Hell and High Water (film)
Encyclopedia
Hell and High Water is a 1954
Cold War
drama film
starring Richard Widmark
, Bella Darvi
and Victor Francen
. The film was made to showcase CinemaScope
being used in the confined sets of a submarine
.
Before the credits, an off-screen, voice-over narrates:
.
Meanwhile, former U.S. Navy submarine
commander Adam Jones (Richard Widmark) arrives in Tokyo
after receiving a mysterious package containing $5,000. Jones meets Professor Montel and his colleagues, a group of scientists, businessmen, and statesmen who suspect the Communist Chinese are building a secret atomic base on an island somewhere north of Japan
. They must have proof, so Montel offers Jones another $45,000 if he will command an old World War II
-era Japanese submarine being overhauled and follow the Chinese freighter Kiang Ching, which has been making suspicious deliveries in that area. Jones reluctantly agrees- providing that the submarine is armed, and that he is also allowed to hire some of his former navy shipmates.
The day before Jones is to conduct a test dive, news arrives that the Kiang Ching has sailed. Despite Jones's protests that the submarine's torpedo tubes have not been inspected yet, and they are therefore too dangerous to use, there is no choice but to start out after the freighter. When Montel boards with his beautiful assistant, Professor Denise Gerard (Bella Darvi), the superstitious crewmen are upset, believing women on a ship are bad luck, but Montel insists she come along.
On the voyage, they are detected by a Chinese submarine. When contacted, the Chinese are not fooled by their explanation that they are on a simple scientific expedition and fire torpedoes at them without warning. Unable to fire back with his own torpedoes, Jones dives to the sea bottom, hoping to hide there; the Chinese follow. After several tense hours of waiting each other out, Jones finally decides to surface. When the other submarine does the same, Jones rams and sinks it.
Jones wants to turn back, but Montel points out that their contract specifies that he won't be paid unless Montel is satisfied. They continue to follow the Kiang Ching to an island. Jones and Montel land to investigate, but Montel is disappointed by the low radioactivity levels he detects. After a firefight with Chinese soldiers, the patrol returns to the submarine with a captive. They learn the location of another island from the prisoner, a pilot named Ho-Sin.
During a storm en route, Montel is injured. Because he is too hurt to go ashore, Montel insists Jones take Denise in his place, since she is the only other person qualified to gather and interpret the data. Denise detects an extremely high level of radioactivity; then she is forced to shoot and kill a Chinese soldier who stumbles upon her.
Back aboard the submarine, Jones is worried because he recognized an American B-29 bomber sitting on an airstrip. Needing more information, they trick it out of Ho-Sin by putting the ship's cook Chin Lee (Wong Artarne), dressed in a Chinese uniform and beaten by Jones at Chin Lee's insistence, into the same room. Fooled, the captive reveals that the plane is going to drop an atomic bomb on either Korea
or Manchuria
the next day, with the blame placed on the United States, but Chin Lee slips up and Ho-Sin beats him to death before Jones can intervene.
Jones decides to go ashore and watch for the bomber's takeoff. When he signals, the submarine will surface and try to shoot it down. However, Montel sneaks onto the island in his place. When Jones scolds Denise for not stopping the old man, she tearfully reveals that Montel is her father. The plane is shot down, but it crashes on the island, detonating the atomic bomb and killing Montel. Jones recalls that Montel had said earlier that "Each man has his own reason for living and his own price for dying."
after Zanuck agreed that he could rewrite the film with the original screenwriters Jesse L. Lasky, Jr.
and Beirne Lay approving Fuller's rewrite. Though Fuller didn't like the film he accepted the film as a personal favour to Zanuck who fought for Fuller against J. Edgar Hoover
when the FBI director attacked the studio over Fuller's film Pickup on South Street
. Fuller discussed the CinemaScope
process with Jean Negulesco
and carefully studied Negulesco's How to Marry a Millionaire
being particularly impressed by the New York panorama
s. Fuller used the wide screen effectively for the opening European locations and the exciting action climax but also demonstrated how feelings of claustrophobia
on board the submarine could be effective in wide screen.
Fuller used contacts to spend several days aboard a US Navy submarine, including fifteen hours submerged. The results of the experience led to Fuller adding sequences to the film where Francen gets his fingers caught in a hatch, using a submarine's red lighting for a love scene, and having a battle between two submarines staged similar to a murderer lying for his prey. When cinematographer Joseph MacDonald
said there was no room on the sets for the red lights, Fuller said that few in the audience would be familiar with equipment inside a submarine and to place them in the audience's view, which MacDonald did.
