Submarine Raider (1942) User Reviews

Atrocious Thy Name is "Submarine Raider"

[Kittyman · 4/10 · 28 February 2010]

Atrocious thy name is "Submarine Raider." Oh, it's not that the acting is bad. It isn't. Old friends Philip Ahn, Bruce Bennett, Richard Loo, Keye Luke, and Forrest Tucker perform well. However, a major character is miscast, special effects suck, there is no understanding of naval procedures, and the plot advances only because of stupid and wrong-headed behavior.

Nino Pipitone should not have been cast as Captain Yamanada, the Japanese carrier's commander. Kangaroos look more Asiatic then he did. Instead, First Officer Philip Ahn should have played that role.

The Japanese carrier, which is presented as the only one responsible for the Pearl Harbor attack, is depicted as having no screening ships (cruisers or destroyers) at all. It just blithely sallies forth alone. Then, there is the carrier's nemesis, an American submarine. Its Captain chooses to surface, with no weapons broken out, just after having received a nearby yacht's distress signal about a Japanese attack. When a Japanese plane is spotted, the sub doesn't dive for safety. Instead, it remains on the surface to fight with its only anti-aircraft weapon, a single machine gun.

As to wrongheaded, the yacht's survivors clamor aboard a lifeboat never thinking that that too might be attacked by the Japanese. As a pilot starts to strafe them, they don't slip over the side into cover. Instead, one-by-one, they stand to face the plane, thus becoming easy targets. And, meanwhile, back in Hawaii, an American agent dooms himself by talking loudly about sensitive issues while potential (and, of course, real) Japanese spies surround him.

Oy vey! What a turkey.

Perfidy in the Pacfic

[richardchatten · 5/10 · 28 February 2021]

Despite the title, most of the film fortunately takes place above water as Larry Parks dons headphones as the radio operator who learns of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor fresh from sinking a pleasure cruiser and strafing the lifeboat containing the survivors.

The late Bob Baker once described the submarine picture as "what must be every cameraman's number one headache", but Franz Planer (treating water in Hollywood between 'Leibelei' and 'Letter from an Unknown Woman') undaunted helps deliver a good-looking little potboiler to which the frequent use of stock footage and obvious use of models lends a certain goofy charm. (As usual the Japs demonstrate their complete unconcern for all human life - including their own - when one of their airman pays for failure by saluting smartly and promptly jumping off the side of the submarine into the ocean.)

Everything But a Pink Submarine

[boblipton · 5/10 · 7 December 2010]

Marguerite Chapman is picked up by a submarine on its way to the Sea of Japan during the Second World War, and it looks like this movie was plundered for the Blake Edwards comedy OPERATION PETTICOAT almost twenty years later, except for the long spy subplot in which every Asian American crosses his eyes because he's a Jap spy.

It's a competently managed programmer for the era, but this sort of movie was fairly commonplace during the Second World War and the cheapness of the production shines through, both in the cast and the lighting -- there are lots of day-for-night shots, outdoors scenes shot during the day which we're supposed to think are at night because they were printed dark --- black cars with blacker shadows. See it or don't see it and your life won't be much different either way.

Where to start

[rdfarnham · 4/10 · 16 January 2013]

In an era when propaganda films were coming out of Hollywood in a rush there were many that were A class, some which were B class, and then there was this one. I won't even comment on the bone-headed decisions the the two ship captains make or the historical accuracy that was missing. Rarely have I seen such obvious special effects such as planes making almost 90 degree turns in flight and clearly light weight model planes landing on the Japanese carrier. This was poorly written and planned and must have been rushed into production with a budget of about $1.38. If you want a good WW2 sub movie watch almost any film but this one.

A cheapie propaganda flick from Columbia.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 1 October 2022]

When the US entered WWII, Hollywood's studios suddenly became ultra-patriotic and they made a ton of propaganda films aimed at bolstering the war effort. Some were very good...a few were very poor...such as "Submarine Raider".

The story begins just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Soon after you see a Japanese aircraft carrier heading towards Hawaii, the ship blows up a nearby yacht and then sends a fighter plane out to strafe the survivors. What they don't realize is that an American submarine is nearby...and the captain of the ship is baffled as to why the carrier would attack a yacht. However, they soon get word that this and other Japanese carriers just attacked Pearl Harbor...and so the captain is determined to find the carrier and destroy it.

