MovieChat Forums > Operation Pacific (1951) Discussion > Connection to Run Silent Run Deep?

Connection to Run Silent Run Deep?

posted 10 years ago by daveapps-464-983170
4 replies | jump to latest

Watching this for the first time, I was struck by how much of the plot seemed to be taken from the novel 'Run Silent, Run Deep' by Edward L Beach. Details in common include the faulty torpedoes (and the program to fix them), the Q-Ship (minus the ridiculous ramming scene), the Captain hit by surface fire (although as the narrator of the novel, he obviously doesn't die, but goes back to Pearl to work on the torpedoes) and the climactic rescue of the stranded airmen.

It certainly has far more in common than the Clark Gable movie supposedly based on the novel! However, the novel was published in 1955 - four years AFTER this movie was made. This makes me wonder if Beach (an actual sub commander in the Pacific) was a consultant on the movie, and had already written the book.

As one poster has pointed out, the rescue of the airman was based on an actual event. And the faulty torpedoes were also real (the British also had troubles with magnetic detonators). That would presumably make them 'public domain' plot devices, so to speak. The other details however, would definitely seem to be 'intellectual property'.

Does anyone know if Beach was involved in making this movie? Or has he actually borrowed some of the plot details for his novel?

[–] fnj2002 10 years ago

The entire movie was based on actual events, just as Beach's book was. As such, it is natural that they touch on some of the same themes.

The technical adviser for Operation Pacific was Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, Commander, Submarines, Southwest Pacific, and later in the war Commander, Submarines, Pacific Fleet. Far from a figurehead, Lockwood was deep into operations, very closely in touch with details of patrol operations, and figured mightily into making the submarine service such a potent and glittering force in WW2. All the elements in the film are absolutely authentic, with allowance for cinematic dressing-up and gross telescoping of time. Of course all the day-to-day drudgery was left out.

[–] daveapps-464-983170 10 years ago

Thanks for the info, fnj2002. I will look up more details about Admiral Lockwood. He sounds like the real-life character behind the 'Captain Blunt' in Beach's novel.

The big difference between the two stories, of course, is 'Bungo Pete', the Japanese ex-submariner who, in the novel, puts his skills to use hunting US subs outside the Bungo Suido. I can't find any reference to a real-life parallel - in fact, one of the consultant historians on the Nugus-Martin documentaries claimed that IJN officers considered convoy escort to be a demeaning assignment. This, supposedly, is why there was no Japanese parallel to the tactical and technical evolution of Allied counter-measures in the Battle of the Atlantic. The loss of only 42 US subs through the entire course of the war, from a fleet of nearly 250, tends to support this claim. The Germans, by contrast, lost over 800 subs from a fleet whose maximum strength was 440. Beach's Japanese nemesis seems to be fictional (but a very effective plot device!)

[–] liscarkat-2 9 years ago

Operation Pacific: 1951

Run Silent, Run Deep (the book): 1955

[–] daveapps-464-983170 9 years ago

Published 1955. When did he write it?