The Enemy Below

The Enemy Below
Movie Poster
Directed by	Dick Powell
Screenplay by	Wendell Mayes
Based on	The Enemy Below byDenys Rayner
Produced by	Dick Powell
Starring	Robert Mitchum Curd Jürgens
Cinematography	Harold Rosson
Edited by	Stuart Gilmore
Music by	Leigh Harline
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	December 25, 1957(1957-12-25)(New York City)
Running time	98 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1,910,000

The Enemy Belowis a 1957 AmericanDeLuxe Colorwar filminCinemaScopeabout a battle between anAmericandestroyer escortand a GermanU-boatduringWorld War II.It starsRobert MitchumandCurd Jürgensas the American and German commanding officers, respectively. Produced and directed byDick Powell,the film was based on the 1956novel of the same namebyDenys Rayner,a British naval officer involved inantisubmarine warfarethroughout theBattle of the Atlantic.

Plot

It is some time in the middle ofWorld War II.The AmericanBuckley-classdestroyer escortUSSHaynesis on patrol in theSouth Atlantic.Lieutenant CommanderMurrell, a formerThird Matein theMerchant Marineand now an active-duty officer in theNaval Reserve,has recently taken command of the ship; he joined the Navy after his freighter was sunk by a German U-boat, and is still recovering from injuries incurred in the sinking of his previous Navy warship and 21 days marooned adrift afterwards.

Before the U-boat is first spotted, one sailor questions the new captain's fitness and ability. Once a skilled game of cat-and-mouse tracking the U-boat gives way to a series of even more finely honed and intuitive attacks, the crew falls in strongly behind their new skipper.

He's matching deadly wits with U-boatKapitän zur Seevon Stolberg, a wily former World War IUnterseabootskipper deep into a conflict he resents for aNazi regimehe detests. As the battle that emerges tests both commanders and their crews, each man grows to respect his opponent as he discovers his rival can read his mind.

Murrell stalks the U-boat and subjects von Stolberg and his crew to hourlydepth-chargeattacks, trying to force him to surface where his ship is more vulnerable. In the end, von Stolberg takes advantage of Murrell's predictable pattern of attacks and succeeds intorpedoingtheHaynes.Although theHaynesis fatally wounded, it is still battle capable, and Murrell orders his men to set fires on the deck to make the damage look worse than it actually is, then to abandon ship; he retains only a skeleton crew to man thebridge,engine room, and one of his ship's three-inch (76 mm) guns. He orders his gun crew to fire at first opportunity at the U-boat's stern to immobilize it, and then at itsdeck gun.As Murrell had hoped, von Stolberg falls for the gambit and surfaces to fire another torpedo to finish theHaynesoff. Before he can, Murrellramsthe U-boat, with the bow of theHaynesriding up over its foredeck and becoming stuck. With his own vessel now foundering, von Stolberg orders his crew to set explosivescuttling chargesand abandon ship, putting theHaynesin further peril.

Murrell, the last man aboard, is about to join his crew in the lifeboats when he spots von Stolberg standing on the conning tower of the U-boat. He refuses to abandon his injured executive officerOberleutnant zur SeeHeinie Schwaffer, who has been with him since "academy days". Murrell tosses a line to the submarine and rescues the pair. Schwaffer clearly is dying, but von Stolberg still will not leave his comrade behind. Lieutenant Ware returns in thecaptain's gigwith a mixed party of American and German sailors, who race up the cargo nets to save the last survivors before the tangled vessels go up together in a conflagration.

Later, both crews are aboard a U.S. Navy vessel as German seamen ceremonially give Schwaffer aburial at sea,with theHaynescrew respectfully attending. Murrell and von Stolberg then share a moment at the stern, Murrell offering von Stolberg a cigarette as anolive branch.Von Stolberg, bitter about losing his ship, over losing his good friend, and about what has become of his country, says "I should have died a dozen times over, Captain. This time, it was your fault.". Morrell says "Fine, next time I won't throw you the rope." Von Stolberg chides back amicably, "Oh, I think you will."

