Towards the tail end of his career, the quality of Alan Ladd's films slipped significantly. Oddly, despite his success in "Shane" (1953), his successive films became increasingly formulaic and weak. I am not completely sure why. Because of this, I was happy with seeing "Deep Six" because although it wasn't a great film, it was a very good one and an improvement over his usual movie from this period in his career.
In this film, Ladd plays a Quaker serving in the Navy during WWII. Unlike his usual pugnacious persona, this character is more thoughtful and quiet than you would expect. His religious faith and his duty become a significant problem, as he finds that he does have difficulty killing. How's he going to work all this out? With his good buddy Frenchie (William Bendix).
Bendix is a common actor in Alan Ladd films and they were in about a half dozen films together. However, they were never better together than in this film--mostly because Bendix's character was really well written and fun to watch. Unfortunately, not all the other characters are as multidimensional and the film, oddly, leaves Frenchie's fate a bit in doubt--for this, the film loses a point. Otherwise, entertaining and with some unexpected depth.
By the way, the history teacher in me was irritated that the clothing and hairstyles on the women were clearly mid-1950s--not at all the sorts you'd have seen during WWII. This was sloppy--as well as the poor use of stock footage where a Japanese plane switched from silver to green in mid-flight!!
In this film, Ladd plays a Quaker serving in the Navy during WWII. Unlike his usual pugnacious persona, this character is more thoughtful and quiet than you would expect. His religious faith and his duty become a significant problem, as he finds that he does have difficulty killing. How's he going to work all this out? With his good buddy Frenchie (William Bendix).
Bendix is a common actor in Alan Ladd films and they were in about a half dozen films together. However, they were never better together than in this film--mostly because Bendix's character was really well written and fun to watch. Unfortunately, not all the other characters are as multidimensional and the film, oddly, leaves Frenchie's fate a bit in doubt--for this, the film loses a point. Otherwise, entertaining and with some unexpected depth.
By the way, the history teacher in me was irritated that the clothing and hairstyles on the women were clearly mid-1950s--not at all the sorts you'd have seen during WWII. This was sloppy--as well as the poor use of stock footage where a Japanese plane switched from silver to green in mid-flight!!