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Hell and High Water

Hell and High Water

  • Status: Released
  • 06-02-1954
  • Runtime: 103 min
  • Score: 6.1
  • Vote count: 53

A privately-financed scientist and his colleagues hire an ex-Navy officer to conduct an Alaskan submarine expedition in order to prevent a Red Chinese anti-American plot that may lead to World War III. Mixes deviously plotted schoolboy fiction with submarine spectacle and cold war heroics.

Richard Widmark

Capt. Adam Jones

Bella Darvi

Denise Montel

Victor Francen

Prof. Montel

Cameron Mitchell

'Ski' Brodski

Gene Evans

Chief Holter

David Wayne

Tugboat Walker

Stephen Bekassy

Neuman

Richard Loo

Hakada Fujimori

Robert Adler

Welles (uncredited)

Eugene Borden

French Reporter (uncredited)

Leslie Bradley

Mr. Aylesworth (uncredited)

Henry Kulky

McCrossin (uncredited)

Peter Ortiz

Crewman (uncredited)

Ray Stevens

Crewman (uncredited)

John Wengraf

Col. Schuman (uncredited)

Ben Wright

BBC Announcer (uncredited)

Harry Carter

Harry Denny

Frank Kumagai

Eddie Lee

Cactus Mack

Rollin Moriyama

Ron Nyman

Don Orlando

Beal Wong

CinemaSerf

Richard Widmark is on quite good form here, as the veteran naval officer hired by a group of scientists to take a ramshackle old submarine from Japan to investigate some mysterious goings-on on an island under Chinese control, and where they think atomic experiments may be taking place. Setting sail with "Prof. Montel" (Victor Francen) and his assistant "Denise" (Bella Darvi) it soon becomes clear that their scarcely functioning vessel is not going to be the captain's only concern as they have to dodge enemy patrols and reach their target. I like submarine films, and this one isn't bad. Samuel Fuller takes a while to get us underway, but once he does the trip is quite exciting despite the odd romantic interlude. The ending is a bit daft, but the whole film still holds up quite well as a decent adventure with quite a fun underwater duel, an unique rendition of "Don't Fence Me In" and a suitably rousing score, too.