The Valiant on AllMovie

In this suspenseful WW II thriller, the hard-bitten commander of a British battleship stationed in Alexandria Harbor early in the war must force two captured Italian frogmen to tell him whether or not they planted time-bombs upon the ship's hull. The captives are uncooperative and the captain has them wait with the crew for the ship to explode. The minutes tick by and the increasingly nervous British sailors begin questioning their leader's judgment. Eventually, one of the hostages cracks and tells them that there is one mine, but he refuses to divulge its location or the time of detonation. The captain evacuates the ship and leaves the prisoners behind. He remains aboard and surreptitiously eavesdrops upon them. When he learns the mine's location, he attempts to have the bomb removed. Unfortunately he is too late and the ship is badly damaged. Desiring to fool the Italian reconnaissance planes he knows will come, the captain puts most of his crew on deck to make the Italian fliers think their mission failed. Meanwhile other crewmen frantically try to repair the ruined hull below deck.