Run Silent, Run Deep (1958)

Directed by Robert Wise. Starring Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster, Brad Dexter, Jack Warden, Joe Maross, Don Rickles, Nick Cravat, Rudy Bond, Eddie Foy III, Mary LaRoche.

Solid submarine thriller set in the Pacific theater during WWII. Presentation of the battle of wills between single-minded skipper Gable and the resentful executive officer (Lancaster) who felt that he had been deserving of the command appointment instead is pretty routine stuff, but the story is classically structured, the script is shorn of the clutter that so often plagues maritime service pictures (e.g., comic relief camaraderie among sailor stereotypes), and a catalog of rattling sounds and suspenseful silences are expertly employed. Using more authentically-cramped sets heightens the claustrophobic tension, reduces the need to exceed triangular blocking. Produced by Harold Hecht and James Hill through the production company they ran with Lancaster (Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Productions). Rickles’ film debut.

74/100