Hell and High Water (Fuller, 1954)

Unlike the Fuller films I’ve seen previously, Hell and High Water gets bogged down with tepid melodrama, detracting from the film’s core, action oriented plot line. But Fuller does inject this men (and woman) on a submarine picture with many moments of his patented brutality and social malaise, including a brilliant night time action scene packed with machine gun tracer fire and a fiery explosion and later a tried and true sacrfice by a Chinese soldier for Widmark’s American Capt. Not one of his best, but I’ve learned that mediocre Fuller resides higher on the cinematic echelon than the majority of his peers.