Welcome to the WWII Forums! Log in or Sign up to interact with the community.

Submarine Alert, 1943 fil

Discussion in 'WWII Films & TV' started by belasar, Aug 19, 2020.

  1. belasar

    belasar Court Jester

    Joined:
    May 9, 2010
    Messages:
    8,515
    Likes Received:
    1,176
    This a wartime 'home front' quickie produced just after the US entry into the war. The plot, a trio of Axis thugs (German, Italian and Japanese) kill a inventor of a new kind of mini transmitter and steal the device. They use the radio to signal a 'steampunk' style Japanese sub the sailing times of vital allied tankers, but the FBI is on the case! They decide to get a resident alien (Canadian) electronics whiz fired in the hope the Axis spy's will recruit him. To keep a eye on our hero, they arrange a 'chance' meeting with a pretty girl who now finds him the most fascinating unemployed guy in the world.

    The Axis trio are watching him also and approach him to make components for a new 'health' machine. He accepts because he is also the protector of a young war orphan girl he brought back from Europe. Oh and the little girl has a brain tumor that must be operated on. This film has all the subtlety of a San Francisco Gay Pride Parade.

    He is questioned by the FBI and learns his new girlfriend works for the feds, and rotten things stink in occupied Denmark, so he goes to the 'health spa' to see for himself. He learns of the Axis plans and barely escapes with his life and his girlfriend finds him, but they are quickly captured. In a plot fitting to a Bond villain the decide to 'steam' the pair to death while they signal the Japanese sub from a clifftop.

    Our electronics whiz builds a transmitter in the steam room and sends a blind signal picked up a kid on a ham radio who then calls the FBI. Of course they believe him sending a squad to save our prunish duo, another to catch the Axis trio and the '3rd Bomber Squadron' to find and sink the sub. This is notable as the first depiction of the Transformers on film! They launch as P-40's, fly as dive bombers and attack as twin engine medium bombers! The film ends with our hero getting his citizenship, enlistment in the army, a new girlfriend provided by the FBI and a recovered little girl.

    This film is not as bad as you might think, it moves at a brisk pace, the acting is fairly decent and there is a pretty decent car chase in the middle. Model work is crude and the 3rd Bomber Squadron is pretty laughable. The movie's biggest flaw was it's subject, it highlights the mistake of allied planners sending out unprotected convoy's. When it was made in mid 1942 this was true, but by its release in 1943 things had changed.

    Submarine_Alert.png
     
    CAC likes this.
  2. Carronade

    Carronade Ace

    Joined:
    Feb 17, 2010
    Messages:
    3,278
    Likes Received:
    846
    Reminds me of the Mod Squad - white guy, black guy, girl.
     
  3. belasar

    belasar Court Jester

    Joined:
    May 9, 2010
    Messages:
    8,515
    Likes Received:
    1,176
    They were really trying to be inclusive!
     
  4. wm.

    wm. Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 27, 2016
    Messages:
    1,456
    Likes Received:
    172
    Location:
    Poland
    I don't understand how the Asian guy was able to position his painfully slow track tractor so perfectly to flatten the inventor flat.
     
  5. belasar

    belasar Court Jester

    Joined:
    May 9, 2010
    Messages:
    8,515
    Likes Received:
    1,176
    Reminds me of the scene in Austin Powers
     

Share This Page