The Out To Sea Blogathon – The Frogmen (1951)

This review is part of the The Out to Sea Blogathon being run by Debbie over at Moon in Gemini

Tnx for letting me take part!

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“Looks like you’ve got what amounts to a legal mutiny on your hands. ” – Lt. Cmdr. Pete Vincent

Number of Times Seen – 1 (4 Mar 2020)

Brief Synopsis – A unit of Navy special forces known as Frogmen are sent on dangerous missions in the Pacific during World War II.

My Take on it – This is film that I had never heard of before coming across it in my search for films to watch for this blogathon.

The premise sounded really intriguing and I was curious to see how a film made nearly 70 years ago depicts the work of Navy divers.

They were able to create such a thrilling underwater action film that works so well in finding a way to establish the effectiveness and importance of these kind of units during warfare, most notably during World War II.

This movie has a great cast with Richard Widmark, Dana Andrews and Gary Merrill each playing very diverse kinds of commanders who each have very different opinions on the various situations that they encounter along the way.

The plot of this movie is quite engrossing and they find ways for us to see the kinds of dangerous missions that these units must undertake on a normal basis.

Love the way that they are able to show us some of the most simple maneuvers that they must undertake yet they do so in a very informative way.

For instance, the tactics needed to pick up their men from the water after a mission may seem trivial, but they have a system in place that makes it all quite simple while also being extremely effective.

The underwater shots are great to look at and the actin scenes filmed below the surface look quite realistic.

Bottom Line – Thrilling underwater action film that works really well in establishing the effectiveness and importance of these kind of soldiers during World War II. The film sports a great cast and Widmark, Andrews and Merrill all are able to give us some very diverse characters with differing opinions on similar situations. The film’s plot is quite engrossing and we get to see the kind of dangerous missions that these men needed to accomplish on a regular basis. The film also allows us to see some of the tactics used by these units and I found it fascinating learning how they pick men up in the water after a mission. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The Underwater Demolition Team the frogmen in the film belong to is UDT-4 (some members of the team wear utility jackets with artwork of a large number “4” and a shark on the back). The real UDT-4 in World War II saw combat in the invasions of Okinawa, Saipan, Guam, and the Philippines. Like the fictional Team in the film, the real UDT-4 had one of their boats hit and sunk by Japanese fire at Leyte, and left a sign on the beach at Guam to welcome the invading Marines. (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy (8/10)