CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Mehdi Hoffman There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

calvinnme ... especially if one is making a movie less than a year after one of the most brazen attacks on American soil in U.S. history, the attack on Pearl Harbor. Given that this is a B film and there is no time or desire to plug vital plot holes, this is an interesting little piece of B film history.The premise of the film is outrageous enough - a Japanese aircraft carrier on route to Pearl Harbor spots a pleasure cruise yacht way out in the distance. The people on board are civilians, with one couple just arguing over whether or not they should get married without the least interest in what is going on in the sea around them. With discretion and surprise being key to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the captain of the Japanese aircraft carrier decides to start a potential international incident by blowing the yacht to kingdom come, then trying to kill the survivors in the life raft with one of his aircraft, then trying to sink the passing American sub that picks up the lone woman survivor.Meanwhile back in Honolulu, American secret agent Bill Warren is having a hard time clearing out "fifth column" saboteurs, and no wonder. He openly discusses his true identity and his profession with his girl - nothing impresses the ladies like a little international intrigue! - and with the conversation clearly audible by his chauffeur. When another car pulls up next to his car and takes a shot at him and it turns out his chauffeur is in on the deal he is shocked!...shocked I say!... that everybody seems to know who he really is.Back on the sub, commander Chris Warren is trying to get a message through to somebody - anybody - about the acts of war taken by the Japanese, but all they can do is pick up music from a club in Honolulu. The scene switches to said club where the rattled Bill Warren is discussing the attempt on his life and his fears of Japanese aggression to an acquaintance. Meanwhile in that very club a waiter/Japanese agent goes into the coat room, opens a secret panel and walks into a fully outfitted radio room manned by another Japanese agent! Clever agents to architect and add such a room without the owner or American staff ever noticing! What follows is the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese predicted by Bill Warren, and a cat and mouse game between commander Chris Warren's submarine and the Japanese aircraft carrier that blew up the yacht. Key to the plot - the sub commander and not-so-secret American agent are brothers, and the captain of the Japanese aircraft carrier is the father of the pilot lost at sea trying to sink Warren's sub.The propaganda is blatant and the plot holes border on just too silly, but it is by no means boring. I'd recommend it just for illustrating that to make an effective war picture requires the passage of time so that some perspective can be gained. However, in 1942, the home front probably appreciated little pictures like this that likely raised morale.What's particularly interesting is that it is the supporting ranks of the players here that had bigger careers later on, such as Bruce Bennett as the first officer of the sub and Larry Parks as the radio operator on the sub. Also note that is Lloyd Bridges' voice over the sub intercom in an uncredited role.

rdfarnham In an era when propaganda films were coming out of Hollywood in a rush there were many that were A class, some which were B class, and then there was this one. I won't even comment on the bone-headed decisions the the two ship captains make or the historical accuracy that was missing. Rarely have I seen such obvious special effects such as planes making almost 90 degree turns in flight and clearly light weight model planes landing on the Japanese carrier. This was poorly written and planned and must have been rushed into production with a budget of about $1.38. If you want a good WW2 sub movie watch almost any film but this one.

skyking-14 As a WWII history buff, I try to watch every WWII film I can find. This one was watchable, but for the informed it was more for comedic effect and an understanding of the racial prejudices of the time than for anything else.I don't even know where to start with this one but it plays to all of the boogeymen of the immediate pre and post Pearl Harbor attack with it's focus on subversion and sabotage when we later learned that even the Japanese themselves put little faith in the Japanese-Americans in Hawaii.Perhaps the most laughable aspect was the presentation of a SINGLE Japanese aircraft carrier as being capable of the destruction wrought at Pearl Harbor, when, in fact, it took SIX carriers and on top of that, they portrayed the carrier as operating completely ALONE, when nothing of the sort would've happened.There is also a scene in which the US Submarine remains on the surface with a single gunner dueling with the attacking Japanese plane when Navy doctrine would've had the sub crash diving upon detection of the incoming plane.All in all, there are simply too many factual errors to even believe that this film actually had a technical adviser... at least one who had ever gone to sea in anything bigger than a rowboat! The only misinformation missing from this film that I can see is that they didn't try to pin on the blame on FDR as many other crackpots did!

sol ***SPOILER*** The film Subrmarine Raider" instead of making the Japanese look bad in their sneak attack on Peral Harbor on the morning of December 7,1941 makes them look far more effective then they actually were! Instead of having a major 100 fleet task force with some 300 to 500 warplanes carry out the dastardly and successful sneak attack they only have a dinky looking aircraft carrier with about two dozen Jap zeros to pull the whole thing off! Were also given in the movie the totally false assumptions that there was a major Jap fifth column on the Hawaiian islands who were secretly giving the Jap task force, via shortwave radio, the position of were the US Pacific fleet was stationed at in Pearl Harbor which then ended up for the most part sunk and destroyed in the Japanese sneak attack! It's odd that the main target of the Japanese attack on base the US navy aircraft carrier fleet was not only out to sea at the time of the attack but not but even noticed by the Japanese spies who were supposed to be tracking it!***SPOILERS*** Where the Japs screwed up according to the movie was in the aircraft carrier Hirnamu giving away its position to US attack submarine Sea Serpent by attacking a yacht that was in the vicinity. This bonehead attack on the harmless pleasure boat alerted the sub's captain Commander Charles Warren, John Howard, which eventually lead to the carrier being sent to the bottom of the Pacific! Something that never happened in real life!As for the Japs themselves they were so obnoxious and off-the-wall in their actions that it was a miracle that they could have ever pulled off the whole deal without their aircraft carrier being sent to the bottom together with its Keystone like Kop, or sailor, crew before it ever pulled out of Tokyo Bay!P.S I noticed that the film was released on June 4, 1942 the very day that a real and turning point battle took place in the far off Pacific that the US Navy really won. The Battle of Midway that turned the tide of battle in the Pacific Theater for the US. Not the phony baloney battle that took place in the movie with the sinking of the fictitious Japanses aircraft carrier Hiranamu!