Joseph Pevney directed Torpedo Run, a mediocre war film, shot in Metrocolor and CinemaScope, starring Glenn Ford as a World War II submarine commander obsessed with sinking a Japanese aircraft carrier.
The submarine Greyfish, under Commander Barney Doyle (Ford), searches for the Shinaru, one of Japanese aircraft carriers that led the attack on Pearl Harbor. Doyle receives word that the target has an escort, including a transport ship Yoshida Maru carrying his wife and child, captured in the Philippines.
Doyle’s second in command, Lieutenant Commander Archer Sloan (Ernest Borgnine) tries to talk him out of risking the lives of his family, but Doyle proceeds and sinks the transport. The Japanese make no attempt to rescue the survivors, hoping to lure the sub to the surface, and Doyle is forced to leave the prisoners to drown.
Doyle follows the Shinaru into Tokyo Bay and tries again to sink his nemesis, but fails. The Greyfish then returns to Pearl Harbor, where Vice Admiral Setton (Philip Ober) wants to assign Doyle to a desk job, but Sloan begs for one last chance at the Shinaru.
Oscar Context:
A. Arnold Gillespie and Harold Humbrock were nominated for the Best Visual Effects Oscar.
Cast
Glenn Ford as Commander Barney Doyle
Ernest Borgnine as Lieutenant Commander Archer ‘Archie’ Sloan
Diane Brewster as Jane Doyle
Dean Jones as Lieutenant Jake ‘Fuzz’ Foley
L. Q. Jones as ‘Hash’ Benson
Philip Ober as Vice Admiral Samuel Setton
Richard Carlyle as Commander Don Adams
Credits:
Directed by Joseph Pevney
Produced by Edmund Grainger
Written by William Wister Haines, Richard Sale
Screenplay by Richard Sale
Cinematography: George J. Folsey
Edited by Gene Ruggiero
Distributed by MGM
Release date: October 24, 1958
Running time: 98 minutes
Note:
TCM showed the movie on March 23, 2020.