Before Tom Clancy there was Edward L. Beach Jr. The son of a US Navy captain, Beach Jr. would go on to join the service himself, serving in – and eventually commanding – submarines in the Pacific theatre throughout the Second World War. His naval career lasted into the 1960's, as he became not only a presidential naval aide but also the commander of the first ever submerged circumnavigation. He also became a renowned writer with his series of submarine novels. His most famous novel, Run Silent, Run Deep (1955), was adapted into a major Hollywood film only three years later starring Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster, and Don Rickles. I just recently got around to watching this film and there's a lot to be said about its resemblance (or lack thereof) to its source material. So let's take a look at how the Run Silent, Run Deep movie compares to the book.
This is one of those instances where the two works' plots are so different that I'm going to have to recount them separately. First let's go over the book. In 1941 Commander Edward “Rich” Richardson is put in charge of the aging submarine S-16 with Jim Bledsoe as his executive officer. They sail her New London, Connecticut, for refitting and training. There Rich meets Jim's girlfriend Laura and the three become friends just before the attack on Pearl Harbour. Due to the expediencies of the war effort Rich recommends the lesser-experienced Jim for command. Unfortunately Jim loses his composure and performs poorly on his qualification test, leading Rich to withdraw his endorsement, leaving Jim and Laura incensed. Rich is given command of a new sub based in Pearl Harbour, the USS Walrus, and – with Jim as his XO once again – is tasked with sinking Japanese shipping in the Pacific. Jim marries Laura before leaving. On its first patrol the Walrus encounters the Akikaze, a Japanese destroyer based in the Bungo Suido notorious for sinking numerous US subs, including one captained by Rich's friend Stocker Kane. Eventually Rich is ordered to sail to the Bungo Suido where the Walrus comes under attack from the Akikaze, which is captained by Tateo Nakame (AKA Bungo Pete). Rich is badly wounded and under Jim's command the Walrus escapes and returns to Pearl Harbour. Sidelined for several months with a broken leg, Rich decides to once again endorse Jim for command of the Walrus which he finally receives. During his time ashore Rich works on improving the US Navy's notoriously defective torpedoes. Meanwhile as captain of the Walrus Jim sinks a multitude of Japanese shipping around Australia and gains a reputation as an aggressive skipper. He also starts an affair, much to Rich's dismay. In between patrols, a drunken Jim confesses to Rich at a party that he despised his captain when he withdrew support for Jim's promotion and was only pretending to be a loyal friend, but having seen Rich's demeanour under combat and after serving as captain himself Jim realized that he was wrong for ever doubting Rich. It's during Jim's next patrol that Bungo Pete sinks the Walrus, all hands lost. Rich is placed in command of the USS Eel and he convinces his superiors to let him go after Bungo Pete. Finally the Eel finds Bungo Pete's anti-submarine group. After sinking the Akikaze (and its accompanying submarine and decoy ship) Rich realizes that after being rescued the survivors will likely resume attacking Allied shipping. And so he regretfully rams their lifeboats, dooming them all. Not long after as the Eel is on patrol around Guam Rich narrowly manages to rescue three downed American airmen despite the presence of a Japanese fighter plane, earning him the Medal of Honor and providing him with some sense of redemption. Rich then returns home and thinks of starting a relationship with Laura.
The movie begins with Commander “Rich” Richardson (Clark Gable) surviving his submarine sinking in the Bungo Straits at the hands of Japanese ace submariner Bungo Pete. Once recuperated, he's ready for revenge and convinces the Navy board to give him a new boat and an experienced crew to command. He's given the USS Nerka and its executive officer LtCdr Jim Bledsoe is none too pleased as this effectively denies him of commanding the boat. Jim is also unsure of Rich's single-minded drive to rigorously train the crew for perfecting the “bow shot”, a tricky torpedo shot aimed at the bow of an oncoming ship while in the middle of diving. On patrol, Rich chooses to ignore an easy target only to attack a different one later with a successful bow shot. The crew puts it together that Rich has been ignoring select targets because he's sailing the Nerka towards the infamous Bungo Straits, directly violating the admiralty's orders. Some of the officers consider mutiny but Jim refuses to play along. They soon come upon a Japanese convoy but after sinking a transport the Nerka is attacked by enemy aircraft that were waiting in ambush. The sub quickly dives and narrowly avoids being sunk by depth charges in the escape but in the process three crewmen are killed and Rich suffers a concussion. With Rich in no shape to command, Jim takes charge and sets sail back towards Pearl Harbour. The crew catch Tokyo Rose on the radio proudly announcing the loss of the Nerka and its crew, leaving them puzzled as to how the Japanese knew specific crew members' names and the sub's whereabouts. (As with the novel it turns out that they were sifting through the Nerka's drifting garbage to extract intelligence.) But having tricked the Japanese into believing they've all died, Jim decides to take advantage and returns to the Bungo Straits to take on the Akikaze once and for all. The two vessels meet and the Nerka comes out on top only to come under fire from a Japanese submarine which was working in concert with the Akikaze the whole time. After dodging a couple torpedoes and forcing her adversary to the surface (with an ailing Rich's help), the Nerka sinks the enemy sub. Having exacted revenge, Rich collapses and dies on the bridge and is buried at sea.
