THE FROGMEN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 655, 25 January 1952, Page 22

THE FROGMEN

(20th Century-Fox) NY sort of story, I suppose, would be good enough as a vehicle for a subject as interesting in itself as the activities of Underwater Demolition Teams in the recent war, and I imagine no one burnt the midnight oil over the plot of The Frogmen. It’s quite credible, but not exactly inspired. However, that doesn’t matter much if you like this sort of thing, for the sequences which show the frogmen in action make the film, The opening scene shows one of the Underwater Demolition Teams on a ship at sea. The amateur artist of the team is drawing a picture of their late commander, posted missing after a mission, which they propose to send to his wife. Their new commander (Richard Widmark) is evidently far from being the great guy his predecessor was, and his attitude soon leads to a request from every member of the team for transfer, Though they persist in this even after he has shown his courage by voluntarily rendering harmless a torpedo which has struck the ship without exploding, they come round in the end when he returns wounded from an underwater fight with a Japanese, after taking the lion’s share _of danger in blowing up some submarine pens. ¥Y

The film (directed by Lioyd Bacon, with Norbert Brodine behind the cameras) acknowledges help from the U.S. Defence Department and the U.S. Navy, sO one can suppose that in the three underwater missions which come into the story it gives a faithful picture of the work of frogmen. These missions are full of suspense and the details are interesting. As for the shipboard drama, I couldn’t take the torpedo very seriously. Whatever was to happen later, two of the stars weren’t likely to be blown up half way through the film. I thought the underwater mission to the submarine pens, which came almost at the end, the film’s highlight. Here the tension was feal. While the story of The Frogmen is ordinary and none of the acting above water anything to write home about, I think there is something to be said for the film’s showing these obviously brave men as all too human (though there is surprisingly little death in it). Heroes who, on active service, don’t hide their unwillingness to serve with their commander are probably nearer the truth than the self-controlled superman we’ve sometimes been served up, The same could be said of two lunatics (one of them acting leader of the team) who get out of the: "water to plant a welcome sign on a béach on which marines are about to make a landing, earning for one of them a bullet in the spine, and risking the lives of the rest of the team,

Le The film might have been marred in other ways, too. It contains, for instance, no women or mermaids,