Down Periscope

Down Periscope (in Spain: Abajo el periscopio, in Argentina: Locos a bordo) is a film comedy starring comic actor Kelsey Grammer, little known in the cinema but very popular on American television, such as for his series Frasier.

Plot

Lieutenant Commander (or Lieutenant Commander) Tom Dodge (Kelsey Grammer) is an officer with extensive experience as a second in command of submarines. He aspires to become captain of his own ship, but in the admiralty he has enemies due to some eccentricities he committed in his day. Admiral Graham, rank admiral "Two Stars" and candidate for the third star (Bruce Dern) is the one who wants to get Dodge out of the way (assuming the role of "bad guy" in the movie, the one who wants to make Dodge fail) puts him to the test through an operation of & #34;War Game" which in his opinion Dodge is not going to beat. The mission is that Dodge, with a crew made up of useless, must restore an old World War II submarine, the USS Stingray (SS-161), and with it participate in a "war game" playing the role of invader.

The scheme of the war game is that since Russia is selling its Diesel submarines to countries potentially enemies of the United States, it is feared that they will be used to attack American territory. And given the similarity of the "Stingray" with the Russian submarines sold, it is intended to simulate that the "Stingray" Play the part of the invading submarine and get countermeasures ready. The program is for him to enter two different bays without being seized by the US defense ships and launch, in the first bay, flares to simulate a bombardment and, in the second port, launch two real torpedoes at a fake ship prepared to do so. effect; if he achieves both objectives he will win the game. Dodge is not intimidated by the challenge and does everything in his power to succeed in the test, a goal he achieves, defeating Admiral Graham and making him lose the candidacy for his third star.

Curiosities

The film was shot using, to play the part of the fictional "Stingray" submarine, an authentic WWII veteran submarine, the USS Pampanito (SS-383) (visible in this image page), which after the war was used as a training ship and today is a museum ship stationed in San Francisco.