Cast

• Robert Mitchumas Captain Murrell
• Curd JürgensasKapitän zur Seevon Stolberg
• Theodore BikelasOberleutnant zur See"Heinie" Schwaffer, von Stolberg's second in command
• David Hedisonas Lieutenant Ware, the executive officer ofHaynes(as Al Hedison)
• Russell Collinsas Doctor
• Kurt Kreugeras Von Holem
• Frank Albertsonas Lieutenant (junior grade) Crain
• Biff Elliotas Quartermaster
• Ralph Manzaas Lieutenant Bonelli (uncredited)
• Doug McClureas Ensign Merry (uncredited)
• Darryl F. Zanuckas Chief petty officer (uncredited)

Production

Writing

The screenplay, which was adapted byWendell Mayes,differs substantially from theoriginal book.In the novel, the ship is British, but in the film, it is American. The screenplay's final scenes of mutual respect between the protagonists are not taken from the book. In the book, the destroyer captain takes a swing at the U-boat captain while they are in the lifeboat because the U-boat captain claims that the destroyer crewmen are his prisoners. The film also alludes to evil in man (as personified by a concept such as the "devil" ) being the real "enemy" ( "You cut off one head and it grows another..." ), the force within that drives one man against another, or even against himself.

The screenplay has historical precedence. On 6 May 1944,USSBuckley,which was the lead ship of the samedestroyer escort classportrayed inThe Enemy Below,actually rammed and sank a U-boat in combat before capturing many of the German crew.

Casting

The anti-Nazi U-boat captain was portrayed by actorCurd Jürgens,who had been an actual critic ofNazismin his native Germany. In 1944, after filmingWiener Mädeln,he got into an argument with Robert Kaltenbrunner (brother of high-ranking Austrian SS officialErnst Kaltenbrunner),SS-ObersturmbannführerOtto Skorzeny,and a member ofBaldur von Schirach's staff in aViennesebar without knowing who they were. Jürgens was arrested and sent to alabor campfor the "politically unreliable" in Hungary. After a few weeks, he managed to escape and went into hiding.Jürgens became an Austrian citizen after the war.

The destroyer escort USSHaynes(DE-181) was represented in the film by theUSSWhitehurst(DE-634),provided by theUS NavyinPearl Harbor.Many of the actual ship's crew appear in the film, such as the phone talkers, the gun and depth charge crews, and all of the men seen abandoning ship. TheWhitehurst's commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Walter Smith, played the engineering officer. He is the man seen reading comics (Little Orphan Annie) during the lull before the action while an enlisted man is readingThe Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.TheWhitehurstwas sunk as a target in 1971. The real DE-181 wasUSSStraub(DE-181),aCannon-classdestroyer escort (scrapped 1974).

Filming

Despite being set in the South Atlantic, filming of the open ocean scenes took place in thePacific OceannearOahu,Hawaii.A ship collision set and filming of the abandon ship scenes took place off of Los Angeles.

Music

The tune sung by the U-boat crew on the ocean floor between depth-charge attacks is from an 18th-century march called "DerDessauer Marsch,"known by the first line of lyrics as"So leben wir"(" That's how we live "). The burial hymn in the final scene is"Ich hatt' einen Kameraden",

Awards and nominations

For the audio effects,Walter Rossireceived the 1958Academy AwardforBest Special Effects.The film was also awarded as the best sound-edited feature of 1957 by theMotion Picture Sound Editors.

Reception

Stanley KauffmannofThe New RepublicdescribedThe Enemy Belowas a 'compact, competently written, ably acted little drama'.

In popular culture

• The 1966Star Trekepisode "Balance of Terror"is closely based on the film, with theUSSEnterprisecast as the destroyer and theRomulanvessel, using acloaking device,as the U-boat.
• Nicholas Meyerhas cited the film as an inspiration forThe Wrath of Khan.
• TheVoyage to the Bottom of the Seaepisode "Killers of the Deep" reused substantial amounts of footage from the film. David Hedison (then Al Hedison), who played Lieutenant Ware, the executive officer of theHaynes,also played Commander Lee Crane onVoyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
• In the 1995 filmCrimson Tide,twoUSSAlabamaofficers debate about the cast ofThe Enemy Below.

See also

• List of American films of 1957
• USS Borie (DD-215)the real U-Boat Destroyer story

Further reading

• Rayner, D.A.,The Enemy Below,London: Collins 1956

External links

• The Enemy BelowatIMDb
• The Enemy BelowatRotten Tomatoes
• The Enemy BelowatAllMovie
• The Enemy Belowat theTCM Movie Database
• The Enemy Belowat theAFI Catalog of Feature Films