Good concept, poorly executed.

Crappy film

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I beg to disagree with those who see this movie as a great historical testament. It is a good war movie but it shows how in the Fifties, Brtain had still to come to terms with Italians outsmarting the Royal Navy. In the movie Crabb blows up the Olterra, the merchant ship secretly transformed by the cunning Italian frogman into a base for their submarines. I suppose to great amusement of the British audience. Reality is quite different. In fact, the "olterra" was never discovered by the British and actually, the very night in which Italy announced the armistice with the Allies, the 8th of September 1943, the frogmen were planning an attack. Only after the armistice, the trick was made known to the Royal Navy. Nothing was discovered, nothing was blown up except the British ships.Good war novel, poor historical testimony. Must have been a role model for the Americans who, according to Hollywood, discovered enigma on a U-boot!

Lieutenant Commander Lionel "Buster" Crabb G.M.,O.B.E.,R.N.V.R.was a true eccentric,a man of indomitable courage,a naval officer in the fine tradition that service has for tolerating individuality and independence of thought amongst its members.After a dazzling wartime career he stayed in uniform for some years taking part in peacetime operations all over the world.Because of the mystery surrounding his disappearance the latter part of his naval service has become shrouded in controversy,but it is known that in 1956,at the age of 46 with years of hard drinking catching up with him,he was engaged on a "deniable" operation by the Home Office(read M.I.5.) to inspect the hull of the Russian cruiser "Ordzhonikidze" in Portsmouth Harbour where it was moored up during a "Goodwill" visit by Messrs Kruschev and Bulganin. He had already successfully done a similar job on it's sister - ship "Sverdlov" and there was no reason to suppose the second task would be any more difficult than the first,but he never returned from the dive. Almost immediately rumours began to fly and a cover - up plan was put into action,the police removing the appropriate page from the guest book in the Portsmouth hotel where he spent his last night. Conspiracies and counter - conspiracies were hinted at for forty years and "Buster" Crabb was not forgotten.Eventually a retired Soviet Naval Intelligence officer living in the Middle East was permitted to give what is now generally accepted to be the true version of Commander Crabb's fate.Apparently he was spotted swimming between the two Russian warships by an alert crew member,a marksman was called up from below deck and shot him in the head with a rifle,killing him instantly. Fortunately the body sank and an awkward diplomatic incident was avoided So sensitive is this issue even today that the Cabinet papers referring to it were recently re - classified as not due for release until 2057. "The silent enemy" was made 2 years after his disappearance and makes no effort to airbrush out his unconventionality,even going so far as giving Mr Laurence Harvey a silver - topped cane identical to the real one "Crabbie" carried everywhere. Ariving at Gibraltar as a bomb - disposal expert,Crabb had no previous underwater experience,but,diving at first in plimsoles and trunks,was soon removing mines sewn on British ships by a brave team of Italian frogmen based in nearby Algeciras in nominally neutral Spain. He and his team become engaged in a war within a war so to speak,eventually going mano a mano underwater against their silent enemy in an operation to recover a suitcase of military secrets from a crashed aircraft in the harbour.Crabb was awarded the George Medal for his part in this success.The movie ends here,rather abruptly,as his assistant CPO Thorne passes the news on to him.Mr Harvey acknowledges his men's salutes,"You all deserve the ruddy medal" he says steadily before marching off.Probably to tell the Admiral precisely that. Mr Harvey plays Crabb as the best kind of naval officer.He doesn't patronise his men,nor does he try to curry their favour.He doesn't call them by their first names or look at photographs of their wives and kiddies,he just leads them.He won't require them to do anything that he is not capable of doing himself at least as well,preferably better. Mr Sid James is very good in the role of CPO Thorne the sort of man who is the backbone of the navy ;respected by both the Wardroom and the Lower Deck,a man of humour and compassion who knows King's Regulations back to front and knows how to apply them justly.On the cusp of his transition to "Carry On" buffoonery this was one of his last gos at proper acting,it's a great pity he rarely went back to it. "The Silent Enemy" is a sincere and well - made tribute to a brave and resolute man who survived the hot war in the warm blue Mediterranean only to die in the Cold War in the chilled black oily waters of Portsmouth Harbour.50 years on I doubt whether anyone involved in the decision to send him on that last operation is still alive.Doubtless Crabbie has been giving them a piece of his mind at the soonest opportunity.

Fond memories of this film as my Dad was one of the commandos who had to swim over to Spain to blow up the dastardly Axis'. Though for a Brit', it is a bit strange saying "which one are you Dad? Are you Sid James?" His memory of the commander was that he was a tad eccentric who slept in a rubber blanket. Then my Dad has lots of old recollections of World War 2, Russian Convoys, North Africa, serving on a Free French vessel (it had been re-fitted in America so had an ice-cream maker on board and as well as the British Navy ration of Rum got the French ration of Wine as well) and behind enemy lines in South East Asia. This film is the only one I know of of his own exploits though.

A superb wartime adventure, the Silent Enemy is the true story of Lieutenant Crabbe, a Royal Navy bomb and mine disposal officer sent to Gibraltar on a urgent mission to undo damage being inflicted on the fleet by sly Italian frogmen led by a brilliant underwater engineer. Though he has never dived before Crabbe takes to the underwater world like a fish, and with the help of a plucky NCO and dedicated but tiny band of men turns back the hidden menace. Crabbe and his courageous crew ultimately stop the Italian 10th Flotilla divers from turning the tide of the war.Characters and acting are sharp. Cinematography and staging on land and especially underwater are very good. Writing is great too. The military historical significance is that these underwater demolition techniques and technologies are the precursors of modern Navy SEALs, Special Boat Squads, etc. The movie significance is that the characters and plot elements foreshadow every James Bond and action movie that's ever had frogmen, underwater fight scenes, secret ships, mini-subs, or stealty sub-surface saboteurs. Being drawn from real life, I found The Silent Enemy even more compelling.