Men Without Women

A submarine on leave in Shanghai puts to sea, is rammed, and sinks with a handful of men trapped in the torpedo room, one of them a British officer who deserted under another name. The film plays as a chamber piece in a steel room, the water rising and the men taking turns at the escape hatch, and Ford's Navy loyalties and his interest in what a man owes a group are already here. His first film with the writer Dudley Nichols, made as a part-talkie; what survives is the international silent version with some sound sequences missing. John Wayne has a bit part. Fox, 1930.