The basic story isn't bad and much of the acting decent. However, it's essentially a cheap B from Columbia and the Japanese are essentially cartoonish (such as pilots who laugh hysterically while bombing civilians) and their airplanes defy all the rules of aeronautics...such that if they REALLY could have flown this way (making tight u-turns, landing every second or two on the carrier, etc.) they would have won the war in a month! Additionally, the film promotes the commonly accepted myth that evil spies ('fifth columnists') abounded in Hawaii and this laid the groundwork for folks in the US accepting the internment of the Japanese-Americans.

Overall, a real mixed bag. The crew of the sub consists of some decent actors but one-dimensional writing make this a film that simply hasn't aged well.

.....From Here to Obscurity.....

[mark.waltz · 1/10 · 16 December 2010]

This is American exploitation at its worst, and in the case of this film, it ranks as a "Bomb" because it is exploiting a recent American tragedy with no well-meaning intentions whatsoever. The film actually starts off pretty good with a well filmed explosion sequence that destroys a pleasure cruise ship and puts three people aboard a lifeboat. The two men are quickly exterminated by the Japanese, and only Marguerite Chapman survives. A Japanese bomber plane sets out to fill her with holes but somehow she manages to hide from him by holding onto the side of the boat so she cannot be seen. An American submarine en-route to Hawaii rescues her, while the Japanese pilot is quickly punished in a shocking manner by his commanding officer. This leads to an exciting sequence where another Japanese pilot, wounded from being shot by the Americans, determinedly continues to drop bombs on the submarine, which has begun its descent to get out of harms way.

Back in Hawaii, it's very clear that there are spies abound, because it's apparent that the driver of the car Chapman is in with her fiancé is being driven by is Japanese. This leads into a chase sequence near Pearl Harbor, which of course, is soon raided. What makes this scene really horrible is the manner in which a radio reporter reveals the devastation. Rather than sounding horrified or even rushed to get the news out, he sounds like he's introducing nominees at the Oscars. This is very off putting and is insulting to American intelligence, if that already hadn't been insulted by the fact that Chapman's fiancée was revealing military secrets in front of an obvious spy.

The Japanese are presented in a very stereotypical manner, more interested in dying for honor than having really any sort of mission for why they were attacking America out of the blue. If you thought "Air Force" and "Destination Tokyo" (in addition to dozens of other propaganda films of the time) made the Japanese an extremely nasty enemies, then this one makes them purely evil without redemption. The film was obviously rushed together to take advantage of the timing (released only six months after Pearl Harbor!) and lacks any intelligence whatsoever. Columbia, which specialized in fast paced "B" films that were actually pretty enjoyable, really messed up by letting this one out. The first 20 minutes are promising, but the rest settles into disaster.

A laughable attempt at a propaganda piece

[skyking-14 · 2/10 · 14 January 2013]

As a WWII history buff, I try to watch every WWII film I can find. This one was watchable, but for the informed it was more for comedic effect and an understanding of the racial prejudices of the time than for anything else.

I don't even know where to start with this one but it plays to all of the boogeymen of the immediate pre and post Pearl Harbor attack with it's focus on subversion and sabotage when we later learned that even the Japanese themselves put little faith in the Japanese-Americans in Hawaii.

Perhaps the most laughable aspect was the presentation of a SINGLE Japanese aircraft carrier as being capable of the destruction wrought at Pearl Harbor, when, in fact, it took SIX carriers and on top of that, they portrayed the carrier as operating completely ALONE, when nothing of the sort would've happened.

There is also a scene in which the US Submarine remains on the surface with a single gunner dueling with the attacking Japanese plane when Navy doctrine would've had the sub crash diving upon detection of the incoming plane.

All in all, there are simply too many factual errors to even believe that this film actually had a technical adviser... at least one who had ever gone to sea in anything bigger than a rowboat! The only misinformation missing from this film that I can see is that they didn't try to pin on the blame on FDR as many other crackpots did!

A fairly good war actioner.

[searchanddestroy-1 · 25 May 2009]

Lew Landers has made many little propaganda war movies in the early 40's. All action packed flicks. And this one makes no exception. No boredom during one hour. Some could say it's an average war movie from this period, but I consider it very interesting. It takes place in Pearl Harbor, just around December the 7th...

