Just perfect...

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Why anyone would want to waste their time with "Up Periscope" beats me. True, it does feature a mildly exciting climax, but you have to wait impatiently through nearly two hours of relentless tedium! It's true too that the script has a few mildly witty lines, but what's a witty line or two surrounded by three or four thousand dull ones? Condensed to a reel or a reel and a half, Up Periscope might make a fair featurette, but at 112 minutes...Made on the cheap with obvious studio and stock shots, "Up Periscope" is further burdened with a second-string cast including Edd Byrnes as a medical orderly and Andra Martin as the love interest. However, despite her prominence in the credit titles, Miss Martin's role is slight. Behind-the-camera personnel are no better. The photography is tired and the direction TV-weary with lots of monotonous and uninteresting close-ups as the characters talk and talk and talk.I never understood the cinema appeal of James Garner. As a general rule, television stars, no matter how super-popular they may be on the box, fail to achieve anything like that sort of success on the big screen. Remember George Gobel? Or Alan Young? Or Edd Byrnes? Charlie Drake? Judy Cannon? Benny Hill? Merv Griffin? The only television people I can think of who made it really, really big on the big-big screen are James Garner and Norman Wisdom.

Well starred by Edmond O'Brien and James Garner , Warner Brothers' "Maverick" Man and with agreeable cast ; there's plenty of emotion and thrills in the final action scenes keep you eyes peeled . This is a great production ready right now in his big-screen , meticulously mounted and efficiently directed by Gordon Douglas . In 1942, Navy Lieutenant Kenneth Braden from the underwater demolition team is sent to a Japanese island to photograph secret radio codes . As a rebellious demolition expert ,James Garner, assigned to serve on Edmond O'Brien's by-the-book sub . His assignment : to sneak onto Japanese-held island and steal a top-secret code book . This underwater actioner contains suspense , thrills , intrigue , a love story and many other things . Although being a routine submarine movie also packs some thrilling moments and results to be pretty good . This nail-biter is a tightly-knit drama centered on the relentless sea maneuvers of a submarine sailing undercover toward a Japanese island . Thrilling as well as exciting battle of wits between two officers : James Garner-Edmond O'Brien , who gradually come to respect each other . Trouble is Commander Paul Stevenson/Edmond O'Brien , may not wait for Lt. J.G. Kenneth M. Braden/James Garner to complete his assignment before taking the submarine back underwater . Both of whom are a compellingly balanced match as two clever as well astute commanders . Interesting screenplay , being based on the novel by Robb White and script written by Richard Landau . The film is famous as one of the best WWII submarine movies though some scenes at sea , however, suffer from the utilization of obvious models in a just as obvious studio tank . Adequate special effects , though all underwater miniature submarine shots were reused from the film Destination : Tokyo (1943) . The main cast , support actors and technicians spent about a month filming on board this ship . Inexorable duel of great stars into a submarine , as nice acting by James Garner as a demolition expert unwillingly assigned to a sub and Edmond O'Brien as stiff-upper-lip commander . Secondary cast is frankly good such as a likable veteran Alan Hale Jr. as Lt. Pat Malone , beautiful Andra Martin , a very young Edd Byrnes as Pharmacist Mate Ash , Frank Gifford , Bernie Hamilton , and this picture marks the feature film movie debuts for Wareen Oates as a sailor who is constantly eating and always to be found in the mess hall heating . Colorful and vivid cinematography by Carl E. Guthrie in excitement Technicolor smash , including spectacular maritime scenes . Thrilling as well as suspenseful musical score . The motion picture was compellingly directed by Gordon Douglas who captures the claustrophobic up and undersea tension . Rating : 6.5/10 . Better than average , well worth watching . This nail-biting sea epic represents one of a select group of a few World War II submarine movies which have nice special effects and breathtaking sound editing . These movies include ¨Crash Dive¨ ; ¨Torpedo Run¨ and ¨The Enemy Below ¨. Furthermore , other important films about submarines are the followings : ¨Run Silent Run Deep¨ by Robert Wise , ¨Crimson tide¨ by Tony Scott with Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman; ¨K19¨ with Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson and the best ¨Das Boot¨ (1982) by Wolfgang Petersen with Jurgen Prochnow .

Sometimes a film can be bad and it can still maintain your interest. Up Periscope is bad and boring which is worse. In fact I had problems staying awake and I like James Garner but even he could not save this.Garner whilst furtively vetted by someone who he thinks is a sweetheart is selected to swim ashore to a Japanese held island and steal a code book.Edmond O'Brien is the skipper of the submarine who is by the book and makes it clear more than once that if he is not back in time, he will be left behind and there starts a testy relationship.Garner and O'Brien are fine. The script is dull and full of clichés. It seems there was a lack of imagination in the writing as if this was a quickie B film being knocked out at the least time possible. The directing is by the book basics lacking any verve or energy. Its a poor show.

Up Periscope is the kind of World War II film that was more common actually during the World War II years. It involves a really incredible mission that Navy Lieutenant James Garner is on. At least the Japanese weren't portrayed as these bucktoothed apes.The film is really a vehicle for Warner Brothers to showcase a pair of their television stars, Garner and Edd Byrnes from 77 Sunset Strip. Byrnes has a small role as a pharmacist's mate on a submarine. Having a much larger part would be Alan Hale, Jr. as the amorous ensign whose love life is interrupted by Garner's mission.In fact the whole crew of Captain Edmond O'Brien's submarine gets their leave shortened for Garner. He's been specially vetted for this assignment having as qualifications frogman training and speaking fluent Japanese. Garner's to be landed on an out of the way Japanese held island, he's to swim ashore while the submarine waits for him for a specific time. He's to photograph the Japanese naval code book and sneak out of there without them knowing it.This one absolutely has me reeling. Garner because he would kind of stand out among all those Oriental faces no matter how fluent his Japanese was. Wouldn't you think the navy would get a Nisei type for this mission? And if not that, a Chinese person might do nicely.Because Garner's white, he has to spend a considerable amount of time in hiding in the jungle and do his mission at night. In point of fact the USA had broken the Japanese code. But that was done in Washington and Pearl Harbor by some hardworking cryptologists, not Garner doing a spying job.This was the kind of stuff that the public was fed in 1943, but by 1959 it simply wasn't believed. I sure couldn't believe it in 2008.