**SPOILERS*** It's 1942 and things are not looking that good for the US Navy with the Japanese now in control of the entire South Pacific west of Midway Island. It's under these dangerous conditions that US Navy frogman, or Navy Seal as they would later be called, Lt. Kenneth Barden, James Garner, is hand picked to sneak onto a Japanese held island and photograph, with his mini-spy camera, the Japanese secret code that in the end would save thousands of American lives in the upcoming invasion of the Solomon and Gilbert Islands in the South Pacific!
Before he takes off on his mission Barden was having a affair with local California girl Sally Johnson, Andera Martin, who fell madly in love with the handsome hunk of a sailor. What Barden didn't know is that Sally was working for US Naval intelligence and ironically picked him, by his qualifications both under the sheets and underwater, to go on what is considered to be a suicide mission that he may never come back from!
A bit slow at first with Braden on the USS Baracuda being shipped out in Japanese infested waters to get on shore and photograph and come back with the secret Japanese naval code with the Japs , in him doing everything possible to avoid contact with them, completely in the dark about it! We have as a sidelight in the film with the by the books and take no BS submarine commander Camdr. Paul Stevensen, Brian O'Brien, who's fanatical going by the book almost has him thrown in the brig by not following US Navel regulations that in fact turned the tide of the war in the Pacific in the US' favor!
***SPOILERS*** Nothing really exciting happened in the movie with the exception of a Jap Zero attack on the Baracuda, and a few Jap boats being sunk, until Barden finally goes ashore on the Japanese held island in his what was to be a mission impossible mission that no one believed, including himself, he would survive anyway. It's here where Camdr. Stevensen finally used some common sense and gave Barden some slack in getting back safely to the awaiting sub, that was quickly exhausting it's oxygen supply,that made the mission a success! Even though the stupid and robotic jerk, Camdr. Stevensen, was more then ready to get himself court-martial-ed for doing it!
P.S There's also in the film it's beautiful sweet and haunting theme song "Please be Kind" everythime we have both Braden and Sally together. You don't know until later in the film the reason Sally burst into tears when she was with Barden in that it was her recommendation, that Barden was totally unaware of, that may possibility send him to certain death! Luckily for her as well as Barden things didn't turn out all that bad for both of them.
Before he takes off on his mission Barden was having a affair with local California girl Sally Johnson, Andera Martin, who fell madly in love with the handsome hunk of a sailor. What Barden didn't know is that Sally was working for US Naval intelligence and ironically picked him, by his qualifications both under the sheets and underwater, to go on what is considered to be a suicide mission that he may never come back from!
A bit slow at first with Braden on the USS Baracuda being shipped out in Japanese infested waters to get on shore and photograph and come back with the secret Japanese naval code with the Japs , in him doing everything possible to avoid contact with them, completely in the dark about it! We have as a sidelight in the film with the by the books and take no BS submarine commander Camdr. Paul Stevensen, Brian O'Brien, who's fanatical going by the book almost has him thrown in the brig by not following US Navel regulations that in fact turned the tide of the war in the Pacific in the US' favor!
***SPOILERS*** Nothing really exciting happened in the movie with the exception of a Jap Zero attack on the Baracuda, and a few Jap boats being sunk, until Barden finally goes ashore on the Japanese held island in his what was to be a mission impossible mission that no one believed, including himself, he would survive anyway. It's here where Camdr. Stevensen finally used some common sense and gave Barden some slack in getting back safely to the awaiting sub, that was quickly exhausting it's oxygen supply,that made the mission a success! Even though the stupid and robotic jerk, Camdr. Stevensen, was more then ready to get himself court-martial-ed for doing it!
P.S There's also in the film it's beautiful sweet and haunting theme song "Please be Kind" everythime we have both Braden and Sally together. You don't know until later in the film the reason Sally burst into tears when she was with Barden in that it was her recommendation, that Barden was totally unaware of, that may possibility send him to certain death! Luckily for her as well as Barden things didn't turn out all that bad for both of them.