Of course, the Japanese are all bad and American all good, but we can't expect something different. Anyway, I prefer this little film instead of great war movie classics twice much longer and talkative, even with more deeply described characters.

And it's rather a rare film. Try it if you can.

Utterly ridicules Hollywood version of the attack on Pearl Harbor

[sol-kay · 5/10 · 8 December 2010]

***SPOILER*** The film Subrmarine Raider" instead of making the Japanese look bad in their sneak attack on Peral Harbor on the morning of December 7,1941 makes them look far more effective then they actually were! Instead of having a major 100 fleet task force with some 300 to 500 warplanes carry out the dastardly and successful sneak attack they only have a dinky looking aircraft carrier with about two dozen Jap zeros to pull the whole thing off! Were also given in the movie the totally false assumptions that there was a major Jap fifth column on the Hawaiian islands who were secretly giving the Jap task force, via shortwave radio, the position of were the US Pacific fleet was stationed at in Pearl Harbor which then ended up for the most part sunk and destroyed in the Japanese sneak attack! It's odd that the main target of the Japanese attack on base the US navy aircraft carrier fleet was not only out to sea at the time of the attack but not but even noticed by the Japanese spies who were supposed to be tracking it!

***SPOILERS*** Where the Japs screwed up according to the movie was in the aircraft carrier Hirnamu giving away its position to US attack submarine Sea Serpent by attacking a yacht that was in the vicinity. This bonehead attack on the harmless pleasure boat alerted the sub's captain Commander Charles Warren, John Howard, which eventually lead to the carrier being sent to the bottom of the Pacific! Something that never happened in real life!

As for the Japs themselves they were so obnoxious and off-the-wall in their actions that it was a miracle that they could have ever pulled off the whole deal without their aircraft carrier being sent to the bottom together with its Keystone like Kop, or sailor, crew before it ever pulled out of Tokyo Bay!

P.S I noticed that the film was released on June 4, 1942 the very day that a real and turning point battle took place in the far off Pacific that the US Navy really won. The Battle of Midway that turned the tide of battle in the Pacific Theater for the US. Not the phony baloney battle that took place in the movie with the sinking of the fictitious Japanses aircraft carrier Hiranamu!

Time is often needed in order to add perspective ...

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 26 January 2013]

... especially if one is making a movie less than a year after one of the most brazen attacks on American soil in U.S. history, the attack on Pearl Harbor. Given that this is a B film and there is no time or desire to plug vital plot holes, this is an interesting little piece of B film history.

The premise of the film is outrageous enough - a Japanese aircraft carrier on route to Pearl Harbor spots a pleasure cruise yacht way out in the distance. The people on board are civilians, with one couple just arguing over whether or not they should get married without the least interest in what is going on in the sea around them. With discretion and surprise being key to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the captain of the Japanese aircraft carrier decides to start a potential international incident by blowing the yacht to kingdom come, then trying to kill the survivors in the life raft with one of his aircraft, then trying to sink the passing American sub that picks up the lone woman survivor.

Meanwhile back in Honolulu, American secret agent Bill Warren is having a hard time clearing out "fifth column" saboteurs, and no wonder. He openly discusses his true identity and his profession with his girl - nothing impresses the ladies like a little international intrigue! - and with the conversation clearly audible by his chauffeur. When another car pulls up next to his car and takes a shot at him and it turns out his chauffeur is in on the deal he is shocked!...shocked I say!... that everybody seems to know who he really is.

Back on the sub, commander Chris Warren is trying to get a message through to somebody - anybody - about the acts of war taken by the Japanese, but all they can do is pick up music from a club in Honolulu. The scene switches to said club where the rattled Bill Warren is discussing the attempt on his life and his fears of Japanese aggression to an acquaintance. Meanwhile in that very club a waiter/Japanese agent goes into the coat room, opens a secret panel and walks into a fully outfitted radio room manned by another Japanese agent! Clever agents to architect and add such a room without the owner or American staff ever noticing! What follows is the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese predicted by Bill Warren, and a cat and mouse game between commander Chris Warren's submarine and the Japanese aircraft carrier that blew up the yacht. Key to the plot - the sub commander and not-so-secret American agent are brothers, and the captain of the Japanese aircraft carrier is the father of the pilot lost at sea trying to sink Warren's sub.

