FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

deschreiber The over-excited reviews here on IMDb surprise me, as I found this movie only barely worth watching. Mostly I enjoyed the real-life sequences of vintage ships steaming, exploding, and sinking. But the love story, which completely dominates everything else, is ordinary pot-boiler stuff, about a girl torn between two men, deciding who "needs" her more. Finally, though, one of the guys sacrifices himself in order to be a hero (sigh, fade to black). The love story really tanks, though, whenever Madge Evans is forced to try to sound real and impassioned with one of her "I love you truly, truly" speeches. The comic relief by Jimmy Durante might have been very welcome for 1930s audiences, but his eyeball-popping, head-shaking, and and "Hachaaa!"s look forced and pathetic today. His scene with the boxing kangaroo is a stupid interruption. (I couldn't help thinking how dangerous it would be if the roo made one of his little kicks really count for something.)Now about the writing--did somebody here mention a "literate" script? Please. Its literacy may be measured with examples like these:"Are you all right?" Wiping blood from his nose, "You think this is ketchup, do you?"Trying to fix a leak spewing water into the sub, "Somebody left the bathtub on."All this is not to say The Hell Below is terrible. It's probably a cut above the average war movie of its era (How many war movies were made in the early 30s, anyway?), but if you're looking it up on IMDb to get a sense of whether you should put aside time to watch it, my advice is not to give it a very high priority. Leave it for some late night when you have insomnia. You'll be grateful for it then.

Robert J. Maxwell It's World War I and a US submarine under the command of Walter Huston is battling German destroyers and minelayers in the Atlantic.There's a rather routine romantic plot. Huston's executive officer is Robert Montgomery. He meets and falls in love with Huston's daughter, Madge Evans, and vice versa. It's only later that he discovers she's already married to a paraplegic RAF (or RFC) officer. Evans is perfectly willing to leave her bedridden husband because she's truly in love with Montgomery. Of course when Huston discovers the affair -- and it WAS physical because of the emphatic way Montgomery delivers lines about "we were in each other's arms" -- he's extremely disturbed and protests the arrangement.Already at odds with Huston, Montgomery defies him at sea, manages to get himself cashiered from the navy, then rediscovers his conscience and completes a self-sacrificial mission that saves many lives.The romance is dull, but the scenes at sea are surprisingly well done. Even the visual effects, primitive by today's standards, aren't jarring in their lack of verisimilitude. The scenes aboard the boat are interesting technologically. We've all gotten used to the equipment on the submarines of World War II. At least I think we have. There seems to be hundreds of them lurking about, surfacing on TV from time to time.It's curious to see that in the first world war, the equipment available looked quite different but did just about the same jobs. It's also a little amusing to see that the submarines of the day were subject to the same sorts of perils as those of the World War II movies -- strafed by enemy fighters, depth-charged by destroyers, bombed by enemy bombers, firing back with small arms on deck, having to submerge and leave men stranded on the surface, having to reach the bottom although that depth exceeds the builders' specifications. This one adds the liberation of chlorine gas from one of the batteries.I suppose it's understandable that these elements should run through just about every submarine movie ever made, up to and including World War II. How many dangers can an undersea vessel be subject to? I mean, nobody is going to parachute out of one of them. The crew can't be trapped in a trench behind enemy lines. Nobody is going to run about and clean out an enemy machine gun nest with a tommy gun and a grenade.Robert Young has a minor role as the nice guy who is left on the surface to die because the boat must dive under attack. Jimmy Durante is the cook who makes wisecracks and funny faces. Eugene Palette is along for the ride. Some scenes generate more tension than you might think -- when the boat is nose-deep in mud and the engine won't start -- and sometimes tragedy -- as when Sterling Holloway is stuck in a dogged-down compartment filling with chlorine and can't be let out.The plot isn't to be taken seriously. Montgomery, now a civilian, sneaks back aboard for the final mission and Captain Huston gruffly orders him to "take your post." What IS his post? And, when Montgomery merely hints at his honorable reasons for deserting Huston's daughter, Huston seems to grasp the entire situation as if by an avalanche of intuition.Small stuff though. It's an exciting movie for its time.

Scufovo It's funny, I am diving the wreck of one of the ships they sank for the movie tomorrow. The former USS Moody, a WWI destroyer. The filming locations list Hawaii, but not California.A pretty good movie, nice tension, so-so subplots. I enjoyed it. Jimmy Durante was an interesting piece in the mix, he almost pulls you out of the plot at times, but then he meshes perfectly at others. The tension between the CO and XO worked well.Pretty intense death scenes for 1933. I thought the self sacrifice ending was a trifle predictable. Films of this time period used this device with a little too much frequency. It's sometimes tough, critiquing a film that was made that long ago. Still, overall, a nice piece of film making.

Ron Oliver The crew of an American submarine discover it's HELL BELOW while fighting in the Adriatic in 1918.Although nearly forgotten, this excellent war film still delivers solid entertainment, thanks to a literate script, superior performances and highly believable action scenes.Robert Montgomery & Walter Huston play submarine officers under the stress of war who quickly are at odds with each other, with dramatic and tragic results. Since Montgomery is in love with Huston's daughter, Madge Evans in a well-played role, the situation becomes even more complicated, both on shore and beneath the waves. The viewer is torn between the two strong characters, one of whom is governed by his heart and the other by the rules.Robert Young makes an effective appearance as Montgomery's buddy. Sterling Holloway creates a brief, vivid, portrait of a doomed seaman.Eugene Pallette as the torpedo master & Jimmy Durante as the sub's cook make for a very funny comedy team and provide the story with plenty of laughs. Durante's nose comes in for lots of ribbing and his obsession with amateur dentistry leads to some chaotic encounters with British tars.Movie mavens will recognize Babe London as an obese Italian miss; Maude Eburne as the wife of a British admiral & Paul Porcasi as an Italian admiral - all uncredited.MGM has given the film absolutely first-class production values, with the undersea sequences especially well produced. Both the claustrophobic compactness of the ship and the inevitable tension associated with submarine warfare are accurately portrayed. Other moments of unexpected drama (Montgomery & Miss Evans caught on top of a stalled Ferris wheel during an air raid) and hilarity (Durante boxing a kangaroo) are expertly threaded into the fabric of the movie to provide a totally satisfying viewing experience.