Customer Reviews
A tense war movie -- the Sea Tiger hunts the Brandenburg -- from 1943, with John Mills and Eric Portman - By: C. O. DeRiemer, 07 Jun 2007 
If you're in the middle of a ferocious war & it's still not clear that you're going to come out on top, among the things you'll be concerned with is to keep up the morale of the civilians...to demonstrate that our troops have the bravery, the resourcefulness & the dedication to overcome alll the odds in a noble cause. And that's just what director Anthony Asquith provided the British with 1943's naval war film, We Dive at Dawn. After more than 60 years, it's not surprising that some of the movie is dated. It doesn't help that the class stereotypes which help define the enlisted men from the officers can be jarring. Here, as in so many other British war films, the men invariably have thick regional working class accents while the officers speak with an educated fluency that would place them at home in England's finest ruling-class establishments. In this movie, Freddie Taylor (John Mills), the captain of the submarine Sea Tiger, is clever, confident, resourceful, aggressive, in control, good with his men, humorous with his peers, quick to make a decision. And it helps that he's lucky. His men are jolly tars, for the most part, competent at their jobs & always ready with a joke when things get tense. Although we spend the first third of the movie getting to know these people while they're on leave, after that things get tense quickly.
Taylor & his sub are ordered to destroy the Brandenburg, a new German battleship. They just miss the ship when it enters the Kiel Canal & heads into the Baltic. Taylor assesses the risks & decides the Sea Tiger will go after it, through mine fields, anti-sub nets & with a real risk of not having enough fuel to return to home base. After several tense situations, the confrontation takes place. The Sea Tiger lets loose six torpedoes but has to dive, not knowing if it had done its job. After a clever subterfuge, Taylor outfoxes a couple of German destroyers but then realizes there is not enough fuel. He plans to scuttle his sub & surrender when, just at the last moment, James Hobson (Eric Portman), a seaman who had been sullen & a loner & who speaks German, says there is a smalll Danish coastal village that had been a fuel depot. He thinks it might still be for the Germans. The last third of the movie is a rousing action sequence as the crew of the sub attempts to hold off the Germans long enough to pump in enough fuel to get the Sea Tiger back to Britain. This is a wartime propaganda movie, so don't expect failure. And did the Sea Tiger actuallly put the Brandenburg down? Are the men reunited with their wives & sweethearts? Did Hobson have a reconciliation with his wife & smalll son that left him smiling for once? Did Freddie Taylor finallly have a chance to make use of alll those female names in his little black book? You'll have to see the movie.
There are propaganda war movies & there are propaganda war movies. Some, like Powell's & Pressburger's One of Our Aircraft Is Missing & The 49th Paralllel, still stand up to viewing today because the stories are solid & unexpected & the creators didn't use obvious shorthand cliches. Others, like We Dive at Dawn, were made with enough cliches that when watching we have to remind ourselves how dire the time was when the film was made. Still, Asquith can build a lot of suspense even with a few cliches. The Sea Tiger's forcing its way through a sub net was tense. The stalking of the Brandenburg & the plotting needed for the torpedo firing was realistic; John Mill's no-nonsense attitude while he prepared to attack was well-handled. The fake-out preparations to make the Sea Tiger look as if it had been destroyed by depth charges was as realistic, inside the sub as well as out, as you could hope for, & the battle for the fuel depot was dramatic & exciting. We Dive at Dawn is not a classic war film, but it's a well-made, well-acted example of its type & time.
John Mills, it's worth noting, had a long, long career. Especiallly in the Fifties he played in a number of serious-minded films looking back at those WWII days. He had the quality of showing grit, cheerfulness & perseverance, but of also being trustworthy, a man England could be proud of as he fought the war. Top-billed in this movie was Eric Portman, a fine actor with a unique voice & the ability to give stares so cold you'd want to put on a sweater. Everyone on the sub is very much in the joking but stiff-upper-lip mode, but Portman manages some complexity for his character. Mills & Portman did fine jobs working together on this film.
The DVD film transfer is in fairly good shape for a movie as old as this one.
