Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Leofwine_draca For better or worse, THE FROGMEN is a straightforward wartime thriller from our American cousins. As with most WW2 movies, it's based on true stories. The heroes are a bunch of underwater explosives experts whose job is to sail close to Japanese fortifications, jump into the water, set bombs and timers, and then escape before everything blows up.It's not a subject matter I had much knowledge of despite being a war buff, so this film interested me. It's a well made little picture with some good actors butting heads and a series of action sequences which are well shot and resolutely suspenseful. The film seems to gather momentum as it progresses and the situations become more life and death, the stakes raising every second.Richard Widmark and Dana Andrews, both looking youthful, are well cast as the officer and his second in command who spend most of the screen time. Robert Wagner is listed in support but don't bother trying to spot him. While I imagine THE FROGMEN will be become a fairly forgettable film as time passes since I saw it, it's hard to say that it puts a foot wrong regardless.

Tweekums This Second World War drama follows a US Navy Underwater Demolition Team as it takes part in preparations for the invasion of Japanese occupied islands and comes to terms with the replacement of a popular leader who was killed in action. Form the way they talk it is clear that there former CO was very much one of the men but his replacement, Lt. Cmdr. John Lawrence, is very much a by the book officer. The men's opinion of him gets even worse when he orders his boat back to the ship after their second boat is destroyed leaving the survivors to wait for the rescue boat; is reasoning may have been militarily correct but it was unpopular enough to have three men request a transfer. It isn't long before everyman in the team wants out. Luckily for him an opportunity arises for him to demonstrate his courage and win the respect of his men before he must lead them on a top secret mission to attack Japanese submarine pens.This is a solid film with decent action, a good cast and an interesting story to tell. It may be a fictional story but it nicely demonstrates the sort of work the Underwater Demolition Teams would have done without being gung-ho about it. The cast did a fin job; most notably Richard Widmark who put in a nicely understated performance as Lt. Cmdr. Lawrence; a character who wanted to do the right thing and respected his men even when he knew they didn't have such an opinion of him. The action looked believable; the underwater scenes especially so. The fact that it was filmed in black and white somehow gives it a more realistic feel... presumably because the vast majority of archive footage of the war was in black and white! The tension in the unit was there to add to the drama and it did so in a believable way; the men might not have liked Lawrence but they didn't do anything unrealistic about it; just griped a bit and got on with the job. We don't see much of the Japanese but when we do it was refreshing to see them depicted as ordinary soldiers sharing a cigarette rather than as 'the evil enemy'. If you enjoy films about the second World War I'd certainly recommend this as it shows the sort of operations not usually depicted in films in a fascinating way.

Robert J. Maxwell Interesting story of underwater demolition teams exploring the landing beaches around Okinawa in World War II. The cast has some well-known names too, though some were just getting started. Don't blink or you miss Robert Wagner and Jack Warden.If the story of their work is engaging -- and it is -- the group dynamics aren't, nor does anything in the dialog particularly sparkle. Richard Widmark takes over a UDT team after the death of the commander they idolized. He does things by the book. He's resented by the crew who continually compare him to their previous leader and who believe he's an inept and unfeeling poltroon.Widmark is understandably unhappy and broods a bit. Standing against him in the crew are the chief, Dana Andrews, and the usual motley cast of World War II movies -- the Brooklyn wise guy, the family man. The combat scenes are handled well enough. SCUBA gear was still a novelty at the time. The production had the cooperation of the U. S. Navy, and why not? It's basically a promotional film. The large ship on which the team is berthed in an APD, a fast transport. Proper protocol is usually followed. When a man receives an order on the radio, he doesn't say, "Roger. Over and out." He says the correct, "Wilco, out." There are some exceptions though. Two or three times, Widmark shouts to the coxswain, "Full speed ahead!" That belongs in a comic book. At least nobody wears caps indoors or salutes without them, as they do in the far more lavishly funded "Crimson Tide." By the end, of course, after a final dangerous mission and the tense disarming of a dud torpedo, in both of which enterprises Widmark plays an important part, the team comes together as a group.The plot is lifted from "Twelve O'Clock High," also a Twentieth-Century Fox Production, and the dialog is by the notorious Oscar Millard. He was the guy responsible for the speeches in John Wayne's classic "The Conqueror." There, Wayne had to say things like, "She is much wummin." And, "Yew're beautiful in yewr wrath." I saw "The Frogmen" as a kid and all of us kids were excited by it. The frogmen rolling one by one off the speeding landing craft into a tethered rubber raft and then over the side with a great white splash of impact. It was all new to us, as it was to the rest of the audience. Some of us tried playing "Frogman" in Lake Hopatcong but it's hard to roll off a speeding boat when the boat is a ten-foot-long rowboat moving at the pace of an unskilled swimmer doing the breast stroke. I didn't enjoy it quite so much this time around, but then I don't enjoy ANYTHING quite as much these days.

bkoganbing The Frogmen is a film based on the exploits of the U.S. Navy's Underwater Demolition Teams during World War II. The primary task of these guys was to go in ahead of any island landing and clear away any obstacles put up by the enemy in the water. That meant going in ahead of the Marines as the Frogmen point out. Today that function is now that of the Navy Seals.The plot is similar to Flying Leathernecks. Richard Widmark is the new commanding officer of the team assigned to Gary Merrill's ship and he's taking the place of a popular commander who was recently killed. He meets with a lot of resentment from the men, some of that resentment fueled by Dana Andrews who is the CPO of the team and very popular also with the crew. How Widmark and Andrews deal with their personal issues as well as get the job done is the basis of the film.Nice underwater photography highlights the dangerous mission of these men. Both Widmark and Andrews despite their differences do get their assignments accomplished, not always in the most expeditious manner. These guys and their team are professionals in the real and the cinematic sense.War films usually aren't chick flicks, but I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of female fans saw this one for a glimpse of some 20th Century Fox's top young talent topless like Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter. Good an excuse as any to see a well made war film.