I first saw this in the 1960's and revisited it some fifty years later.Of course it is of its time. It combines a story based on fact that is compelling and courageous, with a modest budget. The special effects are clunky, the costuming erratic, and armoury dubious, but it doesn't really matter. The story is well told, and dramatic. Submarine movies are at their best underwater where the claustrophobic drama is intense, and at their worst when that leaves them with nowhere to go. Here, fortunately the climax is on the surface, and incidental gems like a passing German patrol vessel playing music loudly also take place topside.The portrayal of toffs in charge and salt of the earth ranks grate a little now, but John Mills is a sound, reflective toff.Modern adrenaline junkies will not be impressed, but the simple heroism and determination portrayed is as impressive now as it was then.

Reference A Boy's Own Story. It was actually Donald Sinden and not John Gregson who pushed the mine away. Otherwise a good summary as are all the others. I had not seen this film for many years and it brought back memories of an earlier time when things were so much simpler The acting was good and the Brit stiff upper lip was very evident. The actions of the Germans was as I expect they were in the German Navy. At the time of the making of this movie many Brit movies, whether comedy or drama were being made and the acting was good and there were no overt scenes of gratuitous sex and violence in those days. It would have been good in color but not much of that in those days.

John Mills leads a typical cast of the day in this rather inadequately-funded tub-thumper. We're off to sink the Tirpitz, holed-up in a Norwegian Fjord.It's the mid 1950's and budgets were no longer underwritten by wartime propaganda funds. Even so, private equity was available and much more memorable works were being produced at the time. I'm thinking here of 'The Cruel Sea' and the incomparable 'Dambusters'.It's not a bad movie. It just seems a bit flimsy and hurried from time to time. There are plenty of dramatic moments, with lots of underwater tension. We are given a fairly accurate idea of what it was like to be stuck inside these tiny devices for hours on end. There's some nice, if economical, underwater takes.John Gregson and Donald Sinden are in fine supporting form, as they was in 'River Plate' and 'The Cruel Sea'. James Robertson Justice features as a querulous admiral. The rest are all decent B-movie extras.Considering the astonishing nature of the mission, which was largely successful - even if the German battleship wasn't actually sunk - I think a greater effort could have been made, especially in terms of funding. The heroes deserved at least that. But then I'm reminded of 'The Gift Horse' - an equally low-funded movie of the even more harrowing (and costly) raid on the docks of St Nazaire by HMS Campbeltown. We don't respect our heroes like we should.It's well worth a watch if you haven't seen it. I have it in my collection courtesy of a Daily Mail freebie. It's decent entertainment - just on a bit of a shoestring.My summary is a line from the movie. The captured crew of the mini-subs are on the deck of the Tirpitz after the mines have gone off. The battleship captain comes to inspect his prisoners after they've all but wrecked his ship. It's an hilarious throwaway comment.

I kind of enjoy these test war-time adventures, even when they're a little stilted, as this one is. John Mills is the commander of a flotilla of three midget submarines towed to a Norwegian fjord in which the Ruddy Great Battleship Tirpitz is moored. Two of the boats deliver their load of explosives under the keel of the Tirpitz and damage her, while the third boat explodes and its crew die.There's nothing extraordinarily good or bad about this engaging enterprise. John Mills is good, as usual, though without any individualizing quirks. The men banter quite a bit, as usual. There are no scenes on the beach, in which men romance their young women or get into inter-service brawls in the pubs, and there are no dissolves with harps leading to flashbacks of the men's happy home lives, which is not usual.What is usual, is that our side completes its mission, though at considerable cost. The explosives go off before the Tirpitz has time to build up enough steam to gain way. The damage was severe but the Allies had to presume she was still seaworthy and kept an inordinate number of British ships in the area, pinning them down. The Tirpitz was finally sunk by jumbo bombs from Lancasters in 1944. In a way, it was too bad because the Tirpitz, like the Bismark, was a beautifully designed ship, a pleasure to look at, as if it had been the work of an architect rather than a marine engineer.Well, war often destroys beautiful things. It also produces entertainment about brave and adventurous men, like this film.