Lovesusti
The Worst Film Ever
GarnettTeenage
The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.
SeeQuant
Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction
Teddie Blake
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Leofwine_draca
WE DIVE AT DAWN is a sedate British wartime thriller that lacks the kind of suspense I find that the best movies in this genre possess. It's a submarine picture in which a crew have their leave cancelled in order that they might pursue a brand-new German battleship, the act of which will have huge propaganda value for the British government.This is quite a low key production made on a smaller budget than usual, as expected for a film made contemporaneously with the war itself. John Mills is his usual reliable self in the main role and the main cast is littered with the usual familiar faces and well-judged character turns. But I found the pace flags and the narrative never really grips as it should, instead feeling like a bit of a slog even though there's nothing really wrong with it. At least it picks up in the last ten minutes...
James Smith
After watching American Sniper and being so disappointed, I needed a
war film fix. I needed to watch a realistic war movie portraying real
characters and real challenges.To do so I had to watch a movie made over 70 years ago on a shoe string
budget during war time called We Dive At Dawn. Don't get me wrong - I
could have watched Generation Kill or Band of Brothers, but I decided
to go with a classic British war film. If only today's 'try to be directors' with their enormous budgets would
learn from these classics, movies like The Hurt Locker and American
Sniper may actually have been good.Next on my viewing list is The Cruel Sea.
screenman
This is an excellent tub-thumper from the war years.John Mills leads a fine cast of regular British B-movie stalwarts in a solo submarine attack upon a fictitious enemy battleship.Filmed in black and white, it's well paced and also well placed considering that a war was going on at the time. If anything, it shows how seriously the authorities took positive propaganda.The mission-side of the movie takes place in genuine submarines. Things are cramped and claustrophobic. The actors look suitably grimy and sweaty without being too offensive to the heroic palate. Other commentators have already drawn attention to the authentic little details like keeping the vessel trim and forgetting to read instruments, as well as the engine-room activities.This probably is the first movie in which debris (and a dead German) is blown from the torpedo tube to fool an enemy destroyer. And it's the ONLY time I have seen part of the vessel exposed in a pretence of sinking - a high risk gamble if ever there was one.I'm a little sceptical as to whether or not a submarine could punch its way through a wire-rope net. Submerged speed was barely twice that of human walking speed, and the net would have had a great deal of 'give'. Also, the engineer was at the same work-station and operating the same levers both on the surface and submerged. This, too, seems implausible as either diesel or electric engines were used and they were in different sections of the ship - or so I'm told.There was a wee bit too much shore-side drama for my tastes. But then, this was a propaganda effort, and clearly contained a subtle message for civilians to mind their behaviour as it could adversely affect service morale and therefor the war effort.These niggles aside, it's a pretty entertaining little adventure. Nowadays movies of such vintage tend to be screened in the afternoon, whilst far more modern and inferior movies enjoy prime-time. But then; it's no longer politically-correct to mention the war in the presence of our European friends (Too many of them have guilty consciences), or our own left-wing fascists (non of whom have ever fought for the freedoms they now take for granted).As a submarine movie it is eminently collectible. Better than 'The Enemy Below', I think, though less demonstrative. Not so authentic as 'Das Boot' by any means, but not so gross either.
mutikonka1
I watched this expecting to see the usual British stiff upper lip stereotypes and was surprised to find the dialogue remarkably natural and tinged with black humour. It was more like Eastenders Goes to Sea than In Which We Serve. The scenes during the approach and attack are remarkably realistic in their depiction of a fighting ship and the stuff ups and banter among the ship's company (well at least based on my service in the 1970s). Some of the throwaway lines are very witty ("I'm not joining the Band of Hope just to please some greasy fish fryer!). My only complaint is that they didn't show what happened to the Irish coxswain and his bride to be, or the tattooed PO and his "I Love Arabella" tattoo!