Drama - Navy A - L
Above Us the Waves
J. Arthur Rank (UK)
Director: Ralph Thomas
Screenplay: Robin Estridge
Source: Charles Esme Thornton Warren (book)
Cast: John Mills, John Gregson, Donald Sinden
92 minutes - 1955
The attack by British submarines on the German battleship "Tirpitz" in a Norwegian fjord during World War II
Against All Flags
Universal (USA)
Director: George Sherman
Screenplay: Æneas MacKenzie ; Joseph Hoffman
Cast: Errol Flynn, Maureen O'Hara, Anthony Quinn
84 minutes - 1952
Brian Hawke of the Royal Navy versus the pirates of Madagascar
Away All Boats!
Universal (USA)
Director: Joseph Pevney
Screenplay: Ted Sherdeman
Source: Kenneth M. Dodson (novel)
Cast: Jeff Chandler, George Nader, Lex Barker
114 minutes - 1956
The story of a U.S. naval ship and its crew in the Pacific, 1943-1945
Battleship
Universal (USA)
Director: Peter Berg
Screenplay: Jon & Erich Hoeber
Cast: Alexander Skarsgård, Brooklyn Decker, Liam Neeson
131 minutes - 2012
The movie of the board game
Battleship Potemkin
Mosfilm (USSR)
Director: Sergei Eisenstein
Screenplay: Nina Agadzhanova
Cast: Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barskiy, Grigoriy Aleksandrov
66 minutes - 1925
Mutiny - famous Odessa Steps scene
The Bedford Incident
Columbia (USA)
Director: James B. Harris
Screenplay: James Poe
Source: Mark Rascovich (novel)
Cast: Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, James MacArthur
102 minutes - 1965
An American destroyer Captain is determined to confront a Soviet submarine caught violating territorial waters
The Bounty
Orion (USA)
Director: Roger Donaldson
Screenplay: Robert Bolt
Source: Richard Hough (book)
Cast: Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier
132 minutes - 1984
Fed up with their Captain's harsh discipline, a sailing ship's crew decides to take action
The Bridges At Toko Ri
Paramount (USA)
Director: Mark Robson
Screenplay: Valentine Davies
Source: James A. Michener (novel)
Cast: William Holden, Grace Kelly, Fredric March
102 minutes - 1954
Set during the Korean War, a Navy fighter pilot must come to terms with with his own ambivalence towards the war and the fear of having to bomb a set of highly defended bridges
The Caine Mutiny
Columbia (USA)
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Screenplay: Stanley Roberts
Source: Herman Wouk (novel)
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, José Ferrer, Van Johnson, Fred McMurray
124 minutes - 1954
When a U.S. Naval captain shows signs of mental instability that jeopardizes the ship, the first officer relieves him of command and faces court martial for mutiny
Captain Horatio Hornblower
Warner Bros (US)
Director: Raoul Walsh
Screenplay: Æneas MacKenzie ; Ivan Goff ; Ben Roberts
Source: C. S. Forester (novels)
Cast: Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo, Robert Beatty
117 minutes - 1951
During the Napoleonic wars, a British Navy Captain has adventures in Central American waters
Crash Dive
20th Century Fox (USA)
Director: Archie Mayo
Screenplay: Jo Swerling
Source: W. R. Burnett (story)
Cast: Tyrone Power, Anne Baxter, Dana Andrews
106 minutes - 1943
A submarine lieutenant and his commander fall in love with the same girl
Crimson Tide
Hollywood Pictures (USA)
Director: Tony Scott
Screenplay: Michael Schiffer
Source: Michael Schiffer ; Richard P. Henrick (story)
Cast: Gene Hackman, Denzel Washington, Matt Craven, Viggo Mortensen
116 minutes - 1995
On a U.S. nuclear missile sub, a young First Officer stages a mutiny, to prevent his trigger happy Captain from launching his missiles
The Cruel Sea
Ealing Studios (UK)
Director: Charles Frend
Screenplay: Eric Ambler
