Torpedo Run

Directed by Joseph Pevney, Torpedo Run follows the crew of a naval submarine, led by Glenn Ford’s Barney Doyle, as they doggedly pursue a Japanese destroyer during the Second World War. Filmmaker Pevney, working from a script by William Wister Haines and Richard Sale, delivers a sporadically compelling yet mostly underwhelming war picture that suffers from an odd (and pervasive) lack of tension, which is surprising, to say the least, given that the movie boasts a fairly substantial assortment of sequences and set-pieces designed to generate suspense and edge-of-the-seat thrills. (There is, for example, a lengthy interlude involving the aforementioned submarine’s trip through a literal minefield that falls distressingly flat.) The predominantly dry and muted atmosphere is exacerbated by Ford’s frustratingly closed-off turn as the obsessive central protagonist, with the actor’s less-than-fiery performance diminishing the impact of his character’s revenge-fueled exploits within the film’s second half. (This is, after all, a figure that makes an unthinkable sacrifice to take down the enemy.) It goes without saying, ultimately, that the action-heavy bent of Torpedo Run‘s climax doesn’t fare nearly as well as Pevney has surely intended, and it’s impossible, in the end, to label the movie as anything less than a complete misfire that squanders the potential of its seemingly electrifying premise.

** out of ****