Submarine Patrol

One of the lesser known feature films of John Ford has Richard Greene and Preston Foster co-starring in Submarine Patrol. Foster has been court martialed, reduced in rank and now in command of a submarine chaser which looks to be the equivalent of a PT boat World War I style. He's also been given a really green and rank crew.

Greene is a fresh young squirt with connections and looks like he got a part that possibly Tyrone Power rejected at 20th Century Fox. It's just like the kind of hero/heel role that Power was beginning to make a specialty of. He's not happy being assigned to a submarine chaser, but orders are orders as he's firmly told.

The ship's first job is to escort a convoy and on one of them is Nancy Kelly, daughter of Captain George Bancroft. Bancroft ain't liking Greene no way, no how with his preppy rich boy attitude. But Greene is persistent here and persistent in showing Foster that he can be counted on in a pinch.

A lot of the rest of the crew is made up of Ford regulars like Jack Pennick, J. Farrell MacDonald, and Ward Bond. The usual monkeyshines associated with a Ford military picture are all present here. Take particular note of the harassed cook Slim Summerville who seems only to be able to make and serve lamb stew and the bookish Elisha Cook who actually earns his BA while on board the ship.

Submarine Patrol is not likely to be rated as one of his best, but Ford does not make bad ones for the most part.

1938's "Submarine Patrol" was reportedly a personal favorite of director John Ford, rather surprising considering the classic status of his next few pictures, "Stagecoach," "Young Mr. Lincoln," "Drums Along the Mohawk," and "The Grapes of Wrath." It's a watchable but eminently forgettable entry, featuring such dependable 'stock company' members as George Bancroft, John Carradine, Jack Pennick, and Ward Bond. Top billed is newcomer Richard Greene, a holdover from "Four Men and a Prayer," as wealthy yachtsman and playboy Perry Townsend III, who joins the Navy during WW1 in the hope that his father's influence will earn him instant acclaim. Instead, he winds up assigned as Chief Engineer to the smallest craft in the 'Splinter Fleet' (the film's original shooting title), a mere 110 feet, under the supervision of Lt. Drake (Preston Foster), and a crew without any experience on the water, played by dependables like Douglas Fowley, Warren Hymer, Elisha Cook, George E. Stone, and Dick Hogan. Most of the running time is given to Perry's romancing of Susan Leeds (Nancy Kelly), whose disapproving father (George Bancroft) captains a munitions freighter. Her usual companion is first mate McAllison (John Carradine), whose sourpuss demeanor just can't compete with his charming new rival. This was Nancy Kelly's very first adult screen role, quickly followed by similar turns opposite Carradine in "Jesse James" and "Frontier Marshal." His future companion in horror, Lon Chaney, was employed at Fox for three years, rarely in featured roles. At least here his bit was more notable than most, six minutes in, just after Carradine's introduction; as a marine sentry, Lon watches Joan Valerie leave in a fancy car, commenting to Maxie Rosenbloom about the departing vehicle, "some chassy, huh sarge?" to which Maxie responds about the attractive Valerie, "I dunno, she was sittin' down all the time!" (Lon's double take is priceless). Chaney contributed to other Carradine titles at Fox- "This Is My Affair," "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "Jesse James," and "Frontier Marshal." Carradine quickly reunited with Richard Greene in "The Hound of the Baskervilles," while Chaney did the same in 1952's "The Black Castle." John Ford moved on to the classic Western "Stagecoach."

Richard Greene is a Broadway playboy who's father has gotten him into a plush spot in the Navy during the First World War .... so he thinks. He seems to be the engineer on a sub chaser on permanent drydock in the Brooklyn Navy Yards, with a crew of raw recruits and no captain. This gives him a chance to fall in love with Nancy Kelly, the daughter and second-in-command of a freighter run by George Bancroft, who thinks little of the Navy, and less of Broadway playboys. But this comfortable slot is upset when the skipper comes aboard. It's Preston Foster, and he has a lot to prove. He ran his last command onto the rocks, dropped thirty places, and has been assigned to the Splinter Fleet.

That's how the Navy referred to its last wooden ships. They were designed to be built fast and cheap, twice the beam of a PT boat, and despised as an assignment. They were thought gone with the end of the First World War, but following Pearl Harbor, and the sinking of the Pacific Fleet the Navy looked at the "fast" part of building them, and loaded up on them from little shipbuilding firms up and down both coasts.

I was confused at first by this John Ford movie, mostly because, like many 1930s films about the First World War, civilians dressed pretty much as they did in the 1930s. So when Ford turned into a stickler for Naval uniform, and gave Foster a sword, I was confused, stopped the movie, and realized my mistake. There's the usual tropes, with Greene shaping up like Kipling's raw recruit, Slim Summerville as the ship's cook who serves nothing but lamb stew, and lots of the Ford Stock Company of the era to provide humor. Elisha Cook, Jr. Is also present, looking about 15 years old at an actual 35. It's certainly not a classic in any sense of the word, but a strong programmer to clear the decks for his next feature, STAGECOACH.