The biggest difference between these two stories is the relationship between Richardson and Jim Bledsoe. The novel has them start out as friends with Rich in the more experienced and authoritative role (even though he's not that much older than Jim) and it's not until Rich rescinds his endorsement for promotion that Jim takes on a mostly-secret resentment towards him. This is also the result of the book version of Jim being more rebellious and impulsive; it's what leads to him both failing his qualification test and his eventual aggressive stance as skipper. Unfortunately his success gets to his head, leading to him starting an affair and later dying at the hands of Bungo Pete. In the film the tension between Jim and Rich comes from Rich delaying Jim's promotion to captain as well as his sailing the Nerka to the forbidden Bungo Straits without telling the officers and crew. I think both versions of this conflict have their ups and downs. In the book the rift between the two men is much more personal since (1) they spend more time together over several years and (2) Rich feels some attraction towards Laura long before Jim's death. But on the other hand the movie takes a more two-way approach to the tension between two professionals disagreeing how their jobs should be done: Rich puts the crew's lives at risk by disobeying his orders to stay away from the Bungo Straits whereas Jim – more mature and cool-headed than his book counterpart – is still ticked off that he didn't get his command as expected. This differs from the book which portrays Rich in the right about pretty much everything.
(However it may be helpful to note that the book is told from Richardson's first-person perspective. The story is framed as his audio recording transcript for the Navy to help sell war bonds; the transcript is deemed unsuitable for a bond drive due to its focus on personal matters. Readers could argue that Rich was covering his ass and not telling the whole truth in order to make himself look good, I guess. But there's not too much evidence to support this theory.)
Another big difference between the novel and the film is in their scope. Whereas the film takes place over a few weeks and focuses on a single patrol by the Nerka the book's events span several years and are set aboard multiple boats (S-16, Walrus, Eel). Much of the book's second act is about Rich's recovery ashore and one of the book's highlights, the S-16's crew observing the devastation at Pearl Harbour days after the attack, is also left out of the film. As is normally the case with adaptations, the book goes into much greater detail about things such as how submarines work and how undersea warfare is waged. This abundance of detail and education should come as no surprise given the author's background, and yet it avoids being overbearing and tedious (like how Clancy novels can sometimes be. Has it really been 5 years since my Hunt for Red October comparison?).
I suppose the film somewhat makes up for this by having some scenes filmed inside a real submarine so at least the viewer gets to see what a sub looks like, both inside and out. This was accomplished with the cooperation of the US Navy but as is normally the case with military-endorsed movie shoots this came with a few caveats. In order to remain in the Navy's good books the film avoided mentioning the flawed torpedoes that WWII crews had to work with. Additionally the lifeboat-ramming scene was also jettisoned: while rare, such incidents did happen during the war and they're definitely something the Navy wouldn't want showcased to the general public.
Characters are another component that saw a change-up during adaptation. As you may have guessed, Laura is nowhere to be found in the film and (if I recall correctly) no mention is made of Jim Bledsoe's relationship status. However we do see one scene of Rich at home with his wife; Rich was a bachelor in the novel. Similarly ensign Keith Leone, a major supporting character in the book was left out and replaced with a new character, ensign Gerald Cartwright, a disloyal officer whom Jim has to put in his place as an example to the rest of the crew.
Lastly here are some other differences and oddities that are worth note:
As mentioned earlier Laura isn't in the film, although interestingly the credits list Rich's wife's name as Laura Richardson. (Is this movie actually a sequel to the book? Is this the second Jim Bledsoe to serve with Richardson in the US Navy during WWII? Do the Japanese have a whole fleet of Bungo Pete clones at sea?)
Both stories contain a scene in which Jim almost drowns someone he didn't know was left on the outer deck as he orders the sub to dive. In the movie the victim is one of the cook's assistants disposing of some garbage, in the novel it's Rich.
The film's opening scene – in which Richardson's sub is sunk in the Bungo Straits by Pete – never happened in the book. This scene's inclusion in the film raises a few questions, namely how did Rich avoid capture and make it back to the USA?
A great deal of the actors are older than their novel counterparts, most of whom are presumably in their 20's. In fact Clark Gable, old enough to be an admiral, is nearly twice as old as the book's Richardson!
Edward Beach was reportedly not very impressed with Run Silent, Run Deep's film adaptation when it came out, citing its inaccuracies. And having seen both versions I can understand where he's coming from. Don't get me wrong, the movie isn't bad and it makes for fine entertainment, but its lack of detail and nuance ensures that it doesn't hold a candle to the source material. I'd say if you want a condensed, bite-sized impression of Run Silent, Run Deep – which isn't excruciatingly long to begin with – then give the film a watch. But for those of you who want a more intricate, educational, and deeper (pun intended) look at mid-20th century submarine warfare then check out the book.
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