'The Enemy Below' (1957)
Robert Mitchum is the new skipper of a destroyer scouring the South Atlantic for U-Boats in WWII. When he goes after Curt Jurgen's sub the crew quickly realise he knows his trade. But Jurgens is a worthy opponent.
Good watch this, doesn't try to be fancy just tells the story, and Mitchum is always good.
Seen in revisionist light the film is clearly about 'The Good German.' There was a concerted propaganda effort back in the 1950s when it became clear that West Germany would need to be re-armed in the face of the Soviet threat.
So Germans in 1950s American WWII films are shown as 'Just doing their duty', Nazis are disliked or even mocked by the other German characters, and when the fighting is over it's all mutual respect and 'Put her there, pal.'
Of course you could still make a war film back then that vilified the Germans but you were unlikely to get the cooperation of the armed forces.
Season 1 episode 14 of the original Star Trek series rips off much of the plot of this film. The Enterprise encounters a Romulan ship that can become invisible and a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues, with Enterprise as the destroyer and the Romulan spacecraft as the submarine.
The director of the episode, Vincent McEveety, had seen 'The Enemy Below' but only noticed the similarities between its plot and this episode later. He admitted "Obviously, it's the same story.'