The United States Government, who provided the footage of the opening nuclear bomb explosion that started the film insisted that certain colours be erased from the sequence lest it "could reveal nuclear secrets".
Alfred Newman
's majestic musical theme was reused from The Fighting Lady
. Stock footage
of the film appeared in Fox's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
TV series.
The film did excellent box office in the United States and abroad, particularly Germany. Later, when filming a cameo in Steven Spielberg
's 1941 (film)
, Spielberg showed Fuller that he actually carried a print of Hell and High Water in the boot of his car.
, critic Bosley Crowther
misquoted the foreword, implying the film was true, based upon White House
and Atomic Energy Commission
announcements about an atomic explosion in communist territory.
Initially, France banned the film on political grounds. A journalism article noted that France also had banned Soviet political films, and that a number of European countries are sensitive to films with political themes and refuse them exhibition permits rather than rouse the ire of either the U.S. or Russia.
Darryl F. Zanuck often screened his fifth film in CinemaScope to directors who had reservations about working in the process, saying "if we can use it on this we can use it on anything". Fuller engendered a feeling of claustrophobia in wide screen.
1954 in film
The year 1954 in film involved some significant events and memorable ones.-Events:*May 12 - The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces wife Marion Benda...
Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
starring Richard Widmark
Richard Widmark
Richard Weedt Widmark was an American film, stage and television actor.He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, Kiss of Death...
, Bella Darvi
Bella Darvi
Bella Darvi was a Polish-born French actress.-Biography:Darvi was born Bayla Wegier to Chaym Wegier, a baker, and his wife, Chaya . She had three brothers, Robert, Jacques Wegier, Jean-Isidore, and a sister, Sura. Robert died in a concentration camp.Jailed by the Nazis during World War II, she...
and Victor Francen
Victor Francen
Victor Francen , born Victor Franssens, was a Belgian-born actor with a long career in French cinema and in Hollywood....
. The film was made to showcase CinemaScope
CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...
being used in the confined sets of a submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
.
Before the credits, an off-screen, voice-over narrates:
In the summer of 1953, it was announced that an atomic bomb of foreign origin had been exploded somewhere outside of the United States. Shortly thereafter it was indicated that this atomic reaction, according to scientific reports, originated in a remote area in North Pacific waters, somewhere between the northern tip of the Japanese Islands and the Arctic Circle. This is the story of that explosion.
Plot
In 1953, renowned French scientist Professor Montel (Victor Francen) goes missing. The authorities believe that he and four other scientists defected behind the Iron CurtainIron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
.
Meanwhile, former U.S. Navy submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
commander Adam Jones (Richard Widmark) arrives in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
after receiving a mysterious package containing $5,000. Jones meets Professor Montel and his colleagues, a group of scientists, businessmen, and statesmen who suspect the Communist Chinese are building a secret atomic base on an island somewhere north of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. They must have proof, so Montel offers Jones another $45,000 if he will command an old World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
-era Japanese submarine being overhauled and follow the Chinese freighter Kiang Ching, which has been making suspicious deliveries in that area. Jones reluctantly agrees- providing that the submarine is armed, and that he is also allowed to hire some of his former navy shipmates.
The day before Jones is to conduct a test dive, news arrives that the Kiang Ching has sailed. Despite Jones's protests that the submarine's torpedo tubes have not been inspected yet, and they are therefore too dangerous to use, there is no choice but to start out after the freighter. When Montel boards with his beautiful assistant, Professor Denise Gerard (Bella Darvi), the superstitious crewmen are upset, believing women on a ship are bad luck, but Montel insists she come along.
On the voyage, they are detected by a Chinese submarine. When contacted, the Chinese are not fooled by their explanation that they are on a simple scientific expedition and fire torpedoes at them without warning. Unable to fire back with his own torpedoes, Jones dives to the sea bottom, hoping to hide there; the Chinese follow. After several tense hours of waiting each other out, Jones finally decides to surface. When the other submarine does the same, Jones rams and sinks it.
Jones wants to turn back, but Montel points out that their contract specifies that he won't be paid unless Montel is satisfied. They continue to follow the Kiang Ching to an island. Jones and Montel land to investigate, but Montel is disappointed by the low radioactivity levels he detects. After a firefight with Chinese soldiers, the patrol returns to the submarine with a captive. They learn the location of another island from the prisoner, a pilot named Ho-Sin.
