History Film / TheEnemyBelow

* IdiotBall: Near the end of the film, the German U-boat captain makes several blatant mistakes (that no officer of his experience should have made) because the script needs him to do so.
** The German U-boat captain falls for one of the oldest tricks in the book - the American ship pretending that after being torpedoed, it's helpless and can't move or attack - and decides to surface. Under the laws of war, the American captain would have been completely justified in immediately opening fire on the U-boat with his deck guns and trying to ram it. The American captain even lampshades how stupid the U-boat captain's action is: "I'm half surprised he took the bait. That's the first foolish thing he's done."
** After warning the American ship that he would fire a second torpedo in ten minutes, the U-boat captain decides to wait ''on the surface'' for the entire ten minutes. Unfortunately, the American ship is still capable of movement and manages to ram the U-boat, leading to their mutual sinking. If the U-boat captain had just submerged after giving the American ship the warning and fired the torpedo while underwater, he could have avoided this.
** The U-boat captain had to know that other American warships were on the way. By sticking around, even for only ten minutes, he took the risk that American ships could arrive, detect him, and continue the attack upon his vessel. If he had to make sure of the American ship's sinking, he should have fired the second torpedo immediately. If he couldn't ethically do that, he could have just slipped away quietly and continued on his way.

* TookALevelInBadass: Captain Murrell was a Merchant Marine officer an later an active duty lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve. He's still recovering from the sinking of his previous ship and the death of his wife and his ability is questioned by his underlings, but he shows his competency as a destroyer escort commander early on.

** The U-boat captain had to know that other American warships were on the way. By sticking around, even for only ten minutes, he took the risk that American ships could arrive, detect him, and continue the attack upon him, causing him to lose his vessel. If he had to make sure of the American ship's sinking, he should have fired the second torpedo immediately. If he couldn't ethically do that, he could have just slipped away quietly and continued on his way.

* IdiotBall: Near the end of the film, the German U-boat captain makes several blatant mistakes that no officer of his experience should have made because the script needs him to do so.

* IdiotBall: Near the end of the film, the German U-boat captain makes two blatant mistakes because the script needs him to lose his ship.

** After warning the American ship that he will fire a second torpedo in ten minutes, the U-boat captain decides to wait on the surface for the entire ten minutes. Unfortunately, the American ship is still capable of combat and manages to ram the U-boat, leading to their mutual sinking. If the U-boat captain had just submerged after giving the American ship the warning and fired the torpedo while underwater, he could have avoided this.

** After warning the the American ship that he will fire a second torpedo in ten minutes, the U-boat captain decides to wait on the surface for the entire ten minutes. Unfortunately, the American ship is still capable of combat and manages to ram the U-boat, leading to their mutual sinking. If the U-boat captain had just submerged after giving the American ship the warning and fired the torpedo while underwater, he could have avoided this.

* TookALevelInBadass: Captain Murrell was a Merchant Marine officer an later an active duty lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve. He's still recovering from the sinking of his previous ship and his ability is questioned by his underlings, but he shows his competency as a destroyer escort commander early on.
* TheVonTropeFamily: Von Stolberg has an aristocratic background and is not enamoured with the Nazi regime

* ArtisticLicenseShips: Mostly averted, but Type-VII U-boats only had one stern torpedo tube (plus four in the bow), not two.

* CoolBoat: A German Type-VII U-boat vs an American ''Buckley''-class destroyer escort. Bonus points for filming on a real ''Buckley''-class DE.

''The Enemy Below'' is a 1957 war film directed and produced by Creator/DickPowell, which shows the battle between the captain of an American destroyer escort and the commander of a German U-boat during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. It stars Creator/RobertMitchum and Curt Jürgens. [[TheFilmOfTheBook The film was based on a novel]] by Denys Rayner, a British naval officer involved in anti-submarine warfare throughout the Battle of the Atlantic.

* AdaptationalHeroism: The final scenes of mutual respect and potential friendship between the protagonists are not present in the original book, where the Allied ship is British instead of American and the destroyer escort captain loathes his German counterpart.

* AdaptationalNationalityChange: In the book, the Allied ship is British. In the film, it's American.

* AdaptionalNationalityChange: In the book, the Allied ship is British. In the film, it's American.

* SensorSuspense: ASDIC pings.

Walter Rossi received the 1958 UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for best special effects. The script was RecycledINSPACE as the classic ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]'' episode [[Recap/StarTrekS1E14BalanceOfTerror "Balance of Terror"]].

* WarIsHell: While the film is a straight war-adventure-suspense story, it does touch on the aspects: Captain Murrell lost his British wife to a U-boat when he was trying to evacuate her from Britain on his ship when he was a merchant mariner. Von Stolberg has lost his sons in battle ("one is at the bottom of the sea, and the other is a cinder in a burned airplane"), and doubts he's on the right side of the war. The two of them—honorable, intelligent, and compassionate men who respect each other's abilities—spend most of the film trying to kill each other.

''The Enemy Below'' is a 1957 war film directed and produced by Dick Powell, which shows the battle between the captain of an American destroyer escort and the commander of a German U-boat during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. It stars Creator/RobertMitchum and Curt Jürgens. [[TheFilmOfTheBook The film was based on a novel]] by Denys Rayner, a British naval officer involved in anti-submarine warfare throughout the Battle of the Atlantic.