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Wow! Such a good movie.

Thanks for the memories!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Filmed only 15 years after the end of WW1, "Hell Below" recounts the exploits of a US submarine (AL-14) and her crew, both at war and on shore-leave in Italy. The action sequences are outstanding, especially the sinking of the German destroyer (as recounted elsewhere, the producers actually purchased a decommissioned USN destroyer and sank it for the film) and the bomber/fighter attack on the US sub. Like most submarine movies, there is much emphasis on the claustrophobic conditions on board, the tension of being stalked by surface ships, and the fear of the crushing weight of water outside the hull. The scenes were AL-14 is trapped on the bottom, below her safe depth, as chlorine gas begins to seep out from her batteries are excellent. For a film supported by the DoN, I'm surprised that the film-makers were allowed to show submariners dying such grim, unheroic deaths (including suicide). The shore-leave scenes (and the associated love story) are not as good as the action sequences (possibly because they don't date as well) but they're not bad (a boxing match with a kangaroo not withstanding). Jimmy Durante, a major comedy star at the time, provides the comic relief with his standard 'schnozzola' shtick -- a little bit goes a long way, but the British Marine with huge buck-teeth constantly referring to him as 'the pelican' is pretty funny and the scene where he gets set up with an Italian girl with an even bigger nose is priceless (the movie is 'pre-code' - the line "I wonder if my old man ever taught here" probably would not have got by the censors a year later). The ending is pure Hollywood heroic-hokum but that doesn't detract much from an altogether excellent war movie from the inter-war period.

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.

As I type these comments I'm watching a DVD of this movie that I just got from a mail-order dealer, and I'm finding that it holds up extremely well, with strong characterizations, believable situations, and well-staged action scenes.It's been a good 45 years, maybe 50, since I saw HELL BELOW, but the one scene that made an extremely deep impression on me was Sterling Holloway's death scene, which several other commenters have mentioned here. I haven't gotten to that scene yet on this viewing, but I can vouch for what other comments have said: once you see Sterling Holloway's death scene in this movie, you will absolutely never, ever forget it. Judging from how strong the film so far is holding up, I fully expect that scene to live up to the memory of it -- as unquestionably one of the greatest death scenes in movie history. The movie's worth seeing for that moment alone, but even without it, it would be a first-rate early submarine drama.

I recommend that movie viewers if in the New York City area go to the Intrepid museum and get some idea of how closed in and cramped the living was for the crews of World War II vintage submarines. How much more so that must have been for the seamen during World War I. It must have truly been hell below.Walter Huston and Robert Montgomery head the cast of Hell Below, Huston as the by the book captain and Montgomery as his free wheeling number two. They're both quite believable as Naval officers and the rest of the cast like Robert Young, Eugene Palette, Jimmy Durante, Madge Evans, Sterling Holloway, etc. fill their roles quite nicely.The silent service got more popular during World War II and after. It's amazing, but I could name a whole slew of submarine pictures like Torpedo Run, Operation Pacific, Hellcats of the Navy, Run Silent, Run Deep and many more and you'll see the same plot situations in all of them. I guess there truly is a limit on situations as well.Jimmy Durante's performance is interesting. He's pretty funny and his scene with the boxing kangaroo while on shore leave is very funny indeed. But I'd have to say a character like him in those cramped quarters is probably very necessary for morale. If you don't have someone like that to break the tension on board a submarine, you ought to get one transferred to your ship immediately.The highlight for me however is Sterling Holloway's death scene. Very similar to Sean McClory's in Island in the Sky. It will haunt you long after you've seen this film.