I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Good concept, poorly executed.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This story of a Quaker gunnery officer on a Navy destroyer in World War II bears some resemblance to Howard Hawks' "Sergeant York" but not much. Will Allan Ladd manage to overcome his unwillingness to fire at the enemy and save the lives of his shipmates? Well, it seems to be an on-again off-again switch with Ladd, unlike Sergeant York who simply rendered unto Caesar those things that were Caesar's.Ladd's story seems to be laid out according to the numbers. We first get to know him as an interesting guy, introducing his girl friend (who is completely dispensable) to Amer Picon, a Basque liqueur rarely found in America these days.Ladd may be adventurous in his taste for liquor and, for all we know, his taste in women, but he's not anxious to shoot at an unidentified aircraft when they're at sea. The men disparage him. One of the officers, Keenan Wynne, hates him. His only supporter seems to be "Frenchy" Shapiro, an unlikely character played by William Bendix. Bendix was in real life an old friend of Ladd's by this time. The conflict is cleared up during a landing party in the Aleutian Islands, in which Frenchy is killed and Ladd wounded.The script was partly written by Harry Brown who was responsible for some genuinely unusual -- even arty -- dialog in "A Walk In The Sun." But here it's no better than average. The funny banter among the enlisted men is silly rather than funny. The supporting players mostly do their jobs professionally but Ladd himself adds nothing. He was never a bravura performer and no one expects him to be. But he was doing a lot of booze and barbiturates during this period and although he was only in his 40s he looked puffy eyed and creaky. There's a terrible scene towards the end, when he and Bendix are being brought back to the ship in a lifeboat. Bendix dies in his arms and Ladd can't quite grasp the fact. He goes on mumbling to the dead body and when told that Bendix is gone, he says aloud, "Frenchy? Dead?" And he doesn't sound dazed with pain or shock. He sounds plastered.It's a little painful to watch Ladd walk his way through this routine script because, given a certain undemanding kind of role, he could be quite good. But everything seems to jar in this film. Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians has never seen bright, sunny weather like this. Even the model work in "Destination Tokyo" went to the trouble of simulating the cold and the dreary fog.I guess the message is supposed to be that some things are worth killing for. But, in the worst moment of the film, the hortative notion goes beyond that -- somewhere into the realm of "killing others is fun." Ladd and Bendix are making their escape from a Japanese-held island. Most of the enemy patrol is killed, but one wounded Japanese soldier wanders out into the open, a few feet away. Bendix raises his Tommy gun, then hesitates, grins, nudges Ladd and gestures that Ladd should have the privilege and fun of shooting and killing a wounded enemy. Killing wounded enemy soldiers and airmen was routine on both sides in the Pacific theater, but turning it into the equivalent of an amusement park ride is something else.

This movie was really quite bad. No action, the conflicts were not well dramatized. Alan Ladd did not seem to be giving much of an effort here at all. He looked about 15 years older than his 45 years. However, there are a lot of famous actors in it and only fun part of this was in guessing their names. "Hey, that was Jerry(the beaver) Mathers!" From beginning to end this movie never really got off the ground. The pacing seemed very slow and if I'm not mistaken it was done with a small budget. At one point the destroyer they were on changed to an aircraft carrier during a Japanese strafing run. All the action scenes and scenes were rushed and seemed uninteresting. William Bendix was probably the best of the bunch at the time. The story lines of the side characters were never developed to a point where anyone could care about them.

The very subject of the movie eludes the director.The movie looks like some kind of cross between "Friendly Persuasion" (Wyler)and "the Caine Mutiny" (Dmytryk) Like Anthony Perkins in Wyler's movie,Alan Ladd's mom is a quaker and he was brought up that way and carefully taught;unfortunately he does not know where he stands anymore and whether he should or should not kill.Which is not that easy when you are in the navy.The lieutenant Commander,portrayed by Keenan Wynn ,recalls sometimes Humphrey Bogart in "the Caine Mutiny" ,(and also Richard Dix in Robson's "the ghost ship" )with his obsession with authority -he began his career as a private whereas Ladd went to college and became a reserve officer-Too bad the character is underwritten.The best does not come,IMHO,from the main plot ,but from the subplots:Frenchy,his missus and his Edith we get to know in a way,is an endearing character ,well played by William Bendix;the death of the two children's father is told with a great simplicity ,avoiding the maudlin side of melodrama;Private Aaron provides the comic relief with his numerous Armenian cousins;and there's a good scene between the Navy and the merchant marine about a jukebox.

THE DEEP SIX made a big impression on me as a kid. (I don't recall seeing more than bits and pieces since then.) At that time, World War II movies were big, as were afternoon matinees. After watching this we turned a friend's backyard tree into a submarine conning tower, which gave us hours and hours of play.Two scenes I particularly remember:One is when the Japanese, on the pretext of surrendering on a beach, have a machine gun hidden on the back of one of their soldiers. Suddenly he bends over and the guy behind him opens fire with the machine gun, mowing down the helpless and gullible Yanks.And of course the key scene is when the conscientious objector, played by Alan Ladd, finally fires his gun in defense of his fellow soldiers.8 out of 10 for the fond memories of youth....