Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Scufovo It's funny, I am diving the wreck of one of the ships they sank for the movie tomorrow. The former USS Moody, a WWI destroyer. The filming locations list Hawaii, but not California.A pretty good movie, nice tension, so-so subplots. I enjoyed it. Jimmy Durante was an interesting piece in the mix, he almost pulls you out of the plot at times, but then he meshes perfectly at others. The tension between the CO and XO worked well.Pretty intense death scenes for 1933. I thought the self sacrifice ending was a trifle predictable. Films of this time period used this device with a little too much frequency. It's sometimes tough, critiquing a film that was made that long ago. Still, overall, a nice piece of film making.

schappe1 This was part of a run of old war movies on TCM I caught recently. All of them, (the others were 'Captains of the Clouds' (1942) and 'Pilot #5', (1943)), had the same ending: the protagonist dies heroically on a suicide mission. The movies seemed fixated on the idea that heroes didn't just risk their lives: they sacrificed them. In 'Hell Below', perhaps the first of the great submarine dramas, there is an unnecessary heroic ending in which Robert Montgomery sacrifices his life to complete their mission while leaving the woman he loves to remain with her crippled husband.The story is really about the sort of decisions a commander has to make. Montgomery rebels against his captain, (Walter Huston), who has left a raft with several crewmen, including Montgomery's pal, (and look-alike), Robert Young, (it's the only film they both appeared in and they should have been playing brothers), to die in a hail of German machine gun bullets while the sub dives to avoid being fired upon themselves. Montgomery never forgives Huston. On a later patrol, Montgomery violates orders to maintain silence to start a battle Huston wanted to avoid. Sterling Holloway gets trapped in a section of the ship where poison gas is leaking and Montgomery has to seal him off or expose the rest of the crew to the gas. It's the equivalent of what Huston had to do and he realizes it, even if he doesn't immediately admit it. That's the real dramatic climax of the film, not the comic book suicide mission at the end. The film also features another trend of the times: the borscht belt comic relief provided by a noted comedian, in this case, Jimmy Durante. To the modern viewer this adds nothing to the film. In this case, there's also a glaring mistake in the editing. They apparently felt that the scene where Young and his men get machine gunned to death was a little strong so they sought to leaven it by following it with a clip from an earlier amusement park sequence in which Durante winds up boxing a kangaroo. This is the single most inappropriate and jarring segue in the history of the cinema. I suppose it's not quite right but I really wish someone would put it back where it belongs or delete it all together. One wonders why old Hollywood didn't trust the strength of the stories it was telling to entertain the audience.

Ron Oliver The crew of an American submarine discover it's HELL BELOW while fighting in the Adriatic in 1918.Although nearly forgotten, this excellent war film still delivers solid entertainment, thanks to a literate script, superior performances and highly believable action scenes.Robert Montgomery & Walter Huston play submarine officers under the stress of war who quickly are at odds with each other, with dramatic and tragic results. Since Montgomery is in love with Huston's daughter, Madge Evans in a well-played role, the situation becomes even more complicated, both on shore and beneath the waves. The viewer is torn between the two strong characters, one of whom is governed by his heart and the other by the rules.Robert Young makes an effective appearance as Montgomery's buddy. Sterling Holloway creates a brief, vivid, portrait of a doomed seaman.Eugene Pallette as the torpedo master & Jimmy Durante as the sub's cook make for a very funny comedy team and provide the story with plenty of laughs. Durante's nose comes in for lots of ribbing and his obsession with amateur dentistry leads to some chaotic encounters with British tars.Movie mavens will recognize Babe London as an obese Italian miss; Maude Eburne as the wife of a British admiral & Paul Porcasi as an Italian admiral - all uncredited.MGM has given the film absolutely first-class production values, with the undersea sequences especially well produced. Both the claustrophobic compactness of the ship and the inevitable tension associated with submarine warfare are accurately portrayed. Other moments of unexpected drama (Montgomery & Miss Evans caught on top of a stalled Ferris wheel during an air raid) and hilarity (Durante boxing a kangaroo) are expertly threaded into the fabric of the movie to provide a totally satisfying viewing experience.

The_RaBBiT Robert Montgomery and Robert Young are outstanding as a duo of young submarine officers stationed in Italy during World War I. The dialog is highly entertaining, and Jimmy Durante is hilarious as the ship's cook, "Ptomaine". Walter Huston's character is inspiring as the captain of the submarine, a stellar example of an officer and a gentleman. One of the most interesting aspects of this movie was the level of technology displayed in the battle scenes. I was surprised at how similar the technology of World War I was to the technology displayed 25 years later in World War II. Basic human nature was portrayed as very similar to modern times, and far from the conservativism I thought existed in the so-called "innocent" past. All in all I felt that the cast, characters, action scenes, and view of history depicted in this movie were first-rate.