A Royal Navy T-class submarine, Tyrant, goes on a routine patrol off the coast of Norway.
This movie class to have been shot on the Tyrant, with its real crew playing their parts. It's certainly possible, and the comments from submariners, indicate that it's accurate as to look and feel and action. However, even with two camera men, Jonah Jones and the uncredited Fred Gamage, the cutting indicates two many camera set-ups within a sequence to have been shot in action. Although there's land to the rear as they set sail, everything on patrol is clearly shot in open water, with no visual indication of where -- one stretch of open ocean is, after all, much like another -- and the action that finally occurs within the last twenty minutes of the movie is likewise anonymous.
The obvious conclusion is that this is a re-enactment of a patrol. It's a very good one. Unfortunately for an audience, very little happens for a long time. War, as some wit noted, consists of days of boredom and minutes of terror. I think we can agree that such a remark calls for the speaker to be subject to days of terror and minutes of boredom. As a record of what goes on in a submarine during patrol, it is excellent. As entertainment it's not very interesting.
