Above Us the Waves (1955)

Director:

Ralph Thomas

Writers:

Charles Esme Thornton Warren (book) and
James D. Benson (book) ...

Release Date:

26 October 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | History | War

Tagline:

Action on the High Seas!

Plot:

The attack by British midget submarines on the German battleship "Tirpitz" in a Norwegian fjord during the Second World War.

Plot Keywords:

Battleship | Submarine | Torpedo | German Navy | Royal Navy

Cast

John Mills	...	Cmdr. Fraser
John Gregson	...	Lt Alec Duffy
Donald Sinden	...	Lt Tom Corbett
James Robertson Justice	...	Adm. Ryder
Michael Medwin	...	Smart
James Kenney	...	Abercrombie
O.E. Hasse	...	Captain of the Tirpitz
Lee Patterson	...	Cox
William Russell	...	Ramsey
Theodore Bikel	...	German Officer
Harry Towb	...	McCleery
Cyril Chamberlain	...	CPO Chubb
Tony Wager	...	George (as Anthony Wager)
Leslie Weston	...	Winley
Lyndon Brook	...	Diver Navigator, X2

Runtime:

99 min | USA:92 min | UK:74 min (re-release)

Country:

UK

Language:

English | German | Swedish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

London Independent Producers

Trivia:

The attack by midget submarines did considerable damage, and actually put the Tirpitz out of action. The Tirpitz was later sunk using gigantic 6 ton bombs by R.A.F. Sqn. 617.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The sub machine guns have wooden stock so are definitely not Stirlings which have curved magazines also. They look more like MP28 Schmiessers (not to be confused with the falsely named MP38/40) or Erma EMP35 which would have been in second line naval service at the time. (They may have been Austrian/Swiss Steyr-Solthuthurn MP34/S1-100 or even British Lanchester MK1 which were used by the RN in the war.)

Movie Connections:

Featured in War Stories (2006) (TV)

Unimpressed by unintentional satire

If anything essays the upstairs-downstairs values of England, this film does it. Hilarious. Above decks its all 'Well done chaps..' Below decks its more 'Right oh Guv! Almost the archetypal stiff-upper lip British movie of all time. It seems like a satire, but I sure they were all deadly serious.