Main Cast: Robert Montgomery, Walter Huston, Madge Evans, Jimmy Durante, Eugene Pallette
Release Year: 1933
Country: US
Run Time: 105 minutes
Plot
Hell Below transcends its hackneyed World War I plot to emerge as a drama of rare originality and gutsiness. Walter Huston stars as a submarine commander whose lieutenant (Robert Montgomery) falls in love with Huston's daughter (Madge Evans). All cliches (including the intrusive comedy relief of Jimmy Durante) are forgiven and forgotten once the sub is launched on a dangerous mission in the Adriatic. Commander Huston is forced to make several cold-blooded decisions to preserve the safety of his crew members. In one scene, seaman Sterling Holloway is trapped in a room full of poison gas. Huston orders the men not to rescue Holloway, lest they too be exposed to the deadly fumes. As the men grimly try to go about their routine tasks, the dying Holloway presses his face against the glassed-in porthole and piteously begs for help! This brief moment in Hell Below sticks in the mind far longer than Robert Montgomery's own death scene, in which he redeems his reckless behavior during a crucial battle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Although set in World War I, Hell Below set up the structure for many World War II submarine warfare dramas to follow (such as Destination Tokyo, Torpedo Run, Operation Pacific, Hellcats of the Navy, Run Silent, Run Deep and others) with dramatic tension and action scenes around the warfare itself, as well as a love triangle or personal conflict to add personal interest. Extensive footage of World War I-era ships and planes supplement this war drama, which critics have characterized as excellent.
The cinematography team developed a way to film targets through a periscope using a series of lenses and prisms.
USS S-31 played the fictional U.S. submarine AL-14.
MGM purchased the USS Moody, a World War I-era destroyer destined for scrapping due to the London Naval Treaty limits on navy strength, for US$35,000. The firm of Merritt-Chapman & Scott was hired to sink the ship to simulate the torpedoing of a German destroyer.