During a storm en route, Montel is injured. Because he is too hurt to go ashore, Montel insists Jones take Denise in his place, since she is the only other person qualified to gather and interpret the data. Denise detects an extremely high level of radioactivity; then she is forced to shoot and kill a Chinese soldier who stumbles upon her.
Back aboard the submarine, Jones is worried because he recognized an American B-29 bomber sitting on an airstrip. Needing more information, they trick it out of Ho-Sin by putting the ship's cook Chin Lee (Wong Artarne), dressed in a Chinese uniform and beaten by Jones at Chin Lee's insistence, into the same room. Fooled, the captive reveals that the plane is going to drop an atomic bomb on either Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
or Manchuria
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...
the next day, with the blame placed on the United States, but Chin Lee slips up and Ho-Sin beats him to death before Jones can intervene.
Jones decides to go ashore and watch for the bomber's takeoff. When he signals, the submarine will surface and try to shoot it down. However, Montel sneaks onto the island in his place. When Jones scolds Denise for not stopping the old man, she tearfully reveals that Montel is her father. The plane is shot down, but it crashes on the island, detonating the atomic bomb and killing Montel. Jones recalls that Montel had said earlier that "Each man has his own reason for living and his own price for dying."
Production
Fuller accepted directing of the film from Darryl F. ZanuckDarryl F. Zanuck
Darryl Francis Zanuck was an American producer, writer, actor, director and studio executive who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors...
after Zanuck agreed that he could rewrite the film with the original screenwriters Jesse L. Lasky, Jr.
Jesse L. Lasky, Jr.
Jesse Louis Lasky, Jr. was an American screenwriter.-Family:Jesse Louis Lasky, Jr. was the son of film pioneer, Jesse Lasky, Sr.. Jesse Jr...
and Beirne Lay approving Fuller's rewrite. Though Fuller didn't like the film he accepted the film as a personal favour to Zanuck who fought for Fuller against J. Edgar Hoover
J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...
when the FBI director attacked the studio over Fuller's film Pickup on South Street
Pickup on South Street
Pickup on South Street is writer-director Samuel Fuller's film noir released by the 20th Century Fox studio. The film stars Richard Widmark, Jean Peters and Thelma Ritter....
. Fuller discussed the CinemaScope
CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...
process with Jean Negulesco
Jean Negulesco
Jean Negulesco was a Romanian-born American film director and screenwriter....
and carefully studied Negulesco's How to Marry a Millionaire
How to Marry a Millionaire
How to Marry a Millionaire is a 1953 romantic comedy film made by 20th Century Fox, directed by Jean Negulesco and produced and written by Nunnally Johnson. The screenplay was based on the plays The Greeks Had a Word for It by Zoe Akins and Loco by Dale Eunson and Katherine Albert. The music score...
being particularly impressed by the New York panorama
Panorama
A panorama is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film/video, or a three-dimensional model....
s. Fuller used the wide screen effectively for the opening European locations and the exciting action climax but also demonstrated how feelings of claustrophobia
Claustrophobia
Claustrophobia is the fear of having no escape and being closed in small spaces or rooms...
on board the submarine could be effective in wide screen.
Fuller used contacts to spend several days aboard a US Navy submarine, including fifteen hours submerged. The results of the experience led to Fuller adding sequences to the film where Francen gets his fingers caught in a hatch, using a submarine's red lighting for a love scene, and having a battle between two submarines staged similar to a murderer lying for his prey. When cinematographer Joseph MacDonald
Joseph MacDonald
Joseph MacDonald, A.S.C. was an award-winning Mexican-born American cinematographer.An assistant cameraman from the early 1920s, he became a cinematographer in the 1940s and soon was working on Hollywood productions,mostly at the 20th Century Fox studios...
said there was no room on the sets for the red lights, Fuller said that few in the audience would be familiar with equipment inside a submarine and to place them in the audience's view, which MacDonald did.
The United States Government, who provided the footage of the opening nuclear bomb explosion that started the film insisted that certain colours be erased from the sequence lest it "could reveal nuclear secrets".
Alfred Newman
Alfred Newman
Alfred Newman was an American composer, arranger, and conductor of music for films.In a career which spanned over forty years, Newman composed music for over two hundred films. He was one of the most respected film score composers of his time, and is today regarded as one of the greatest...
