This is a minor film but great as such. It is full of action, the dialog is flushing on in full current all the way, the actors are splendid, and there is Dimitri Tiomkin's music to frame it all in gold. In addition to all these favourable components, it was Edward Dmytryk's first film back in America efter his three years' exile during the McCarthy witchhunts, so this became his first film after the masterpiece of "Give Us This Day" made all in England about New York in the 20s. The direction is equally masterful here, the characters are very much alive and each one has his own share, and there is Angela Lansbury as the one woman messing up everything by her intrigues. Even so, both Mark Stevens and Patrick Knowles fall in the shadow of her performance, as her domination is absolute in every scene, very much because of her dramatic intrigue, It's about the English-American war in 1812, which not many know very much about, and very few films have been made about it. Perhaps the most famous story and film from that war and its consequences is Edward Everett Horton's "The Man without a Country", a true story. This film has the outward appearance of a typical swashbuckler film with fighting and cannons and explosives and what not, but the settings are all realistic, that war was an actual war, and the men here are really risking their lives again and again and at times almost losing them. The finale with a prehistoric submarine is terrific and the peak of the film's suspense. In brief, everything about this film is impressing and well made, and only the poor technical quality and the low budget exclude a full 10 point score.