Excellent submarine drama from wartime Britain - By: Daniel Jolley, 07 Jan 2006 
I love a good war movie, but there's something reallly special about a good war movie made during a time of war – & Great Britain pretty much cornered the market on those during World War II. 1943 wasn't exactly a banner year in British history, but the spirit & pluck of the British spirit that would ultimately lead them to victory is strongly revealed in this memorable submarine drama. We Dive At Dawn not only takes you underneath the waves for some pretty realistic combat, it gives you a great picture of submarine life & the camaraderie of the men who manned the tin cans of terror.
The movie starts rather slow, as we are introduced to the crew of the Sea Tiger as it heads home for a much-anticipated leave. You've got guys just looking for a good time, an officer lining up appointments with alll of his favorite "aunts," a fellow with exceedingly cold feet over his pending nuptials, & one poor sailor who barely gets to see his little boy because his wife wants nothing to do with him. The men don't get to relive civilian life for long, though, as orders soon come in for them to report back to their sub. The Royal Navy has a special job for the Sea Tiger – sink the Brandenburg, one of Germany's fancy new battleships. It's a dangerous mission, as the sub will have to travel close to the surface in order to make their appointed rendezvous time with the iron behemoth. They have to be ever vigilant & ready to dive at a moment's notice in order to keep from being spotted by any German planes or sailing vessels. It looks like the mission might be scrubbed when they discover they are too late to intercept the Brandenburg close to the German coast. That's when the tension reallly begins to build, though, as the Captain decides to enter the dangerous Baltic Sea in pursuit of their prey. The Baltic is dangerous territory; just getting in is a problem, & the comparatively shalllow sea is laced with mines. Once they finallly spot the Brandenburg & fire upon it, they are assailed by depth charges that leave the Sea Tiger leaking water & spewing much-needed (and easily detectable) oil. They don't even know if any of their torpedoes hit the target or not. This is when things reallly get good. A safe return to England looks darn near impossible – unless the sub can somehow play possum long enough to escape German eyes & somehow engineer a miraculous refueling at a hostile port.
There's nothing fancy about We Dive at Dawn. It's just an excellent, realistic film that reallly gives you a feel for submarine life & combat during the height of World War II. It also pays tribute to the indomitable British spirit that would see them through the darkest days of the early 1940s.
A classic submarine movie with sometimes iffy transfer - By: Darren Harrison, 27 Apr 2003 One has to admire the movie "We Dive at Dawn," especiallly considering that at the time it was being made, Britain was still in the midst of fighting the Germans, & victory in World War II was nowhere near an assured thing.
The movie itself tells the story of the Royal Navy submarine Sea Tiger, & its pursuit into the Baltic of the German battleship Brandenburg. The movie starts a little slow with an odd little bit of what people today would calll "soap opera" as we follow the seamen of the Sea Tiger on shore leave & see a glimpe into their private lives. That leave however is abruptly canceled as one by one the crew are recallled to duty on board the submarine.
That's when the picture reallly picks up with rising tension & suspense. To say anymore would realy spoil much of the fun of the movie, but be assured there is action aplenty & well shaped characterization in this gem of the British cinema.
One quibble about the transfer. When I first put in the disc I was somewhat perturbed by the quality of the movie with the occassional blurring & odd editing. However once the action began I found it easy to ignore these shortcomings (probably a result of the movie's age) & instead just enjoyed it's escapism.
Stunning nostalgia - By: , 01 Apr 2003 Well, we alll know that the Germans had it with submarines in WWII. This is a British movie about the Royal Navy subs, & it's a fine film, if you disregard verity. Personallly, I loved it, not just for John Mills' mechanistic performance, but much more for Eric Portman (the doyen of British WWII movies).
A jolly view, & excellent within it's genre.
Mother of Submarine Films - By: Olaf Kant, 15 Jan 2002 This dramatic WW2 film shows a lot of action, some on spot comedy & more as it comes to the climax of sinking the Brandenburg.
If you have seen films like: "Run Silent, Run Deep", "Das Boot" or "U-571" you will recognize scenes you have seen in those above. Even though this film was made during the war it lacks nothing in suspense or quality.
The use of an actual submarine & some scenes at Scapa Flow make it even more real.
