Hell and High Water **** (1954, Richard Widmark, Bella Darvi, Victor Francen, Cameron Mitchell, Gene Evans, David Wayne) – Classic Movie Review 3457

20th Century Fox’s complex, nail-biting, labyrinthine Cold War thriller about an American submarine’s mission up to the Arctic to put a spoke in the wheels of a Chinese conspiracy to start a war against America by landing an A-bomb on Korea and accusing the Yanks is one of director Samuel Fuller’s best, most impressive movies.

Cast against type, an engrossing Richard Widmark heads up the heroism as the sub’s US mercenary commander, Captain Adam Jones, whose vessel is hired by French atomic scientist Professor Montel (Victor Francen) and his daughter Denise (Bella Darvi) to tail a ship to the Arctic, where they see it disgorging charges for the bomb.

With stalwart acting, a very decent production and very fair (for the time) Oscar-nominated special effects, this is one hell of a fine, intelligent movie that reveals a lot about the paranoia of its time. It is notable for cameraman Joe MacDonald’s striking underwater photography in CinemaScope, seen at its best in a cinema, though its impact is greatly diminished on a smaller TV screen.

Widmark is on suitably commanding form in what turns out to be an ideal role for him and Darvi (in her movie debut) takes care of the mostly unnecessary romance neatly enough. This is a nifty exercise in high anxiety and an underrated achievement from the still shamefully neglected cult director-writer. Fuller writes the screenplay with Jesse L Lasky Jr, adapting a story by David Hempstead.

It also stars Cameron Mitchell, Gene Evans, David Wayne, Stephen Bekassy, Richard Loo and Henry Kulky.

Also in the cast are Wong Artarne, Harry Carter, Robert Adler, Don Orlando, Rollin Moriyama and John Gifford.

The previous year, Widmark also starred in Fuller’s Pickup on South Street (1953).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3457

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