Seas Beneath (1931)

Seas Beneath: Directed by John Ford. With George O’Brien, Marion Lessing, Mona Maris, Walter C. Kelly. In the waning days of WWI, a U.S. “Mystery Ship,” sets sail for the coast of Spain towing a submarine. Their mission is to find and sink a U-boat that has been especially effective in attacking Allied shipping. Posing as a harmless schooner, the mystery ship is in fact fitted with a formidable gun capable of sinking a U-boat. Stopping in the Canary Islands to refuel, the crew interacts with locals involved with Germans, and with Germans themselves, including the sister of the U-Boat commander, who is lurking offshore waiting for the coming battle.

“From the beginning of the sound era until he won his Oscar for The Informer John Ford turned in an interesting body of work. Some of his films are good, others less so. It seemed to me it took him a bit longer than some of his peers to master the technique of sound on film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eCase in point is this World War I naval story Seas Beneath. An interesting and fine war film, itu0026#39;s hampered a great deal by a rather unrealistic romance between the sister of a U-Boat commander Marion Lessing and George Ou0026#39;Brien the American captain of the mystery ship.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOu0026#39;Brien is in command of the so-called mystery ship which has a pair of big guns camouflaged on board. The object is to look like a harmless American schooner and play decoy until the U-Boat comes in range and then cut loose. When the schooner puts into the Canary Islands for provisioning and to pick up any loose information, the Germans have the same thing in mind. In fact a female spy played by Mona Maris seduces young officer Steve Pendleton and finds out heu0026#39;s a lieutenant. Pendleton redeems himself in a most spectacular incident.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe battles at sea are staged very well. Surprising that other than star George Ou0026#39;Brien none of the known regulars from the Ford stock company are here. Walter C. Kelly plays the CPO of the ship and heu0026#39;s kind of a poor manu0026#39;s Victor McLaglen.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eJohn Ford completists will like the film and itu0026#39;s all right, but nothing more.”