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Submarine X-1 (1968)

6 | Mar 22, 1968 (GB) | War | 01:29

Hell can be very cold…very wet…and very deep!

After losing a submarine and fifty crew in a battle with a German ship during WWII, a Royal Navy officer gets a second chance in a daring raid with midget subs.

Featured Crew

Producer, Story
Screenplay
Music
Screenplay
Cinematography

Cast

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James Caan
Cmdr. Richard Bolton, RNVR
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David Sumner
Lt. Davies R.N.V.R
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Norman Bowler
Sub-Lt. Pennington, RN
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Paul Young
Leading Seaman Quentin
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Brian Grellis
CPO Barquist X 3
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William Dysart
Lt. Robert Talbot Gogan R.N.R.
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John Kelland
Sub-Lt. Keith Willis, RNVR
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Kenneth Farrington
CPO Boker Knowles
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Carl Rigg
CPO Norman Kennedy
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Steve Kirby
Leading Seaman X-2

Reviews

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CinemaSerf
6 | Jan 07, 2025
If you remember "Above us the Waves" (1955) you'll get the gist of this story for James Caan. He's "Bolton", a man with plenty to prove to his superiors and himself after a tragedy struck a previous command. He's a bit of a slave driver, and that doesn't make him popular amongst his crews who find themselves training more and more aboard their tiny submarines on a remote Scottish loch. A raid by some Nazi paratroopers makes them realise, though, that their operations are now on the enemy radar, so expediency kicks in and their mission announced. They are to sail to the steep-sided fjords of Norway and there attack a powerful enemy ship that's been raiding the transatlantic convoys. It's all highly experimental stuff, but can "Bolton" and his highly trained sailors manage to hit their target? It's all fairly standard fayre, this, but it's still quite entertaining - especially in their glorified sardine cans being tossed about in heavy seas, avoiding nets and mines and their own claustrophobia. Caan does enough to keep it moving, and there is enough for the supporting cast of malcontents - an unremarkable collection of B-list British regulars - to set up the full effect of the denouement, but I doubt you'll remember it for long.