Submarine Raider (1942)

For some reason an American causing yacht finds itself in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and in the way of a Japanese aircraft carrier. The bigger ship uses it as target practice leaving only "Sue" (Marguerite Chapman) as the sole survivor. Fortunately, she manages to get of an SOS and that was picked up by a nearby American submarine which races to her rescue. The submariners are puzzled by their inability to send or receive signals until they hear of the terrible news that Pearl Harbour has been devastated by a sudden, sneaky, attack. Now, complete with their damsel in distress, they concoct quite a cunning plan to lure the offending carrier to them and sink three fish into it! It's frequently interspersed with actuality and had the editing been a bit better, that might have helped out - but it isn't and coupled with a Japanese captain who was about as menacing as "Mr. Wong" and Peter Sellers' love child - on a bad day, the whole thing really just falls well short. Sure, it was made in 1942 and is a pretty shameless piece of propaganda but I'm not sure these are excuses enough for this rather cheap and cheerfully thrown together exercise in just about everything mediocre film-making has to offer. It doubtlessly made the audience feel a bit better at a very difficult time, but it has little to recommend it now.