I've found the Today We Live of John Ford's body of work. Mired with a 5.9 out of 10 rating at the IMDb, the last little movie Ford made before the public is really cognizant of his work with Stagecoach, it's a hidden gem, a wonderful film of love in the time of war while also a surprisingly cohesive ensemble piece at the same time. This is a complete package of a film, exciting, moving, and really quite endearing. That it's forgotten and diminished status is a small travesty of justice. Submarine Patrol is a great film.

Perry Townsend (Richard Greene) is a rich playboy who decides that he's going to join up with the navy during World War I in order to do his civic duty. He's beset with dreams of high command out of the gate because of his connections through his father, and he gets what he wants in becoming Chief Engineer (he does have a mechanical background as shown in a very small early moment) of a submarine chaser, SC 599, a wooden vessel designed to hunt German U-boats. This particular vessel is the exact kind of motely crew of interesting side characters that Ford loved to include so much, and they don't have a captain. It's a disaster of a ship, and in walks Captain John Drake (Preston Foster), disgraced for having run his previous command aground and effectively demoted at his court martial. Drake is determined to turn his career back around by proving himself worthy of the navy once again, walking on deck of SC 599 and immediately whipping it into shape.

At the same time, Perry has met Susan Leeds (Nancy Kelly), daughter of the captain (George Bancroft) of the Maria Ann, a merchant vessel transporting munitions across the Atlantic. Perry falls for Susan, markedly different from the socialites he often spends his time with (one of which accompanies him to the naval yard when he first signs up and quickly goes on a date with a security guard), and yet Captain Leeds is decided against it. Perry is a playboy who tries to ply young girls with champagne, desiring to take advantage of them at the first opportunity in Leeds' eyes, and Perry cannot convince him otherwise.

Both SC 599 and the Maria Ann are sent in the same convoy from America to Europe where, in the middle of the Atlantic, the motely crew just beginning to understand martial discipline under Drake encounter their first submarine, and this sequence was where I realized I was watching something special, not just good. The hunt for the submarine that launches a torpedo at them is tense, done at night, and the sort of quasi-German expressionistic visually, the style that had begun to influence Ford's work a few years earlier. And then, when the crew succeeds and sinks the German U-boat, the crew is quiet. One leans over to another and asks, "Shouldn't we be cheering?" And the other replies, "No." The crew then somberly salutes their captain who made their survival possible. This isn't a gung ho celebration of war. This is a movie that understands the human aspect of war in a mature way that it refuses to beat the audience over the head with the idea at the same time.

Of course, in a Ford film there can't be constant somber reflections on things. His bevy of side characters are designed to lighten moods, and that's just what they do. This crew of misfits, all decidedly third level players in this drama, have good times on and off the boat that allow for a full feeling of life on the chaser as well as allowing a lighter tone at important points. There are other small characters, like the waiter in an Italian hotel who cries at both being very happy and very sad, providing some nice levity in the scene where Perry proposes to Susan, a scene torn apart by Captain Leeds barging in and breaking up the happy affair, still convinced that Perry is just out for a quick good time with his daughter.

The finale of the film has SC 599 going on a voluntary mission to find the port of a notorious U-boat that's sunk dozens of Allied ships. It's the kind of wonderful coming together of so many plot threads that Ford pulled off so often with Captain Leeds, having found out that Perry really did intend to marry Susan, rushing to SC 599 to let Perry know he'd been wrong, Perry reacting badly just at the sight of the man and knocking him out to the point where the ship accidentally takes him along. The civilian captain joins the crew with little choice other than jumping off and swimming back to shore, joining Perry in the engine room, and this is where the movie kind of kicked into high gear for me.

The tension of SC 599 working through the fog, navigating the mine field at night, is marvelously tense as characters we've grown to know and like risk themselves for a greater cause. At the same time, Leeds is standing next to Perry, helping with the engines, and realizing the character of the man who wishes to marry his daughter, mostly done with no dialogue, the sea change in Leeds' outlook being apparent just at how he holds himself. And then the action starts, and it's quick, fierce, and clear, using a mixture of techniques to tell the story of the attack. Afterwards, the movie moves towards the obvious conclusion but sidesteps it slightly into something even sweeter.

Now, I'm kind of picky about ensemble pieces, feeling that those who just decide to have a whole bunch of characters without anything to really bring them together save for basic plot mechanics are frustrating experiences. The cast of Submarine Patrol is so large with such a bevy of side characters, that I feel like it does qualify, especially when considering the character of Drake. The main character of this film is definitely Perry, but Drake provides a really important framing element. His efforts to prove himself worthy of command again create, essentially, the plot of the film. He leads the men into battle. He leads them into the secret, voluntary mission to destroy the terror sub. And what makes him so satisfying to me, beyond Foster's performance, is that his efforts to prove himself mirror Perry's efforts to prove himself to his proposed bride, potential father-in-law, and to the navy as a whole. They compliment each other, creating a satisfying cohesion among elements that elevates what's going on.

I absolutely love this movie. It's a bit of a travesty that it seems to have been completely forgotten. The actors are uniformly professional and good, with Greene carrying himself well as he navigates the move from flippant playboy to quality sailor. Nancy Kelly is pretty but also strong and convincing as Susan, fighting for what she wants in the face of her father's obstinance. Foster is the rock on which the overall plot is built, and he carries himself really well.

This is really something special, and I highly encourage others to discover it for themselves.