The propaganda is blatant and the plot holes border on just too silly, but it is by no means boring. I'd recommend it just for illustrating that to make an effective war picture requires the passage of time so that some perspective can be gained. However, in 1942, the home front probably appreciated little pictures like this that likely raised morale.

What's particularly interesting is that it is the supporting ranks of the players here that had bigger careers later on, such as Bruce Bennett as the first officer of the sub and Larry Parks as the radio operator on the sub. Also note that is Lloyd Bridges' voice over the sub intercom in an uncredited role.

Quick and dirty

[michaeldbirt · 5/10 · 14 July 2023]

To be fair, Submarine Raider was conceived, written, produced and released within 7 months of the attack on Pearl Harbour. The special effects are not great by today's standards, but for a low budget production with little time, they are adequate and consistent with what came out of many studios at the time (and later), as is the script. The American cast's acting is isnt bad but the Japanese, particularly the aircraft carrier captain played by Italian born Nino Pipitone isnt great. Submarine Raider could be put in a 'worst movie' list, but the context - a quick response to the start of America's involvement in WW2 lifts it away slightly from that by giving the American public a bit of rah rah...and as the captain says at the end, 'Remember Pearl Harbour'.

Bonifide banzai

[deshlerwhiting · 10/10 · 7 December 2010]

This is probably the most important and factual Pearl Harbor movie ever made. Oliver Stone and James Cameron could not have painted a truer picture. The effects are magnificent, and the acting better than Ben Affleck in "Pearl Harbor" or Leo DiCaprio in "Titanic", if that could ever be possible. If you hold your nose, keep your eyes closed and sneeze real hard you will see colors and be dizzied by this masterpiece. A sequel was rumored to have been in the works, but was squelched by foreign powers. Some say it was the investment by offshore interests in Hollywood by means of arbitrage and loose lips. Others say the original cast was so overwrought with their original efforts that they could not perform again for years after, and were not able to be re-cast by new up-and-comers. Rumors will swirl for years, but the original film adds a great insight to future generations as to what it was all about.

Of interest to historians.

[temporalcoldwar24 · 7/10 · 22 October 2017]

It's easy to dismiss today the "slanty eyed Japs" statements and atmosphere in this film (why is "Kraut" not deemed "racist"?). However this took place only four years after the Imperial Japanese carried out the most appalling atrocities in China ( See here. WARNING EXPLICIT PHOTOS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanking_Massacre#Massacre ). Compare with similar ISIS/Daesh atrocities and Presidents Trump's statements about Jihadist terrorists being "dirty, sneaky rats" and this film takes on an interesting dimension. At one point the intelligence agent refers to the Japanese 5th columnists as "rats". So where this film is relegated to obscure Freeview channels, deemed to be of exclusive interest to war movie die hard's, it actually throws a light on the peculiar modern tendency to deem criticisms and lurid remarks about the enemy as "racist" when lives are at stake. As noted above, the plot, acting and effects are not top notch but this piece has an interesting 1940's feel to it that can appeal to an audience beyond that of the historian.

Submarine Raider

[CinemaSerf · 4/10 · 16 April 2023]

For some reason an American causing yacht finds itself in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and in the way of a Japanese aircraft carrier. The bigger ship uses it as target practice leaving only "Sue" (Marguerite Chapman) as the sole survivor. Fortunately, she manages to get of an SOS and that was picked up by a nearby American submarine which races to her rescue. The submariners are puzzled by their inability to send or receive signals until they hear of the terrible news that Pearl Harbour has been devastated by a sudden, sneaky, attack. Now, complete with their damsel in distress, they concoct quite a cunning plan to lure the offending carrier to them and sink three fish into it! It's frequently interspersed with actuality and had the editing been a bit better, that might have helped out - but it isn't and coupled with a Japanese captain who was about as menacing as "Mr. Wong" and Peter Sellers' love child - on a bad day, the whole thing really just falls well short. Sure, it was made in 1942 and is a pretty shameless piece of propaganda but I'm not sure these are excuses enough for this rather cheap and cheerfully thrown together exercise in just about everything mediocre film-making has to offer. It doubtlessly made the audience feel a bit better at a very difficult time, but it has little to recommend it now.