William Holden stars in Effective Early PTSD Wartime Drama
DIRECTED BY JOHN FARROW/1951
BLU-RAY STREET DATE: MAY 14, 2024/KL STUDIO CLASSICS
Emboldening my theory that it’s difficult to find a bad submarine movie is John Farrow’s 1951 psychological military drama Submarine Command. Though the longish middle act of the film is landlocked, the sequences that do take place on the hero sub (The fictional but venerable USS Tiger Shark) are stated upfront to have been filmed on an authentic vessel. (Specifically, the role of the USS Tiger Shark was played by the USS Sterlet, a Balao-class submarine).
The unfortunately generically titled Submarine Command finds stars William Holden and Nancy Olson reunited one year following their pairing in Billy Wilder’s seminal noir Sunset Blvd. This time, however, Holden manages to get the girl. Or, more accurately, Olson manages to get him. He plays Cmdr. Ken White, a career Navy man who, following his decision to submerge the Tiger Shark in the heat of battle- a maneuver that saves the ship but knowingly ensures the death of its Captain and Quartermaster- remains haunted by the events of that day. It also just so happens that that day turned out to be the final day of World War II.
The ensuing decade finds White persevering. He is married to Olson’s character, Carol, who’s devotion to him and his unflinching Naval identity led her to give up a high-paying advertising job. He’s eventually able to move on from his trauma over the above-described battle, and the Tiger Shark is decommissioned as part of the sweeping U.S. disarmament following WWII.
And then there was….. Korea. Like Samuel Fuller’s accomplished Fixed Bayonets! (also 1951), Submarine Command veers headlong into the Korean War as it was actually happening. The new war triggers White’s PTSD (they didn’t call it that then, though such suppressed horror is obviously at the center of the character’s issues), and for good measure, the Tiger Shark is decommissioned. Farrow is much too honest of a director to allow for a thoroughly rosy wrap-up, though Submarine Command is not without low-level contrivances in its final moments.
KL Studio Classics’ 2024 Blu-ray release of Submarine Command utilized an HD master created by Paramount Pictures in 2020, taken from a 4K scan. The well-composed black and white film looks outstanding. Besides an array of related KLSC trailers (Run Silent, Run Deep and the like), this Blu-ray includes a new audio commentary by filmmaker/historian Steve Mitchell and Combat Films: American Realism author Steven Jay Rubin. It’s great, top to bottom. Mitchell makes good with Submarine Command’s shooting logs and budgetary minutia without ever growing monotonous while Rubin provides a well-informed sounding board. The commentary manages to be both tremendously informative and an easy listen- a true rarity.
While marketed as an action film, Submarine Command is truly a character study of Commander White, and a pained one at that. Such a story sinks or swims on the dedication of its lead actor and those closely supporting him. In this case, Holden and company truly come through. Despite that Holden later claimed to have zero memory of the six-week shoot (he was, sadly, no stranger to the drink), he also claimed the central issue of what would come to be known as PTSD was close to his heart. So close that, according to the commentary, he paid for a portion of the production out of his own pocket. It’s one of many ways that Submarine Command, so indicative of its era’s emerging rugged clear-eyed honesty about war and its effects, goes deep on authenticity.