's majestic musical theme was reused from The Fighting Lady
The Fighting Lady
The Fighting Lady is a documentary/propaganda film produced by the U.S. Navy.The plot of the film revolves around the life of seamen on board an anonymous aircraft carrier. Because of war time restrictions, the name of the aircraft carrier was disguised as "the Fighting Lady"; afterwards the...
. Stock footage
Stock footage
Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures and file footage are film or video footage that may or may not be custom shot for use in a specific film or television program. Stock footage is of beneficial use to filmmakers as it is sometimes less expensive than shooting new...
of the film appeared in Fox's Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (TV series)
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is a 1960s American science fiction television series based on the 1961 film of the same name. Both were created by Irwin Allen, which enabled the movie's sets, costumes, props, special effects models, and sometimes footage, to be used in the production of the...
TV series.
The film did excellent box office in the United States and abroad, particularly Germany. Later, when filming a cameo in Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
's 1941 (film)
1941 (film)
1941 is a 1979 period comedy film directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, and featuring an ensemble cast including John Belushi, Ned Beatty, John Candy, Toshiro Mifune, Christopher Lee and Dan Aykroyd...
, Spielberg showed Fuller that he actually carried a print of Hell and High Water in the boot of his car.
Cast
- Richard WidmarkRichard WidmarkRichard Weedt Widmark was an American film, stage and television actor.He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, Kiss of Death...
as Adam Jones - Bella DarviBella DarviBella Darvi was a Polish-born French actress.-Biography:Darvi was born Bayla Wegier to Chaym Wegier, a baker, and his wife, Chaya . She had three brothers, Robert, Jacques Wegier, Jean-Isidore, and a sister, Sura. Robert died in a concentration camp.Jailed by the Nazis during World War II, she...
as Professor Denise Gerard. This was the feature film debut of Darryl F. ZanuckDarryl F. ZanuckDarryl Francis Zanuck was an American producer, writer, actor, director and studio executive who played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of its longest survivors...
's girlfriend, whose stage surname was a combination of Zanuck's first name and that of his wife Virginia. - Victor FrancenVictor FrancenVictor Francen , born Victor Franssens, was a Belgian-born actor with a long career in French cinema and in Hollywood....
as Professor Montel. Charles BoyerCharles BoyerCharles Boyer was a French actor who appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. After receiving an education in drama, Boyer started on the stage, but he found success in movies during the 1930s. His memorable performances were among the era's most highly praised romantic dramas,...
was originally cast in the role. - Cameron MitchellCameron Mitchell (actor)Cameron Mitchell was an American film, television and Broadway actor with close ties to one of Canada's most successful families, and considered, by Lee Strasberg, to be one of the founding members of The Actor's Studio in New York City.-Early life and career:Born Cameron MacDowell Mitzel in...
as "Ski" Brodski - Gene EvansGene EvansGene Evans was an American actor.He was born in Holbrook, Arizona, but reared in Colton, California. His acting career began while he was serving in World War II. He performed with a theatrical troupe of GIs in Europe. Evans made his film debut in 1947 and appeared in dozens of movies and...
as Chief Holter - David WayneDavid WayneDavid Wayne was an American actor with a career spanning nearly 50 years.-Early life and career:...
as Tugboat Walker - Stephen Bekassy as Neuman
- Richard LooRichard LooRichard Loo was a Chinese American film actor who was one of the most familiar Asian character actors in American films of the 1930s and 1940s. A prolific actor, he appeared in over 120 films between 1931 and 1982....
as Hakada Fujimori - Henry KulkyHenry KulkyHenry Kulky was an American actor and former professional wrestler from Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, probably best remembered as Chief Petty Officer Curly Jones from season 1 of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea....
as Gunner McCrossin - Wong Artarne as Chin Lee
Reception
In his review in The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, critic Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
misquoted the foreword, implying the film was true, based upon White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
and Atomic Energy Commission
United States Atomic Energy Commission
The United States Atomic Energy Commission was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by Congress to foster and control the peace time development of atomic science and technology. President Harry S...
announcements about an atomic explosion in communist territory.
Initially, France banned the film on political grounds. A journalism article noted that France also had banned Soviet political films, and that a number of European countries are sensitive to films with political themes and refuse them exhibition permits rather than rouse the ire of either the U.S. or Russia.
Darryl F. Zanuck often screened his fifth film in CinemaScope to directors who had reservations about working in the process, saying "if we can use it on this we can use it on anything". Fuller engendered a feeling of claustrophobia in wide screen.