Submarine Seahawk (1958) starring John Bentley, Brett Halsey, Wayne Heffley, Steve Mitchell, Henry McCann, Paul Maxwell, Nicky Blair directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet Movie Review

Submarine Seahawk (1958)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Submarine Seahawk (1958) starring John Bentley, Brett Halsey, Wayne Heffley

A Sub Par Submarine Movie

Submarine commander Lt. Cmdr. Paul Turner (John Bentley) receives top secret orders and a top secret mission to take his crew and submarine deep into enemy water to track down a group of Japanese war ships. But Turner is under strict orders not to tell any of his crew what their mission is which leads to increased tension when he becomes secretive and distant then suspicion when he refuses to fire on the enemy when they come across them.

I've mentioned in other reviews that submarine movies tend to all feel familiar as the situation of a confined submarine in the ocean and usually in a war situation only have a limited number of story lines it can toy with. Now when a submarine movie has big stars and big budgets to deliver stunning effects it can cover up some of that familiarity but when a submarine movie is obviously a lower budget movie with no big name stars it tends to only ever struggle. That brings me to "Submarine Seahawk" a lower budget submarine movie with a cast of faces which kind of look familiar but you can't put a name to and a storyline which sadly is so uninspired that it becomes hard work to stay invested in what is going on.

The trouble is that there is nothing what so ever about "Submarine Seahawk" which feels original as moments of drama through to characters feel like they have been ripped off from another movie. Things even go so far that one actor has been cast for what seems to be the purpose of making us think Jerry Lewis is in the movie as he has the same look and a similar comedy style. But doing things like this end up not making "Submarine Seahawk" entertaining as I imagine was the intention but only feeling more like a knock off.

The only sort of good thing about "Submarine Seahawk" is the final 20 minutes where it manages to become a bit more entertaining and better paced. Although again I wouldn't say that the final 20 minutes are that original either and you can certainly find better movies to watch than this when it comes to the submarine genre.

What this all boils down to is that "Submarine Seahawk" is now a movie for those who were related to the actors involved or for those on a mission to watch every submarine movie ever made. But it isn't a movie for those looking for some original, well acted and entertaining submarine action as for the most it only ever feels like a knock off imitation.


LATEST REVIEWS