Laurence Harvey in, I think his best role, playing Lionel Kenneth "Buster" Crabb OBE GM. I love this film, based on a true story and a real life hero. Crabb was awarded the George Medal for his work in Gibraltar to disarm mines from British warships based there.There is a great mix of fact and some humour thrown in with the appearance of Sid James as a Chief Petty Officer charged with getting the new frogmen fit for the long and dangerous work they had to undertake. A classic British Black and white war film in every sense.Its also a film close to my heart as my late father actually dived with Lt Cdr. Crabb on HMS Reclaim just before he went missing undertaking secret dives underneath the soviet cruiser Ordzhonikidze in Portsmouth Harbour.Overall a great must watch film for B&W war film fans.

The Brits produced some fine war films in the late 40s and 50s, and this one is watchable. Lawrence Harvey leads a team of underwater demolition men against the Italian frogmen who are attaching mines to ships in the harbor at Gibralter and blowing them up. The climax comes when a large convoy arrives and pauses for a few days before bringing supplies and reenforcements to the Eighth Army in North Africa. The Italian unit, just across the border in Algeciras, Spain, a neutral country, is bound to attack it. Can they be stopped? Harvey and his mates are going to give it a try.This doesn't meet the criteria for polish and effect met by some other films of the period -- say, "The Dam Busters" or "Dunkirk", but if it's long and tiring, it has some things going for it. Lawrence Harvey is surprisingly good at the real-life Lieutenant Crabbe. Sid James is first rate as the Chief Petty Officer who brusquely but kindly teaches the team how to carry on. Dawn Addams, as a Wren officer, is delicious but has little to do. The tension of the training and the missions is leavened with some humor. Addams is leading the team to their quarters in a crumbling old fort. "That's a proper bastion," observes one of the men. James: "Watch your language -- ladies present!" In its early years, the war between the Brits and the Italians was often a gentlemanly affair and that's reflected in this film. We get to know the members of the Italian unit. And when one of their casualties is found by Harvey, the corpse is buried at sea with ritual respect. In North Africa, the Italians surrendered in droves, as many did in Sicily. Not because of cowardice but because Mussolini had gotten the nation into an increasingly unpopular war and because many Italians of the time owed their allegiance less to the state than to primary institutions like the family. In "The Godfather," Sonny Corleone makes the same point when he twits Michael for joining the Marine Corps. There were of course some excellent men fighting for Italy, especially a number of daredevils in the air force.The fronts in North Africa shifted back and forth and captured men from both sides went "in the bag." One was an Italian nobleman. The Italian government offered a ransom for his return -- I forget the amount -- but it was so small that the exalted POW was insulted at the amount and refused to return to Italy. Better to lose freedom than dignity.So, though it's no masterpiece, not "The Cruel Sea," neither is it as bad as some others of the time, like "The Gift Horse." And it has its exciting moments.

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!

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.