The Deep Six Reviews

Alec Austen (Alan Ladd), a Quaker working for an advertising agency, and its chief art director, Susan Cahill (Dianne Foster), are about to marry when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor and he is drafted. Assigned to the USS Poe as a gunnery officer, Alec immediately becomes friendly with Frenchy Shapiro (William Bendix), a tough-talking sailor whose vulnerability is visible only to his best pals. Lieutenant Commander Edge (Keenan Wynn), a hard-bitten patriot who hates the world and is secretly hooked on morphine, finds out about Austen's pacifist beliefs and chides him about them, loudly predicting that when the chips are down, Austen will fail to come through. Austen does seemingly fail his first test as a gunner when he refuses to fire upon an approaching plane; however, he is vindicated when the plane turns out to be piloted by an American. Nonetheless, the crew doesn't trust him and Austen has to go to great lengths to earn their confidence. This is a hell of a theme, and one wishes that more had been done with it here; unfortunately, to receive the cooperation of the Navy, the hard-hitting book on which the film was based had to be toned down.