The Frogmen (1951)

Director:

Lloyd Bacon

Writers:

John Tucker Battle (screenplay)
Oscar Millard (story)

Release Date:

8 September 1951 (Sweden)

Genre:

Adventure | War | Drama

Tagline:

UNCLE SAM'S UNDERWATER COMMANDOS! (original print ad - all caps)

Plot:

The new commander of a Navy Underwater Demolition Team--nicknamed "Frogmen"--must earn the respect of the men in his unit, who are still grieving over the death of their former commander and resentful of the new one.

Plot Keywords:

Scuba Diving | Military | Frogman

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars.

Cast

Richard Widmark	...	Lt. Cmdr. John Lawrence
Dana Andrews	...	Jake Flannigan
Gary Merrill	...	Lt. Cmdr. Pete Vincent
Jeffrey Hunter	...	Pappy Creighton
Warren Stevens	...	Hodges
Robert Wagner	...	Lt. (jg) Franklin
Harvey Lembeck	...	Marvin W. 'Canarsie' Mikowsky
Robert Rockwell	...	Lt. Bill Doyle
Henry Slate	...	Sleepy

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #15030) | UK:U | West Germany:12 (f) | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Culebra, Puerto Rico

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

The Underwater Demolition Team the frogmen in the film belong to is UDT-4 (some members of the team wear utility jackets with artwork of a large number "4" and a shark on the back). The real UDT-4 in World War II saw combat in the invasions of Okinawa, Saipan, Guam, and the Philippines. Like the fictional Team in the film, the real UDT-4 had one of their boats hit and sunk by Japanese fire at Leyte, and left a sign on the beach at Guam to welcome the invading Marines.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The triple-tank aqualungs used by the UDT frogmen during the film's climactic mission are incorrect for the WWII period. Although 'Jacques Cousteau', an officer in the French Navy, was working with experimental aqualungs near the end of WWII, U.S. Navy Underwater Demolition Teams did not have them during the war.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Junior (1985)

My Dad was one of the real Frogmen in the film...

My dad used to tell us stories about the film every time it came on - he was in UDT Platoon 2 on TDY from Korea and got to spend part of his rotation for R&R doing the film with his team. They did all the underwater work, the scenes with the landing craft picking up the team from the water, and they set the satchel charges for the shot when they blow up the beach obstacles prior to the landing.

He also used to to tell stories about Dana Andrews and his drinking during the filming, but that is another story. It is a good movie and, from Dad's and the UDT's perspective, had some BS in it - but relatively accurate overall.

In Korea, his team was assigned to swim in from off-shore and go inland to blow up installations, bridges, etc. overrun by the North Koreans/Chinese. They had to swim their stuff in from miles offshore, hump the explosives inland (armed with a knife and a pistol - Dad said he used a .38 because he couldn't hit much of anything over 30 yards away with a .45), blow up the objective then make it back out. Of course, things were even MORE primitive for the combat swimmers of WWII!