Hellcats of the Navy

1957 "Down . . . Down . . . Down . . . into enemy waters with the fightin' hellcats of the U.S. sub pack !"
5.6| 1h22m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 01 May 1957 Released
Producted By: Columbia Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

Future "first couple" Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis made their only joint film appearance in Hellcats of the Navy. Ronnie plays Casey Abbott, commander of a WW2 submarine, while Nancy portrays navy nurse Helen Blair, Abbott's off-and-on girlfriend. During a delicate mission in which his sub is ordered to retrieve a revolutionary new Japanese mine, Abbott is forced to leave frogman Wes Barton (Harry Lauter) behind to save the rest of his crew. But Abbott's second-in-command Don Landon (Eduard Franz) is convincing that Abbott's sacrifice of Barton was due to the fact that the dead man had been amorously pursuing Helen.

Genre

Drama, Thriller, War

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Director

Nathan H. Juran

Production Companies

Columbia Pictures

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Hellcats of the Navy Audience Reviews

Bereamic Awesome Movie
Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!
Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.
frankjosephmoulder Where do I start. Hellcats was the name for naval aircraft the F6F Grumman not submarines.They were Gatos. The submarine goes from a normal sized tube for a Gato class sub to a tube large enough to hold a 10' ceiling. Ronald Reagan's acting was as stiff as it gets. The dialog between him and Nancy Davis was as contrived as it gets. The dialog in general sounded like it was a Mark 7 production. There was a scene where a Japanese sub was firing its deck gun while the muzzle of the deck gun was still moving. Miraculous gunners they were because that shot and every other hit target. There were enrichment shots in the film that looked more like U boats than Gatos. The important thing is this movie ruined Ronald Reagan's film career. From this movie came TV and a B movie or two(made for big and little screens) and finally life in the desert as narrator of "Death Valley Days".
edwagreen Routine submarine warfare film engaged in the old story of how one reacts when one is in command. Obviously, when the shoe is on the other foot, we act accordingly.Nancy Davis did a poor job here. She was certainly no Jane Wyman. Thank the lord that she just said no to a further movie career and went on her way with her Ronnie and the rest is history!Reagan is a real commander here. Am surprised he didn't want to cut men in his never ending assault on cuts. O yes, this was the military and he was strong on defense.No wonder, after seeing this tedious film, that it is said that Jack Warner told Reagan that his career was over. Look what Jack didn't know what was in store for us.The film itself has some strengths, particularly where the bombs go off. It ably showed that team effort will pay off, especially when the code of discipline is enforced.The film might have worked better if it were in color and Ann Sheridan was the nurse. That would have made a 15 year reunion between the future president and Ann, after the marvelous King's Row. That was President Reagan at his best in his movie career.
gary-224 I won't waste your time or mine with a lengthy description of this extremely poor movie. The fact that Ronald Reagan is in it certainly doesn't help. If the tactics portrayed by the U.S. Submarine Service in this motion picture were accurate we might all be speaking Japanese right now. The fictitious submarine is constantly in trouble. Especially poor are the models used to depict the USS Starfish underwater. Most of them must have been purchased the daybefore at a five and ten store in Burbank or Glendale, within a fewminutes or a few blocks of the studio. A total waste of film. If someone gave me a DVD of this I would immediately crack it into several hundred pieces.
rich52 This film is primarily for Ronald Reagan buffs or for those who want to see Ron and Nancy on screen together. The story centers around an initially unstable relationship between a submarine commander, a nurse, another officer showing interest in her and an executive officer who questions the motives of the commander, both personally and militarily. Is it one of the 'great' WWII submarine movies? No. Is it worth a look? Yes. It doesn't contain the depth or intensity of Cary Grant's "Destination Tokyo" or Clark Gable's "Run Silent, Run Deep," but could be considered comparable to Glenn Ford's "Torpedo Run."