It seems the Russians didn't invent the submarine after all. According to United Artists in its latest release Mutiny, a handmade submarine of waxed hickory construction was used in the war of 1812 to sink a 70-gun ship-of-the-line. This film should please NROTC students and those who like their action stacatto.

Somewhat reminiscent of Errol Flynn's epics, Mutiny charts its technicolor course through blood, battle, and the whims of a bosomy heroine, played with deadpan perfection by Angela (never a hair out of place) Lansbury.

Mark Stevens is cast as a tight-lipped American sea captain sent to France to pick up gold bullion which is to finance the war of 1812. Stevens' crew, however, who fondly call him "Goody Goody," put him in irons after a few running engagements that put Pearl Harbor to shame.

The film's producers add the cynical touch when--Patric Knowles a Britisher who plays a Britisher--shoots Angela in the back, spoiling her pretty coiffure. Knowles then sets out in a submarine with Stevens, who is again a free man. Knowles goes down with his coffin, while "Goody Goody," who should have gone down long ago, takes the deck again with the war practically in his well-starched pocket.

Strangely enough, the second feature is almost better than the first. A foggy English thriller entitled Cloud-burst, it methodically picks a murder mystery apart, but falls flat at the very end when the murder surrenders himself to the old gang at Scotland Yard.