Source: Nicholas Monsarrat (novel)
Cast: Jack Hawkins, Donald Sinden, John Stratton, Denholm Elliott
126 minutes - 1953
WWII adventures of a British convoy escort ship and its officers
Das Boot
Triumph (USA)
Director: Wolfgang Petersen
Screenplay: Wolfgang Petersen
Source: Lothar Buchheim (novel)
Cast: Juergen Prochnow
208 minutes - 1981
Germany U-boat ops WWII
Destination Tokyo
Warner Bros (USA)
Director: Delmer Daves
Screenplay: Delmer Daves ; Albert Maltz
Source: Steve Fisher (story)
Cast: Cary Grant, John Garfield, Alan Hale
135 minutes - 1943
In order to provide information for the first air raid over Tokyo, a U.S. submarine sneaks into Tokyo Bay and places a spy team ashore
Destroyer
Columbia (USA)
Director: William A. Seiter
Screenplay: Frank Wead ; Ray Enright ; Borden Chase
Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Glenn Ford, Marguerite Chapman
99 minutes - 1943
A new WW2 destroyer fails its sea trials so it is assigned to mail runs, but the crew ends up having to engage Japanese planes and a submarine
The Enemy Below
20th Century Fox (USA)
Director: Dick Powell
Screenplay: Wendell Mayes
Source: D. A. Rayner (novel)
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Curt Jürgens, David Hedison
98 minutes - 1958
During World War II, an American destroyer meets a German U-Boat. Both captains are experts, and so begins a deadly game of cat-and-mouse
The Fighting Lady
20th Century Fox (USA)
Director: Edward Steichen
Screenplay: John Stuart Martin ; Eugene Ling
Cast: Robert Taylor, Charles Boyer, Joseph J. Clark
61 minutes - 1944
Docudrama of Essex class Carrier ops in WWII
Flat Top
Monogram (USA)
Director: Lesley Salander
Screenplay: Steve Fisher
Cast: Sterling Hayden, Richard Carlson, William Phipps
83 minutes - 1952
Carrier ops WWII
The Frogmen
20th Century Fox (USA)
Director: Lloyd Bacon
Screenplay: John Tucker Battle
Source: Oscar Millard (story)
Cast: Richard Widmark, Dana Andrews, Gary Merrill, Jeffrey Hunter
96 minutes - 1951
The new commander of a Navy Underwater Demolition Team must earn the respect of the men in his unit
The Gallant Hours
United Artists (USA)
Director: Robert Montgomery
Screenplay: Frank D. Gilroy ; Beirne Lay, jr.
Cast: James Cagney, Dennis Weaver, Ward Costello
115 minutes - 1960
Covers the five-week period in October–November 1942 after Admiral William (Bull) Halsey takes command of the American forces
La Grande Speranza
Excelsa (Italy)
Director: Duilio Coletti
Screenplay: Marc-Antonio Bragadin ; Oreste Biancoli
Source: Marc-Antonio Bragadin (story)
Other Titles: Submarine Attack ; Torpedo Zone
Cast: Lois Maxwell, Renato Baldini, Carlo Bellini
86 minutes - 1955
During WWII, handsome young Italian sub commander and his crew torpedo Allied freighters and transport ships for the Axis then rescue the occasional survivor and treat them humanely while seeking a safe place to put them ashore
Gray Lady Down
Universal (USA)
Director: David Greene
Screenplay:James Whittaker ; Howard Sacler ; Frank P. Rosenberg
Source: David Lavallee (novel: Event 1000)
Cast: Charlton Heston, David Carradine, Stacy Keach
111 minutes - 1978
A Navy Captain uses his experimental Snark to reach a nuclear submarine stuck on an ocean ledge
Hell Below
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (USA)
Director: Jack Conway
Screenplay: Laird Doyle ; Raymond L. Schrock
Source: Edward Ellsberg (novel: Pigboats)
Cast: Robert Montgomery, Walter Huston, Madge Evans, Jimmy Durante
101 minutes - 1933
In 1918, U.S. Navy Lt. Tommy Knowlton participates in dangerous submarine missions, disobeys orders, gets court-martialed and romances a married woman who happens to be his C.O.'s daughter
