . This picture is more a submarine movie than a Warlike or Cold war film . The scene from the attack on the first island was taken from the movie ¨Crash Dive¨ (1943) , particularly the ammo exploding in the depot and the burning fuel cascading over the short cliff into the sea . Nice acting by Richard Widmark as an ex-Navy officer assigned to a dangerous mission : to find a secret Chinese atomic island base . Victor Francen plays well the obstinate scientific who designs the risked operation to prevent a Communist plot . And the gorgeous Bella Darvi , this marked the feature film debut of Darryl F. Zanuck's muse Bella Darvi, whose stage surname was a combination of the first names of Zanuck and his wife Virginia . Darvi became a 50s symbol for one of the many movie "Cinderellas" playing ¨Sinuhe the Egyptian¨ , ¨The racers¨ and whose bright and beautiful Hollywood fairy tale would come crashing down, ending in bitterness and tragedy . Bella finally committed suicide in 1971 after turning on the gas stove in her apartment, she was only 42. The movie displays a colorful cinematography in CinemaScope by Joseph MacDonald . This was Twentieth Century-Fox's fifth CinemaScope production . Thrilling and stirring musical score by the prolific Alfred Newman . In this picture Samuel Fuller proved his talent of vision and intelligence . Fuller being especially known as filmmaker of such exploitation films as ¨Shock corridor¨ and ¨The naked kiss¨ . Fuller made various Western as ¨I shot Jesse James(49)¨, ¨The baron of Arizona (50)¨, ¨Run of the arrow¨ (56) , ¨Forty guns(58)¨, and ¨The meanest men in the West (76)¨ , but his most fluid and strongest work lies in his war films as ¨Steel helmet(51)¨ , ¨Fixed bayonets(52)¨, ¨Hell and high water (55)¨, ¨China gate (57)¨ , ¨Merrill's Marauders (62)¨ and ¨The Big Red One (80)¨. Being his best films : ¨Pick up on South Street¨(53) , ¨Underworld Usa¨(60) and ¨White Dog¨(82) . Rating : Better than average . Worthwhile watching .

I actually saw this at the cinema as a young kid and it left quite an impression on me. Subsequent viewings on television have perhaps inevitably modified my enthusiasm.Widmark was such an iconic actor that it's hard not to keep watching any movie in which he features. And it's his amazing charisma, with the ambiguous mix of amoral detachment and yet ruthless determination of his character that raises this movie above the mediocre.He and a fairly passe B-movie cast are tasked with the job of spying on the (Chinese) reds. A group of dubiously patriotic wealthy businessmen have pooled their resources to buy a WW2 sub for the purpose. Off they go. It does at least look like a submarine they're in, whereas most of the set pieces appear stagy to the point of tackiness. This was not a big-budget effort. They have adventures along the way. On arrival they discover that these beastly commies are going to drop an atom-bomb from a captured American plane. That way the Yanks will get the blame.One of their number - the moral scientist - has sneaked ashore and plans to warn them of the plane's departure. They surface in time to ambush it and shoot it down, though things don't go quite according to plan.Lately I have begun to think that cinema - the big screen - is the only place to watch a movie and see what the director intended. Even a really big screen telly can never do justice to the original. It's a bit like watching wild animals in zoos instead of their natural environment. Unfortunately, you can't see these old efforts at the cinema any more, and in any case I am constantly stalked by a bloke with a big head who keeps sitting in front of me, whilst another character with a seemingly un-openable cellophane bag sits behind.Without Widmark this would be a serious bummer, answering the worst expectations of the term 'made for TV'. But he is there, and that makes all the difference. Though it's by no means particularly memorable.

