Submarine X-1 is a 1968 British war film loosely based on the Operation Source attack on the German battleship Tirpitz in 1943. In the film, James Caan stars as Lt. Commander Richard Bolton, a Canadian, who must lead a group of midget submarines in an attack on a German battleship.

Submarine X-1
Original film poster
Directed by	William Graham
Screenplay by	Donald S. Sanford[1] Guy Elmes
Story by	John C. Champion Edmund H. North
Produced by	John C. Champion
Starring	James Caan David Sumner Norman Bowler Brian Grellis
Cinematography	Paul Beeson
Edited by	John S. Smith
Music by	Ron Goodwin
Color process	DeLuxe Color
Production company	Mirisch Films
Distributed by	United Artists
Release dates	22 March 1968 (1968-03-22) (UK) August 1969 (1969-08) (NYC)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Plot

In 1943, a Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve officer from Canada, Commander Bolton (James Caan) and a few surviving crew members of his 50-man submarine Gauntlet swim ashore after unsuccessfully attacking German battleship Lindendorf. After a review, Captain Bolton is cleared of any wrongdoing and placed in charge of a small group of experimental X-class submarines. Bolton is assigned by Vice-Admiral Redmayne (Rupert Davies) to quickly train crews to man the submarines and sink the Lindendorf while it is hidden away in a Norwegian fjord.

Commander Bolton is to train three 4-man crews along the northern coast of Scotland for a trio of midget submarines equipped with side cargoes of explosives. He must overcome tensions with some of his former crew members, while keeping their activities hidden from outsiders and German airplanes. The crews successfully fend off an attack by German parachute commandos, who discover their base. Bolton is forced to make hasty preparations for his attack before their submarine base can be destroyed.

Two of the submarines are lost while attempting to cut through submarine nets at the entrance to the fjord. X-2, is sunk by a German E-boat's depth charges, and a second, the X-1, is scuttled. One submarine crew is captured and taken to the German battleship for interrogation. X-3, the surviving submarine penetrates the submarine nets in the fjord and places explosives under the German battleship. The submarine then manages to escape as the battleship explodes.[2]

The real X-3 was the first fully operational x-craft but was lost during a training exercise although the crew escaped using Davis escape apparatus. X-1 and X-2 were in reality allocated to a submarine cruiser (scrapped 1936) and a captured Italian submarine, the latter later receiving the Pennant Number P711 instead. It was actually the midget submarine X-7 which successfully laid charges under the Tirpitz although the crew were captured shortly after. Another midget sub X-5 may also have laid charges but her fate is unknown.

Cast

• James Caan as Commander Bolton R.C.N.V.R
• David Sumner as Lt. Davies R.N.V.R.
• Norman Bowler as Sub. Lt. Pennington
• Brian Grellis as C.P.O. Barquist
• Paul Young as Leading Seaman Quentin
• William Dysart as Lt. Gogan R.N.R.
• John Kelland as Sub. Lt. Willis R.N.V.R.
• Kenneth Farrington as C.P.O. Boker Knowles
• Keith Alexander as Sub. Lt. X-3
• Carl Rigg as C.P.O. Kennedy
• Steve Kirby as Leading Seaman X-2
• Nicholas Tate as Leading Seaman X-1
• George Pravda as Captain Erlich
• Rupert Davies as Vice-Admiral Redmayne (uncredited)

See also

• Above Us the Waves is a similar film about the true-life submarine attacks on the Tirpitz.
• Operation Source details the use of X class submarines against German battleships in World War II.
• Tirpitz the real-life German battleship attacked by British X class submarines during World War II in a Norwegian fjord.

References

External links

• Submarine X-1 at IMDb
• Submarine X-1 at Rotten Tomatoes
• Submarine X-1 at the TCM Movie Database
• Submarine X-1 at AllMovie
• Submarine X-1 at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Submarine X-1 at Yahoo! Movies