A Navy Captain uses his experimental Snark to reach a nuclear submarine stuck on an ocean ledge.
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Title: Gray Lady Down (1978)
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Cast
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Charlton Heston | ... | Capt. Paul Blanchard | |
| David Carradine | ... | Capt. Gates | |
| Stacy Keach | ... | Capt. Bennett | |
| Ned Beatty | ... | Mickey | |
| Stephen McHattie | ... | Danny Murphy | |
| Ronny Cox | ... | Cmdr. David Samuelson | |
| Dorian Harewood | ... | Fowler | |
| Rosemary Forsyth | ... | Vickie Blanchard | |
| Hilly Hicks | ... | Page | |
| Charles Cioffi | ... | Admiral Barnes | |
 |
William Jordan | ... | Waters |
| Jack Rader | ... | Harkness | |
| Antony Ponzini | ... | Caruso | |
| Michael O'Keefe | ... | Harris | |
| Charles Robinson | ... | McAllister (as Charlie Robinson) | |
Edit
Plot Summary
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Add Synopsis
See All (33) »
Storyline
The USS Neptune, a nuclear submarine, is sunk off the coast of Connecticut after a collision with a Norwegian cargo ship. The navy must attempt a potentially dangerous rescue in the hope of saving the lives of the crew. Written by Robbie Smith <robsmith@u.washington.edu>
Plot Keywords:
nuclear submarine | submarine | collision | rescue | collision at sea |Taglines:
Trapped underwater... with time running out.Parents Guide:
View content advisory »
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See full technical specs »
Details
Country:
USARelease Date:
April 1978 (USA) See more »Also Known As:
S.O.S. - Submarino Nuclear See more »Filming Locations:
Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA See more »Company Credits
Show more on
IMDbPro »
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Sound Mix:
Mono (Westrex Recording System) (uncredited)Color:
Color (Technicolor)Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1
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Murphy: Thank God!
Capt. Paul Blanchard: God and General Dynamics!
See more »
Did You Know?
Trivia
All the submarines shown submerged at sea are models. They were shot "dry" in the studio. Smoke was used to supply the effect of sea water. See more »Goofs
The SNARK cleans sand and rock debris from around the sunken sub's escape hatch, but when the rescue vessel arrives later, the submarine is completely clean; all the debris is gone. See more »Quotes
Capt. Paul Blanchard: Fourteen hundred and fifty feet! They really built this baby!Murphy: Thank God!
Capt. Paul Blanchard: God and General Dynamics!
See more »
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Gray Lady Down is one of the better Seventies disaster films and it's also one of the better films that Charlton Heston did in the later part of his career starting in the Seventies. Heston like so many other of the stars of the studio era was finding fewer and fewer decent film properties to do. This was one of his better choices.
Heston plays the skipper of a nuclear powered submarine which goes down in a collision. Things get further complicated when the 'gray lady' is buried partially in an undersea mudslide, blocking the escape hatch.
The Naval Rescue service is on the job however, but this will prove a difficult task.
The film is divided evenly between Heston and his crew as Heston tries to keep morale up that the survivors will be rescued and on the surface rescue vessel where a conflict between two captains hampers the rescue effort. Stacy Keach is the captain of the rescue vessel and his conflict is with Keith Carradine also of captain's rank who's developed a special undersea two man vessel that can scoop the dirt off the gray lady.
Special mention should go to Ronny Cox who is Heston's number two and also not really getting along with him, but who steps up to the plate in a most heroic fashion.
In 1978 when Gray Lady Down came out there were still memories of the submarine U.S.S. Thresher which went down in 1963 with all hands lost in one of the U.S. Navy's worst disasters at sea. A lot of what you see in this film was developed because of that tragedy.
Gray Lady Down is a no nonsense sea rescue film with the impossible situations that characterized a lot of the films of this type kept out of the story. It's one of the best and yet most unsung of the disaster films of the decade. Should be seen more often. Charlton Heston and the rest of the cast do a fine job on this film.