gordonl56 THE DEEP SIX 1958This 1958 film was a co-production between Warner Brothers and Alan Ladd's Jaguar Productions. The film is a WW2 drama with Alan Ladd in the lead. The rest of the cast includes, James Whitmore, Keenan Wynn, Efrem Zimbalist Jr, Dianne Foster, William Bendix and Joey Bishop. Alan Ladd plays ad artist who works for an agency in New York. He has the hots for his boss, Dianne Foster. Ladd makes a few moves on the pretty Miss Foster, but, before he can close the deal, he gets a letter calling him up for service. Ladd is a member of the Navy reserve and is assigned to a destroyer. Now we find out that Ladd is from a Quaker family, and has been raised to avoid doing harm to another person. Ladd has not been a practising Quaker for years. He joins his ship and is welcomed aboard by the Captain, James Whitmore. The welcome is far less friendly from the executive officer, Keenan Wynn. Wynn is not pleased with the fact that Ladd is a Quaker. Wynn is a bitter man having been at Pearl Harbor on December 7th. He had lost family when the USS ARIZONA had been sunk. Ladd is put in charge of a twin 40 mm anti-aircraft mount. His gun crew includes, Joey Bishop, (in his 1st role) Perry Lopez and Ross Bagdasarian. Also in the mix here is William Bendix as a Chief Petty Officer and Efrem Zimbalist Jr as the ship's doctor. Every chance Wynn has he insults Ladd, or complains to the Captain that Ladd will let them down in combat. This of course wears on Ladd causing inner conflict over his personal values. The ship stops off in San Francisco where Ladd gets a surprise leave. And who is waiting for him there? Miss Foster of course. She has fallen for Ladd and wants to introduce him to her family who just happen to live down the coast.Everything is going nicely when Foster's sister, Barbara Eiler, gets news that her husband was lost in combat. The man had been on a ship that went down off Guadalcanal. Ladd now feels guilty about asking Foster to marry him. He tells her that they must wait till the war is over. Ladd's ship is now sent to Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands. Ladd's problems come to a head, when a he can't bring himself to order his gun crew to fire on an approaching aircraft. It turns out to be an American plane, so no big deal. Ladd though goes to the Captain and tells him of his hesitation to fire. Ladd is taken off the gun and assigned to damage control. Wynn in now convinced he has been right about Ladd the whole time. Ladd shows that he is no coward when the ship is hit by a bomb during a Japanese air raid. The bomb fails to explode, so Ladd, along with William Bendix dig the thing out from between decks. They haul it topside and toss it overboard, where it explodes.The ship is now sent to pick up the crew of a downed recon plane stranded on one of the Japanese held, Aleutian Islands. Ladd volunteers to lead the rescue party ashore. The mission quickly goes sideways as the Japanese put in an unwanted appearance. There is a brisk battle with Ladd calling in supporting fire from the destroyer. Petty Officer Bendix is wounded forcing Ladd to decide to kill, or be killed. He uses his Thompson to mow down a group of attacking Japanese, collecting a round himself in the exchange. They cart Bendix and the rescued airmen back to the ship. Bendix does not make it back. The ship returns to San Francisco where the wounded Ladd is discharged into the waiting arms of Miss Foster. While all this has been going on, the ship's doctor, Zimbalist, has discovered that the exc, Wynn, has been stealing morphine from the drug locker. He has been self-medicating over a stomach problem.The film was directed by former cinematographer turned helmsman, Rudolph Mate. The 5 time Oscar nominated (Gilda, Sahara, Cover Girl, etc.) Mate cranked out several solid westerns and film noir as a director. These include DOA, THE DARK PAST, SIEGE AT RED RIVER, THE VIOLENT MEN and UNION STATION.The cinematography here was handled by Ladd favourite, John F Seitz. Seitz would be the director of photography on 22 diff Ladd films. Among these, SAIGON, CALCUTTA, THE GREAT GATSBY, APPOINTMENT WITH DANGER, BOTNAY BAY, THE BIG LAND and THIS GUN FOR HIRE. He also shot, DOUBLE INDEMNITY, THE LOST WEEKEND, SUNSET BLVD and THE BIG CLOCK. Seitz received 7 Oscar nominations over his 1916 to 1960 career. The film suffers from a rather meandering script which has little to do with the source novel by, Martin Dibner. The changes from the novel (which I have read) are not for the better. The usually reliable Mate seems somewhat "lost at sea" here. The cast are all okay, though Ladd is really a bit old for the part. (and I'm a Ladd fan) The film needed to be tightened up and cut down from the 108 minute run time. Worth a watch, but is not one of Ladd's better films. This was the seventh time William Bendix and Alan Ladd appeared in the same film. Both would die in 1964, Ladd at 50 and Bendix at age 58.

