I just watched RUN SILENT RUN DEEP for I believe only the 2nd time. War films are not really my thing, although "submarine" films as a sub-genre do often hold my interest. Anyway, this is one DAMNED GOOD movie!!! Great, gripping, suspenseful story, terrific characters, fabulous cast (including Jack Warden, H.M. Wynant, Don Rickles, Ken Lynch, in addition to Clark Gable & Burt Lancaster), terrific miniature work-- the whole shebang.
This was often mistakenly referenced as the main source of the STAR TREK episode "Balance Of Terror". That actually was a remake of THE ENEMY BELOW, with Curt Jurgens as a sympathetic German u-boat commander. However, I noted that at least 4 different STAR TREK stories borrowed from this single film!
"Balance Of Terror" -- the scene where both subs turn off their motors and hover in silence
"The Doomsday Machine" -- where Burt Lancaster accuses Clark Gable of violating direct Navy orders to avenge "A DEAD CREW"!
STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE -- One man PULLS RANK to take over a ship already assigned to another Captain, while insisting that man stay onboard as his exec, despite the resentment among the crew it will cause. This is the main part of the Gable-Lancaster film, and was done at least 100 times better in the original film than it was in the 1979 abortion.
STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN -- the scene where the 2 subs PASS by each other closely just missing hitting each other.
Thsi first half of the film, Gable pushes the crew to drill and drill to get their torpedo timing down. Then, just about at the halfway point, he blows up a Japanese destroyer in a "bow shot"-- head-on-- an almost-impossible-to-make shot that is usually only done in moments of desperation. Once this is accomplished, calmly, methodically, that's when Gable announces he's violating Navy orders to take the sub into an area that no less than 4 US subs have been destroyed in under a year.
The whole time, he's planning to take out a certain Japanese destroyer. It's only AFTER he succeeds-- that they suddenly realize, it was actually ANOTHER submarine that destroyed all 4 US subs!
Anyone who's never seen this, I give it my highest reccomendation.