Hell to Eternity
Atlantic Pictures (USA)
Director: Phil Karlson
Screenplay: Ted Sherdeman ; Walter Roeber Schmidt
Source: Gil Doud (story)
Cast: Jeffrey Hunter, David Janssen, Vic Damone
131 minutes - 1960
When his adoptive Japanese-American family is sent to Manzanar after Pearl Harbor, a young Chicano enlists in the marines to become a hero in the Battle of Saipan
Hearts in Bondage
Republic (USA)
Director: Lew Ayres
Screenplay: Bernard Schubert ; Olive Cooper
Source: Wallace MacDonald (story)
Cast: James Dunn, Mae Clarke, David Manners
72 minutes - 1936
Civil War - Monitor & Merrimac
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
20th Century Fox (USA)
Director: John Huston
Screenplay: John Lee Mahin ; John Huston
Source: Charles Shaw (novel)
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Deborah Kerr
107 minutes - 1957
During World War II, an American marine and an Irish nun form an unlikely friendship after being stranded on a South Pacific island. They find comfort in one another as the two hope for a rescue.
H.M.S. Defiant
G.W. Films (UK)
Director: Lewis Gilbert
Screenplay: Nigel Kneale ; Edmund H. North
Source: Frank Tisley (novel: Mutiny!)
Other Titles: Damn the Defiant!
Cast: Alec Guiness, Dirk Bogarde, Anthony Quayle
101 minutes - 1962
On the H.M.S. Defiant, during the French Revolutionary War, the Captain is locked in a battle of wills against his cruel second-in-command
The Hunt for Red October
Paramount (USA)
Director: John McTiernan
Screenplay: Larry Ferguson ; Donald E. Stewart
Source: Tom Clancy (novel)
Cast: Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin, Scott Glenn
135 minutes - 1990
Defecting Soviet submarnie
Ice Station Zebra
Filmways (USA)
Director: John Sturges
Screenplay: Douglas Heyes ; Harry Julian Fink
Source: Alistair MacLean (novel)
Cast: Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan, Jim Brown
148 minutes - 1968
USN nuclear sub USS Tigerfish must rush to the North Pole to rescue the staff of Drift Ice Station Zebra weather station
In Harm's Way
Paramount (USA)
Director: Otto Preminger
Screenplay:Wendell Mayes
Source: James Bassett (novel)
Cast: John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal
165 minutes - 1965
A Naval officer, reprimanded after Pearl Harbor, is later promoted to Rear Admiral and gets a second chance to prove himself against the Japanese
In Which We Serve
Two Cities (UK)
Director: Noël Coward ; David Lean
Screenplay: Noël Coward
Cast: Noël Coward, John Mills, Bernard Miles
115 minutes - 1942
This "story of a ship", the British destroyer H.M.S. Torrin, is told in flashbacks by survivors as they cling to a life raft
John Paul Jones
Warner Bros (USA)
Director: John Farrow
Screenplay: John Farrow ; Jesse Lasky, jr.
Cast: Robert Stack, Marisa Pavan, Charles Coburn
126 minutes - 1959
The career of Revolutionary War naval hero from his youth in Scotland through his service to Catherine the Great of Russia
K-19: the Widowmaker
Paramount (USA)
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Screenplay: Christopher Kyle
Source: Louis Nowra (story)
Cast:Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson
138 minutes - 2002
When Russia's first nuclear submarine malfunctions on its maiden voyage, the crew must race to save the ship and prevent a nuclear disaster
The Key
Columbia (USA)
Director: Carol Reed
Screenplay: Carl Foreman
Source: Jan de Hartog (novel)
Cast: William Holden, Sophia Loren, Trevor Howard
134 minutes - 1958
Successive tugboat British Captains sent on dangerous salvage missions pass-on the key to a home-port apartment, where a lonely Swiss-Italian young war-widow lives