Hell and High Water is a 1954 American Technicolor Cold War drama film from 20th Century Fox, directed by Samuel Fuller and starring Richard Widmark, Bella Darvi, and Victor Francen.

Shortly thereafter it was indicated that this atomic reaction, according to scientific reports, originated in a remote area in North Pacific waters, somewhere between the northern tip of the Japanese Islands and the Arctic Circle.

Jones meets Professor Montel and a small group of international scientists, businessmen, and statesmen who suspect the Communist Chinese are building a secret atomic base on an island somewhere north of Japan.

They must have proof, and so offer Jones $45,000 if he will command a World War II-era Japanese submarine to follow a Communist Chinese freighter Kiang Ching, which has been making suspicious deliveries in that area.

Montel travels with his assistant, Professor Denise Gerard (Bella Darvi) News arrives that the Kiang Ching has sailed; despite Jones' protests that the submarine's torpedo tubes have not been inspected and tested yet, and are therefore too dangerous to use, there is no choice but to leave port and pursue the freighter.

After a firefight with Red Chinese soldiers, the patrol returns to the submarine with a captive, a pilot named Ho-Sin, and discover the existence of another island which could be their target.

Needing more information, they trick it out of Ho-Sin by sending ship's cook Chin Lee (Wong Artarne), dressed in a Chinese uniform, into the same room.

Fuller used the widescreen effectively for the opening European locations and the exciting action climax, but also demonstrated how to use it to communicate the claustrophobia experienced on board the submarine.

A number of European countries were sensitive to films with political themes and refused to grant them exhibition permits, avoiding the ire of the U.S. and the Soviet Union.