How to Play the World’s Most Deadly, Wet Game of Battleship with Robert Mitchum’s Eyelids
It’s 3:15 AM. My eyes feel like they’ve been rubbed with coarse sandpaper, the cold pizza on my desk is starting to look back at me, and I am currently watching two middle-aged men in sweaty caps staring at green sonar screens, dropping metal cylinders of high explosives into the South Atlantic, while a German crew inside a steel tube sings a folk song at the top of their lungs.
Welcome, my friends, to the claustrophobic, incredibly tense, and beautifully crafted world of Dick Powell.
If you’ve never heard of Dick Powell, congratulations: you’ve never appreciated a massive career pivot. In the 1930s, Powell was a cheerful, singing-and-dancing star of cheesy Hollywood musicals. But by the 1950s, he had transformed into a gritty noir actor and an incredibly sharp director. His filmmaking method for this World War II naval thriller was a masterclass in psychological chess:
- Put a cool, battle-fatigued American destroyer captain (Robert Mitchum) and a weary, highly professional German U-boat commander (Curt Jürgens) on a collision course.
- Ditch the typical, cartoonish “good guys vs. evil Nazis” propaganda clichés and make both men deeply respect each other’s tactical genius.
- Build the entire movie around the agonizing, metallic ping… ping… ping of sonar, using Oscar-winning sound design to make the audience feel like they are trapped in a tin can at the bottom of the ocean.
The result? The Enemy Below (1957).
The “Plot” (If we can even call it that)
An American destroyer escort, the USS Haynes, is cruising the South Atlantic when it detects a German U-boat. The American captain, Murrell (Mitchum), is a former merchant marine officer who recently lost his wife to a German torpedo. The German captain, von Stolberg (Jürgens), is a decorated veteran who hates the Nazi regime but loves his crew and his country.
What follows is a deadly, 90-minute game of cat-and-mouse.
Murrell drops depth charges; von Stolberg dives deeper and cuts his engines. Von Stolberg fires torpedoes; Murrell turns his ship parallel to let them slide past. Every single move has a perfect, calculated counter-move. It is a highly athletic, incredibly loud game of Battleship played by two tired professionals who are just trying to do their jobs and keep their men alive.
Why You Need to Watch This Tonight
- Robert Mitchum’s Peak “Sleepy Genius” Energy: Mitchum’s character is supposed to be recovering from physical and mental trauma, which perfectly matches Mitchum’s actual, real-life acting style of “I am barely awake, but I am still the coolest guy in this room.” He spends half the movie lying on a cot in his cabin, looking like he’s about to drift off, only to suddenly stand up and predict the exact coordinates of the German submarine with terrifying accuracy.
- The “Westerwald” Sing-Along: In the middle of being hunted by the Americans, the German U-boat crew starts to lose their minds from the tension. To keep their spirits up, von Stolberg lets them sing a loud, stomping German marching song (“Der Westerwald”). It is a bizarre, ballsy, and incredibly cinematic moment—singing at the top of your lungs while a destroyer is literally right above you trying to hear your propellers.
- The Masterful Sound Design: This movie won the Academy Award for Best Special Effects, and it’s easy to see why. The sound of the depth charges exploding under water, the screeching metal of the submarine hull under pressure, and the agonizingly slow ping of the sonar will make your teeth rattle.
The Verdict
Is it a good movie? It is one of the absolute greatest submarine movies ever made. It set the blueprint for classics like Run Silent, Run Deep and Das Boot. It has no bloated subplots, no unnecessary romance, and no cheap flag-waving propaganda. It is just pure, distilled, high-tension filmmaking that treats both sides of the conflict with dignity and intelligence.
My Rating: 5 out of 5 sonar pings that make you want to hold your breath.
Wanna watch a classic, high-stakes tactical chess match?
Dim the lights, turn up your speakers to appreciate the incredible, Oscar-winning sound effects, and search for this late-fifties naval classic on your favorite retro cinema platform. It is widely available for you to stream whenever you want to see two screen legends try to outsmart each other on the high seas.
[WATCH “THE ENEMY BELOW (1957)” ON YOUTUBE (Opens in a new window)]
