Torpedo Run (1958)

Directed by Joseph Pevney. Starring Glenn Ford, Ernest Borgnine, Richard Carlyle, Diane Brewster, Philip Ober, Dean Jones, Robert Hardy.

Haunted by the inadvertent deaths of numerous American prisoners (including his own family) caused by his own hand, obsessive sub skipper Ford hunts his Japanese aircraft carrier nemesis in the North Pacific. Sub-par naval drama spares us the “colorful crew” clichés, but ultimately presents just two textured personalities, one of whom quickly becomes an insufferable Captain Ahab-type; the other is played by Borgnine, the captain’s friend and XO who makes the unlikely decision to decline an offer to assume captaincy of his own boat and stick around as “Ahab”’s number two. Opportunity for seafaring excitement is torpedoed by prosaic writing and direction; hard to say what’s less convincing—the melodrama or the miniatures. You’re better off just dusting off the 1980s Milton Bradley “Floor Series” board game of the same name.

43/100