Albert Mazeika I could not disagree more with CHRIS from South Adelaide who I feel really gave this film short shrift. Alec Austen is a commercial artist and Naval reservist called to active duty in WWII. Having long forsaken his Quaker upbringing he is thus completely blindsided when after reporting for duty on a destroyer he finds himself seriously conflicted regarding the taking of life. Alan Ladd, though in decline personally and professionally at this point in his life, is, nevertheless, very good as the troubled Alec. This film is further buoyed by an absolutely outstanding supporting cast including: James Whitmore, Keenan Wynn, William Bendix, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Jeanette Nolan and Joey Bishop. Other familiar faces include Perry Lopez,(Cowhand Pete Ramirez in THE LONE RANGER movie and a crewman in MR. ROBERTS) and Ross Bagdasarian who, aided by his chipmunks Alvin, Simon & Theodore, would later gain recording and TV fame as David Seville. The storyline is also unique in that the main WWII theater of operations setting is the Northeast Pacific and the Aleutians. Director Rudolph Mate's other credits as Director or Director of Photography include GILDA, SAHARA (1943) and PRIDE OF THE YANKEES. Alas, it has not yet found it's way to DVD. THE DEEP SIX is not SAVING PRIVATE RYAN or TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH, it is a solid production worthy of a look.

Homer900 I remember this as the second of a two part feature on a Saturday afternoon in the early 60s. That was when movie tickets were .35 cents and the loges were 50 cents. Of course, after the lights went out, we'd sneak into the loges.Since we boys were raised on the stories of our fathers and uncles war experiences, it was natural for us to watch these movies. One uncle in particular was a career Navy man and so we knew nautical terminology and such.It was a routine story with good action sequences. One thing in particular that has always stuck with me after viewing this was when SPOILER: Alan Ladd's character finally starts to shoot the Japanese soldiers. END SPOILER.A cheer went up throughout the theater and everyone, mostly young boys, were cheering and clapping. Having seen it since, I realize that it is nothing but a routine war picture with little in the way of exploring truly the cost of war to individuals, but it will always have a fond place in my heart from my original viewing oh so many years ago.An interesting side note. This movie, along with others is listed on an old handbill from the old Parks AFB near Dublin California. The bill is dated 1952. The day and dates are listed of the showings. In checking IMDb, this movie shows as a 1958 release. All of the other titles also show a 1958 release, but in checking the calendar, both 1952 and 1958 the dates all fall on the same days. Weird.

bkoganbing This is one of a series of films made by Alan Ladd on the downhill side of his career after he left Paramount. A lot of them were good routine action stuff that had made him so popular in the 1940s. But he was getting older and wouldn't transition into older character parts.The Deep Six concerns a naval reserve officer who because of his Quaker upbringing freezes in a combat situation. The men on the ship lose confidence in him and his only friend is the CPO on the destroyer, played by William Bendix.In fact Bendix gives the best performance in the film. Ladd and Bendix did several films together at Paramount in the 1940s and they had a deep friendship and an easy camaraderie that comes through in The Deep Six. Bendix was a cut above a lot of the other character actors at Paramount, whereas he may have been doing character roles at Paramount, from the mid 40s on he was a popular radio and then TV star with his Life of Riley series.The rest of the cast fills their roles out nicely. James Whitmore, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Dianne Foster, and especially Keenan Wynn as the ship's hardnosed executive officer who is Ladd's chief tormentor. Look for Joey Bishop in a small role as one of the sailors.