tomsview I always found this well-made film quite depressing. There is much to admire, but I think you have to be in the mood for it.Although it is set after WW2, I always think of it as part of that group of British war films made during the 1950s: 'Reach for the Sky", "The Cruel Sea", "The Dam Busters" etc.Growing up in the 50's, I remember them well. They had a different vibe to the typical Hollywood war films; a sense of discipline and sacrifice always came through. The music alone was distinctive with scores by the best British composers – nearly always conducted by Muir Mathieson. You could tell from the opening bars that it was a British film.They featured familiar actors who appeared in film after film. "Morning Departure" would be hard to beat for familiar faces: John Mills, Nigel Patrick, Kenneth More, Richard Attenborough, Bernard Lee, George Cole, Victor Maddern, even Michael Caine in an uncredited role as Teaboy."Morning Departure" is the fictional story of the sinking of HMS Trojan, a submarine on a routine patrol. We get a little background on the Captain, Lt. Commander Peter Armstrong (John Mills) and a few of the crew.When the sub meets with an accident, the story concentrates on 12 survivors who are trapped in a small section of the sub. The feeling of claustrophobia is palpable. They expect a rescue mission to be launched, but they only have a limited number of escape vests – the crux of the story is how these men from various levels of British society behave under great stress.The famous British stiff upper lip was in evidence in just about all those films of the 1950's, but especially so in "Morning Departure".The interesting thing was that the audience readily accepted the calm stoicism shown by the fictional Commander Armstrong and the crew. That's because the Royal Navy had built up so much equity in the tradition of grace under pressure.There were plenty of examples in the war just fought, but one only needs to look to the wreck of HMS Birkenhead in 1852 to see the full flower of a tradition that probably even predates that episode."Morning Departure" is a sad story ultimately made bearable by the uplifting spirit of the doomed men.James A Michener once wrote (of those British soldiers and sailors on the Birkenhead), "This, after all, is the way men should behave in time of peril at sea".

Sean Murphy Life for these submariners isn't easy above or below the ocean waves. Above the ocean waves it begins by showing some of the crew on leave with their family and the problems and decisions that they face in their personal life such as whether to stay in the navy or not. Below the waves what begins as a routine training mission quickly gets out of hand due to a disturbed mine going off.It turns into a race against time to free the crew before their air runs out. It is complicated by faulty escape equipment where only some of the crew can quickly escape through the hatch when they are initially discovered by rescuers. The turn of a card can literally determine the fate of the men. A low card leaves an unlucky few to wait in the submarine to see if they can be raised to safety. The weather now combines with time to become their enemy and the race is on.The action takes place in a confined space and the way people come together in a crisis is deftly handled. A solid although not a totally original performance from John Mills who as the commander tries to get his crew to safety and maintain discipline under difficult circumstances. A much underrated Nigel Patrick does well as his second-in-command; he acts alongside Richard Attenborough with whom he is reunited in the excellent League of Gentleman many years later. Overall it is an enjoyable and watchable film.

MartinHafer This is a creepy story about a doomed sub. I say creepy because of the plot AND because shortly after they filmed this movie, the sub actually did sink--killing many of its crew."Operation Disaster" is about a submarine that is out on routine maneuvers during peacetime--so, you wouldn't expect problems. However, the ship accidentally collides with an old unexploded mine. Most of the crew are killed except for a dozen men trapped in the control room. Eventually, their whereabouts are determined and most of the crew are able to make emergency ascents to the surface. However, there isn't emergency equipment for all--and four are forced to remain behind. Hopefully, the ship can be raised in time to save these brave men.All in all, this is a very claustrophobic film--the sort that certainly won't appeal to everyone. Despite this, however, the acting is quite nice and the film never gets dull. Well worth seeing.

theowinthrop Every now and then we are reminded of the so-called "silent service" - the submarine arm of the navy. It is hard to believe nowadays but active use of submarines in warfare is barely over one century old. There had been three attempts at getting submarines into warfare before the 1880s: in the American Revolution, when Connecticut inventor David Bushnell designed the "Turtle" to attack Admiral Howe's flagship in New York Harbor; when Robert Fulton attempted to interest Napoleon Bonaparte in his submarine as a weapon against the British fleet in 1800; and when the Confederate (and Northern) navies experimented with torpedo boats and submarines - culminating in the success of the C.S.S. Hunley - in the American Civil War. But the real spur was anti-British animus in Irish-American circles in the 1880s, when they financed the researches of John P. Holland. It was his successful submarine that became the model adopted by most navies.But that was after 1900, and the early submarines were small and unpleasant and smelly craft (due to the closed space and the gasoline fumes). Disasters occurred frequently enough. It was not until the sinking of three British cruisers on one day in 1914 by U-boat Captain Weddingen that their power became widely realized. The number of maritime fatalities (led by R.M.S. Lusitania) demonstrated how deadly these ships could become. So by the end of the war everyone was improving their submarine fleets.But the ships still had major disasters in the 1920s and 1930s. 1939 was a banner year with major French, British, and American sub disasters. But the last one, the U.S.S. Squalus off Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was important for another reason. For one of the few times in modern history, the crew of a disabled submarine was mostly rescued. Diving bells and decompression chambers saved nearly two thirds of Squalus' crew (and the sub was raised, repaired, and recommissioned to be of use in World War II). But Squalus sank very close to land, and the depth was not an impossibly deep one as a result. Still it was quite a rarity to have survivors of a sub sinking. With a normal shipwreck (of a surface vessel) the crew has a chance to use lifeboats, life preservers, floating wreckage, rafts. You can't readily do that if you are underwater to begin with.For some reason submarine disaster films have rarely appeared on screen. There were films about submarines (several versions of Jules Verne's TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, for instance), and even of the wartime subs. For instance RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP, and DESTINATION, TOKYO were two. Some misfires also appeared. Charles Laughton appeared as an insanely jealous submarine commander opposite Gary Cooper and Tallulah Bankhead in THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP (he scuttles his own vessel at the end, going down with the ship). But films about actual tragedies never popped up. Except for this British film.John Mills is the commander of a submarine out on maneuvers in the British Channel. A mechanical failure causes it to sink. Mills is able to get most of his men out using snorkel breathing apparatus, and shooting them out of the torpedo tube. But he is unable to do it for the last three men in the sub with him: James Hayter, Richard Attenborough, and Nigel Patrick.In their situation they have to just wait out official attempts at rescue. But this is based on the amount of oxygen left on board, and how long it will last. Also, it is turning the ship into a huge tomb for them. And Attenborough, who has claustrophobic problems to begin with, is going over the edge. Patrick turns out to have physical problems that if not treated will possibly be fatal. It is not a happy situation.It is a gritty little movie, and it has it's moments of unexpected reality. Hayter was not supposed to be on the cruise, but at the last moment he agreed to go in place of a fellow seaman who had to attend an ailing wife. Details like that make one realize what a gamble our daily life experiences can be.As a look at a disaster that is normally uncommon (but still possible - remember the Russian tragedy of the "Kursk"), with four good performances in it, I strongly urge catching this film.