Directed by William Fairchild, The Silent Enemy is based on the real Lionel ‘Buster’ Crabb who vanished during a reconnaissance mission for the MI6, played by Laurence Harvey (Innocents in Paris, I Am A Camera) and is notable for its remarkable and pioneering underwater action sequences as well as being credited as inspiration for Ian Fleming to write Thunderball.

In 1941, Britain was sustaining enormous losses fighting a war on three fronts against an ever increasing Axis power. To add to their problems, the Italians have recently created a new form of warfare – Frogmen – an intrepid band of men who travel astride small torpedo-type vessels, and attach explosive charges to the hulls of enemy ships, below their waterline.

A young Naval Lieutnant, ‘Buster’ Crabb, an expert in mine and bomb disposal, is sent to Gibraltar to try and combat this new threat. Never having dived before, he sets to work to master the technique of underwater operations, and soon he and his team are able to locate many of the frogmen’s charges and render them harmless. But with an invasion of North Africa imminent, time is not on the Allies’ side. Also starring Michael Craig (Yield to the Night, The Angry Silence), Dawn Addams (The Hour of 13), John Clements(Four Feathers) and Sidney ‘Sid’ James (The Lavender Hill Mob).