This unusual Cold War adventure features a star whose life off-screen was far more fascinating than her roles on-screen.
Ex-submarine commander, Adam Jones (Richard Widmark), is hired by an international consortium of scientists, statesmen and concerned citizens to command an old WW2 Japanese sub to track down a group of nuclear scientists who have disappeared in a remote area north of Japan.
Like Cagney before him, Widmark always seemed to be shaping up to the world, and so it is with his Commander Jones who assembles a crew straight out of the Hollywood Submariner Stereotypes Manual. He also takes along a professor and his assistant, Denise Gerard (Bella Darvi).
The action doesn't stray too far from the Twentieth Century Fox sound stages, but does have a couple of exciting sequences with pretty good special effects - even if the atomic explosion at the end doesn't look like it had the scale to disrupt peak hour traffic.
Over the 60 years since it was made, I have learnt more about the stars and the filmmakers, and a reason for revisiting the film was to see Bella Darvi in another movie other than "The Egyptian".
She was Darryl Zanuck's mistress back in the day and he was besotted with her. Much of this is detailed in Leonard Moseley's "Zanuck: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood's Last Tycoon", but there is plenty of information on the Internet.
Zanuck put her in three movies but the public did not take to her. The critics shredded her performance as Nefer in "The Egyptian" claiming that her acting was wooden. I didn't mind it at all, although she was fairly unanimated. "Nefer was" was the bitchy comment from one co-star - being topped-off with a red fright-wig also didn't help.
But in "Hell and High Water", made before "The Egyptian", she is completely different. Warm and radiant, she displays a range of emotions as well as a sexy French accent; it is here that you can see the charm of the women who caused such turbulence in Darryl Zanuck's life. No doubt, the difference in the performances had a lot to do with the directors, Sam Fuller in this case.
Like other tragic stars, it is sad knowing that aged 42 she turned on the gas in her Paris apartment and exited a life that had probably always been on a downward spiral.
"Hell and High Water" is a competent piece of filmmaking from the Silver Age, but knowing a little about the stars and how it was made makes it far more compelling.
Ex-submarine commander, Adam Jones (Richard Widmark), is hired by an international consortium of scientists, statesmen and concerned citizens to command an old WW2 Japanese sub to track down a group of nuclear scientists who have disappeared in a remote area north of Japan.
Like Cagney before him, Widmark always seemed to be shaping up to the world, and so it is with his Commander Jones who assembles a crew straight out of the Hollywood Submariner Stereotypes Manual. He also takes along a professor and his assistant, Denise Gerard (Bella Darvi).
The action doesn't stray too far from the Twentieth Century Fox sound stages, but does have a couple of exciting sequences with pretty good special effects - even if the atomic explosion at the end doesn't look like it had the scale to disrupt peak hour traffic.
Over the 60 years since it was made, I have learnt more about the stars and the filmmakers, and a reason for revisiting the film was to see Bella Darvi in another movie other than "The Egyptian".
She was Darryl Zanuck's mistress back in the day and he was besotted with her. Much of this is detailed in Leonard Moseley's "Zanuck: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood's Last Tycoon", but there is plenty of information on the Internet.
Zanuck put her in three movies but the public did not take to her. The critics shredded her performance as Nefer in "The Egyptian" claiming that her acting was wooden. I didn't mind it at all, although she was fairly unanimated. "Nefer was" was the bitchy comment from one co-star - being topped-off with a red fright-wig also didn't help.
But in "Hell and High Water", made before "The Egyptian", she is completely different. Warm and radiant, she displays a range of emotions as well as a sexy French accent; it is here that you can see the charm of the women who caused such turbulence in Darryl Zanuck's life. No doubt, the difference in the performances had a lot to do with the directors, Sam Fuller in this case.
Like other tragic stars, it is sad knowing that aged 42 she turned on the gas in her Paris apartment and exited a life that had probably always been on a downward spiral.
"Hell and High Water" is a competent piece of filmmaking from the Silver Age, but knowing a little about the stars and how it was made makes it far more compelling.