I wish sometimes that IMDb had two ratings for each review--one for the technical quality of a movie and one for its watchability. HELL AND HIGH WATER is very, very watchable and enjoyable, though the film has several big shortcomings.HELL AND HIGH WATER begins when there is evidence of nuclear testing going on in the Pacific. Who and where exactly and why this is occurring is unknown. In an odd move, a group of scientists have formed their own private investigating organization to look into the mystery. So, they pay to have a WWII vintage sub rehabbed and buy a crew--led by Richard Widmark as the skipper. Now where this money and organization came from is never explained in the least in the film--a rather big shortcoming--especially because for all any of the crew knows, this shadow organization is behind the nuclear testing (which they weren't).Eventually, the sub is able to locate a secret base that is run by the Chinese Communists. On it, a fake B-29 bomber is waiting to take off--and drop a nuclear bomb in Korea or Manchuria in order to make the US look bad and start a new war. The final scene where the sub takes out the bomber is pretty exciting and possible as the bomber would be very vulnerable at take-off.Let's talk about a few problems with the film. When Widmark is ready to take the ship out there is a GIANT cliché thrown into the plot. A top nuclear scientist and his young, sexy and brilliant assistant (Bella Darvi) accompanies him. The idea of a hot female scientist is such a bad cliché from the 1950s (in such films as THIS ISLAND EARTH). First, why couldn't it have been a man or an unattractive or unattached woman. Second, while this COULD have been a big step for feminism, in the end she is really just a piece of meat (albeit a very sexy one). Third, because it is a cliché, the entire crew behave like the wolf from a Tex Avery cartoon--even though they are just going to sea. Now if they'd been on duty for six months or longer, I might understand the panting wolf routine, but not in the case of this film.Another problem about the film is one that might not be a serious one. Last time I checked, I was not a submariner or specialist in underwater warfare, but the idea of a ship without torpedoes fighting and sinking another sub by repeatedly ramming it seemed,...well,...stupid. It was tense and cool...but stupid. However, I actually am pretty good when it comes to aircraft and was surprised at how wrong the B-29 bomber looked in the film--like a model made by someone who had only briefly seen a B-29 and made it from memory. But, having a B-29 as a weapons delivery platform for a nuclear bomb DID make sense, as the Soviets "appropriated" several that landed in their territory during the later days of WWII and the Russians DID make their own knock-off (an exact copy) of this bomber. So the idea of the Chinese using such a bomber is plausible--just very unlikely.The final silly cliché involves the nuclear scientist selflessly giving up his life to sneak onto the island with the bomber. He seemed to do this more because it was a cliché (thus allowing Widmark to live and supposedly have Darvi for his very own) than because it made logical sense. That's because only a few minutes earlier, the Doctor had argued against taking out the bomber--he wanted to rush back and report on what they'd seen. Now, he volunteers to be a commando! And, what really makes no sense is the idea of sending an old guy (with no military training) on such a super-duper important mission. Everything hinges on this old thumbless guy! Now although the story is very tough to believe and Darvi really has no reason to be in the film (apart from her boobs), the film is still well worth watching. It's one of these cases where you can really enjoy the film if you suspend your sense of disbelief. That's because the action is very good, there is a lot of tension and because although it's implausible, it's exciting and a wonderful "what if" scenario. Widmark, as usual, is great and the direction by Sam Fuller is excellent--though he is usually not a man for so many clichés.

Richard Widmark {Capt. Adam Jones} stars in this Cold War thriller as the leader of a submarine expedition to the frozen depths of Alaska. His mission is to thwart the communist Chinese who are intent on kick starting World War 3.Hell and High Water is one of the multitude of pictures that serve only as studio efforts made for made's sake. Take your leading actor, surround them with jobbing actors, and mold a picture together as best as you can. Sometimes a film can break free of its B and C movie roots to truly surprise, but others flounder to only serve as time fillers on terrestrial television. This film falls some where in between the two, not particularly bad exactly, but outside of a couple of tight sequences, not necessarily good either.It was actually in premise, building up to be a promising film. Then we see a shapely pair of legs coming down the submarine stairs and we just know that this film will lose its edge, and sadly, where it's all going to end up. The insistence of many writers and film makers to shoe horn in a love interest in the grittiest of places rarely works, and here it most assuredly doesn't either. Not that Bella Darvi {owner of those shapely legs} is poor or is at fault for the film being average, it just takes the film in a direction that it didn't need to go. Tension is built up, with one face off submarine sequence being particularly hold your breath inducing, but the preposterous romantic angle on a submarine death mission is badly misplaced. Tidy but unmemorable, and cribbing from Crash Dive released eleven years earlier, it's probably one for Widmark purists only. 5/10