Rent Hell and High Water (1954)

Spy Thriller. - Hell and High Water review by Steve

This lacklustre cold war propaganda is one of Sam Fuller’s few misfires, maybe because he came to the project late to help out studio boss Darryl F. Zanuck. The intention was to show how Twentieth Century Fox’s new widescreen CinemaScope process could be used to film interiors.

This is mostly set inside a submarine as a motley crew of international mercenaries is hired to take a Nobel prizewinner (and his sexy daughter) to an island controlled by China, rumoured to be the site of atomic experiments… And Fuller actually uses the interior space brilliantly.

Unfortunately Zanuck also imposed his latest other-woman on the director. And Bella Darvi lulls the film to sleep every time she speaks. Though she’s beautiful enough. I doubt Richard Widmark as the skipper looked back on this with pride either. The trivial intrigue does no one any favours.

The bulk of the running time is wasted on the crew chasing the hot female scientist. Some of the climactic action is cut out of another thriller. The anti-Red spin is dated. Aside from the still impressive technology this is a snooze. Though it’s interesting to see the A-bomb go off in ultra-widescreen Technicolor.