Leofwine_draca UP PERISCOPE is a US-made WW2 submarine film with a routine plot but assured performances from its handful of stars to see it through. The film features a youthful James Garner playing the square-jawed lieutenant of an American submarine in Japanese waters. Edmond O'Brien is the gruff captain and the mission is an intelligence one as the crew are sent to capture some Japanese codes which will prove essential to victory.Before the mission really begins, Garner takes time out to romance a female intelligence agent and at the same time enjoy some camaraderie with the male crew members, one of whom is a very youthful Warren Oates playing a guy who always seems to be eating. The action is mainly saved for the latter part of the production and is effective, but hardly classic material.

Prismark10 Sometimes a film can be bad and it can still maintain your interest. Up Periscope is bad and boring which is worse. In fact I had problems staying awake and I like James Garner but even he could not save this.Garner whilst furtively vetted by someone who he thinks is a sweetheart is selected to swim ashore to a Japanese held island and steal a code book.Edmond O'Brien is the skipper of the submarine who is by the book and makes it clear more than once that if he is not back in time, he will be left behind and there starts a testy relationship.Garner and O'Brien are fine. The script is dull and full of clichés. It seems there was a lack of imagination in the writing as if this was a quickie B film being knocked out at the least time possible. The directing is by the book basics lacking any verve or energy. Its a poor show.

Paularoc The best part of watching this movie was later reading the reviews as the actual experience of watching it was pretty boring. As did others, I watched the movie because of the cast – O'Brien's "DOA" is on my list of favorite 100 movies, and I grew up watching Maverick, a show that is still fun to watch. The movie was disappointing; the early film romance (and the later revealed reason for it) was ridiculous and added nothing to the movie, Garner's mission to get the Japanese's radio code was not believable and the tension between Garner and the "by-the- book" captain O'Brien played was uninteresting. The humor provided by Alan Hale Jr. was welcome but not memorable. The set, however, was good as it did indeed give a sense of the claustrophobic atmosphere of a submarine. This movie was an okay way to spend an hour and a half plus on, but not good enough to actually seek out.

grafspee This is a great film with a well done script about an American Naval Lieutenant Ken Braden played by James Garner assigned to a submarine commanded by Edmond O'Brien (a very underrated actor of his time) as Captain Stevenson. Braden's mission is to go ashore as a frogman on a Japanese held island to retrieve a wireless code unable to be cracked by U.S. intelligence. Stevenson is haunted by the loss of a rating on a previous sortie and wants to exact careful handling of his current mission at the expense of making Braden's operational plan a difficult one. With a submerged time deadline imposed on Braden to find and photograph the information he skilfully swims to the island and after activating an incendiary device to alight fuel drums at the Japanese base in order to create a diversion, successfully enters the radio room behind the back of the on duty officer and snaps the pages of the code. Returning to the sub he is behind the time deadline and oxygen on the sub is rapidly depleting. A crew member constantly taps a wrench on the sub's hull to guide Braden back and Stevenson gives in to just sufficient extra time to allow him to return. On arrival back at Pearl Harbor Braden sees Intelligence Officer Sally Johnson, played by a stunning Andra Martin, at the dock waiting to greet him. She had been commissioned at the beginning of the movie to evaluate his suitability for the assignment but a love affair blossomed to now give this movie a supposedly happy ever after ending. Mention must also be made of the role of Alan Hale Jr. (ex Gilligan's Island) as Ensign Malone who gives the movie a well deserved comedy touch. Absorbing viewing.