Run Silent, Run Deep (1958) on Netflix
Approved19581h 33mActionDramaWar
Commander P.J. Richardson lost a submarine to a Japanese destroyer. Given the USS Nerka, he drills the crew hard and clashes with his executive officer, Lieutenant Jim Bledsoe.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.3/1014,976 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
World War II, the Pacific. The Japanese destroyer Akikaze and her captain, nicknamed Bungo Pete, have sunk four American submarines, one of them commanded by Commander P.J. Richardson. After a year of desk duty, Richardson wins a new command, the USS Nerka, on one condition: his executive officer must be an officer fresh from sea patrol. That officer is Lieutenant Jim Bledsoe, who expected the boat for himself and resents the appointment. Richardson drives the crew through repeated drills, including the rapid bow shot, a torpedo fired along a ship's narrow profile that submariners consider a desperate gamble. Bledsoe worries about the safety of the boat and the men. Richardson's aim is to take the Nerka back to the Bungo Straits after the destroyer that sank his last command.
Cast
- Jimmy Batesas Jessie
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Run Silent, Run Deep (1958)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Frank Gorshin drove from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles to audition for the role that went to Don Rickles in the film. He fell asleep at the wheel, nearly died in the crash, fractured his skull and spent four days in a coma.
- At Clark Gable's insistence, Commander Richardson is taken seriously ill before being relieved of command, so that Gable would not be seen as playing a less-than-dominant character.
- Don Rickles, who made his film debut in the film, recalled in his 2007 memoirs that Clark Gable frustrated the filmmakers, including investor Burt Lancaster, by keeping a strict 9-to-5 workday and reportedly stopping work during major scenes.
- Albert Salmi was originally chosen to play Yeoman Mueller but left the film, and Jack Warden took over the part.
- The real Japanese destroyer Akikaze, hunted in the film, was lost with all hands while shielding the carrier Junyo from torpedoes fired by the submarine USS Pintado on November 1, 1944, and was stricken from the Navy list the next January.
- The submarine used for many exterior scenes, the USS Redfish, had earlier played the Nautilus in Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) and appeared in the TV series The Silent Service; she was scrapped in 1969.
- In the Twin Peaks revival, the character Nadine opens a store selling silent drape runners named Run Silent Run Drapes, after the film.
