Submarine Attack

Submarine Attack, aka La Grande Speranza, the Great Hope, Torpedo Zone
Directed by Duilio Coletti
Produced by Duilio Coletti, Excelsa Film
Written by Oreste Biancoli, Marc-Antonio Bragadin, Duilio Coletti, Ennio De Concini
Starring Lois Maxwell, Renato Baldini, Folco Lulli
Music by Nino Rota
Cinematography Leonida Barboni
Edited by Giuliana Attenni
Distributed by I.F.E. Releasing Corporation (English version)
Release dates
 1954
Running time
 86 minutes (English version)
Country Italy
Language Italian, dubbed into English

Originally titled La Grande Speranza, retitled Submarine Attack and Torpedo Zone in English, this low-key anti-war film is slow-moving and lacking in dramatic tension by action film standards, but conveys its message effectively. It is notable for being shot inside and on the deck of an actual submarine, and for winning both the Special Prize of the Senate of Berlin and the OCIC Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.[1] Also noteworthy is the subsequent career of the only woman in the film, Lois Maxwell, who went on to play Miss Moneypenny in 14 James Bond films.

Plot summary

An Italian submarine captain conducts successful attacks on enemy merchant shipping in the eastern Atlantic Ocean during World War II, and then rescues the survivors of his victims, including a member of the Canadian Women's Army Corps (and a dog). The captain's compulsion to save his victims culminates in his taking aboard 24 additional Danish merchant seamen; with no space down below, they are accommodated under the walkway outside the hull, at risk of drowning if the submarine is forced to submerge. He then sails the survivors hundreds of miles across the open ocean on the surface to put them ashore in the Azores.

Cast

References

  1. ↑ "4th Berlin International Film Festival: In Competition". berlinale.de. Retrieved 2009-12-23.
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