Up Periscope *** (1959, James Garner, Edmond O’Brien, Andra Martin) – Classic Movie Review 8325

Director Gordon Douglas’s 1959 Warner Bros drama Up Periscope is a tale of wartime underwater high-jinks, graced with James Garner as an underwater demolitions expert, US Navy Lieutenant Ken Braden, and Edmond O’Brien as an unbending sub commander, Paul Stevenson, sent to a Japanese island in the Pacific to snatch enemy secrets in 1942 by photographing secret radio codes.

There are no surprises in the yarn, which centres on the familiar conflict of the two men clashing, but it is full of interesting detail and background. And Up Periscope is very briskly, competently and professionally handled by Gordon Douglas, and very decently performed, especially by the young Garner, though the considerably less charming O’Brien is highly watchable too.

Richard H Landau’s screenplay is adapted from Robb White’s novel.

James Garner in Up Periscope (1959).

Also in the cast are Alan Hale Jr, Carleton Carpenter, Andra Martin, Frank Gifford, William Leslie, Richard Bakalyan, Edd Byrnes [Edward Byrnes] as Pharmacist Mate Ash, Sean Garrison, Henry Kulky, George Crise, Warren Oates, Robert Aiken, Francis De Sales, Bernie Hamilton, Harry Landers, Robert Sampson, Frank Watkins, Robert Whiteside and Chuck Hicks.

R.I.P. James Garner, who died on 19 July 2014, aged 86.

 © Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8325

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Edd Byrnes plays Pharmacist Mate Ash in Up Periscope (1959).