Two-Man Submarine
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Lew Landers
Tom Neal
Ann Savage
J. Carrol Naish
Robert Williams
Abner Biberman
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
Medical researchers Jerry Evans and Walt Hedges are assigned by a pharmaceutical company to work at a secret laboratory on a remote South Pacific Island in order to produce penicillium, the mold from which the magic drug penicillin is derived. Also on the island is Augustus "Doc" Hadley, a grizzled recluse, and Gabe Fabian, the researchers' Eurasian assistant. The routine of the island is disturbed one day when Pat Benson, Jerry's replacement, parachutes down. Jerry, who has been impatient to trade in his test tubes for the battlefield, has requested a transfer. That night, when three bottles containing the penicillium filtrate are discovered missing, Walt goes to investigate and is murdered. Motivated by Walt's murder, Jerry announces that he will stay on the island until the crime is solved. The following evening, an intruder breaks into the laboratory and steals all the records. Realizing that the intruder was searching for the penicillin formula, Jerry, who has committed it to memory, burns the formula. Soon after, when Fabian makes romantic overtures to Pat, she becomes suspicious of his motives but pretends to encourage him. The next day, one of the natives reports that a man parachuted from the sky and landed in the ocean. They rescue the man, Norman Fosmer, but although Doc treats him, the man remains unconscious. That night, Pat is having dinner with Fabian when a native interrupts to deliver a secret message. When Fabian hastily excuses himself, Pat hurries over to the laboratory to find Jerry. Together, they rush to the beach and find Fabian signalling a Japanese submarine surfacing from the depths. As two Japanese officers join Fabian on the beach, Jerry emerges from behind some bushes and covers them with his revolver. A moment later, a voice orders Jerry to put his hands up. Wheeling around, Jerry is confronted by Fosmer, who is really Nazi U-Boat commander Capt. Von Spanger. Marching Jerry back to the compound, Fosmer, Fabian and the Japanese torture Jerry, trying to force him to divulge the penicillin formula. Wandering into the laboratory, Doc spits contemptuously at Jerry and offers to sell Fosmer the formula. While Doc writes out the formula, Jerry, no longer being watched, loosens his bonds and escapes through a window. In the ensuing manhunt, Jerry doubles back to the laboratory, grabs a grenade and assures Pat that Doc's formula was phony. When Pat informs Jerry that Fosmer's U-Boat is attempting to refuel in the bay, Jerry returns to the beach, kills Fabian and swims to the middle of the bay. Finding the fuel line attached to a bobbing buoy, Jerry unscrews the cap and stuffs the grenade into the fuel line, thus insuring that the boat will explode as soon as it refuels. Preparing to leave the island, Fosmer takes Pat hostage and heads for the submarine. After they depart, Doc finds Jerry and together they swim out to the sub to prevent it from refuelling. Upon reaching the submarine, the two stealthily climb onboard and capture the crew, one by one. Finding himself a prisoner on his own ship, Fosmer agrees to free Pat if Doc and Jerry promise to leave the boat. As the three of them swim away, Doc treads water and silently returns to the boat, arriving just in time to prevent Fosmer from machine-gunning Pat and Jerry in the water. In the ensuing fight, Doc kills Fosmer and forfeits his own life. A subordinate officer then orders the boat to be refuelled, but when the sailor connects the fuel line, the sub explodes, leaving the bay in an inferno of flaming oil. After Jerry and Pat return to the island, they ask a rescuing Navy commander to perform their marriage ceremony.
Director
Lew Landers
Cast
Tom Neal
Ann Savage
J. Carrol Naish
Robert Williams
Abner Biberman
George Lynn
J. Alex Havier
Joseph Kim
Angel Cruz
Nelson Leigh
Byron Ellis
Sven-hugo Borg
John Merton
Rudolph Lindau
Otto Reichow
Henry Kanea
William Gillespie
Maggie Hathaway
Howard Washington
Crew
Lionel Banks
Philip Faulkner
Jack Fier
Griffin Jay
Henry Levin
George Montgomery
Ray Nazarro
Cary Odell
M. W. Stoloff
John Stone
Jerome Thoms
James Van Trees
Leslie T. White
Leslie T. White
Bob Williams
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The Variety review incorrectly lists director Lew Landers as camerman. Although a Hollywood Reporter production chart lists Lloyd Bridges in the cast, he could not be identified in the viewed print.
