BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

jacobs-greenwood Directed by Lloyd Bacon, with a story by Guy Gilpatric, additional dialogue provided by W.R. Burnett and A.I. Bezzerides, and a screenplay by John Howard Lawson, this slightly above average war drama details the contributions of the Merchant Marines ("Heroes Without Uniform") during World War II. Gilpatric's Original Story was nominated for a Best Writing Oscar.This Warner Bros. propaganda film features several of its stars and goes hand in hand with studio's many other contributions to the war effort, providing a stark contrast to the anti-military "propaganda" most movie studios have been turning out since Vietnam. Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale, Sam Levene, Dane Clark, and even Ruth Gordon (who plays Massey's wife as she did in their only other film together, Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940)), among others, appear.Set during World War II, Steve Jarvis (Massey) is the Captain of an oil freighter that's transporting needed fuel to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Unfortunately, the sea is crawling with German U- boats, determined to sink the unarmed ship to keep it from helping the Allies. His longtime first mate, Lieutenant Joe Rossi (Bogart) has enough experience to be captain of his own ship, but prefers to remain a subordinate, closer to the crew with no paperwork responsibilities. Their usual shipmates include Boats O'Hara (Hale), Chips Abrams (Levene), Johnnie Pulaski (Clark), Whitey Lara (Peter Whitney), and cook Caviar Jinks (J. M. Kerrigan, uncredited). During this particular voyage, they've picked up a studious new youngster Robert Parker (Dick Hogan). Soon, however, their ship is sunk by a German submarine, and all hands must abandon ship. Several of the non-credited seaman, including Kerrigan, Creighton Hale & Glenn Strange, die in the burning sea while Jarvis, and the rest of his crew, man the only lifeboat. But the U-boat surfaces and, after some hostile banter between the two captains, the German orders his boat to sink the American's lifeboat. Fortunately, Jarvis had expelled some rafts from the freighter before it sunk and, after 11 days at sea without food or water (not really possible?), the men are rescued.Jarvis returns to his wife while Rossi meets a bar (Irving Bacon appears, uncredited, as the bartender) singer, Pearl (Julie Bishop), whom he marries rather hastily. Parker goes to Merchant Marine school where he becomes a cadet, while the rest of the crew gathers at their union's meeting place to wait for another ship to join. The family man Pulaski voices the things that perhaps the others are only thinking about not necessarily wanting to go out again so soon after nearly being killed.However, when the opportunity presents itself, all sign on again together for another mission and all hard feelings towards Pulaski are forgotten. Jarvis "retrieves" Rossi and all the men find themselves assigned to the U.S.S. Sea Witch, including Cadet Parker and a regimen of other sailors assigned to operate the ship's guns. The Sea Witch is part of a 73 ship convoy assigned the mission to transport much needed supplies (including aircraft, tanks, and more) to Murmansk, Russia. Charles Trowbridge appears, uncredited, as the Rear Admiral.Naturally, the convoy runs into a wolf-pack of German U-boats. Lots of exciting action sequences follow with torpedoes launched, most hitting their targets, and subs sunk by Destroyers with depth charges. The Sea Witch gets separated from the convoy and must proceed to the destination without escort; their only defense are their installed guns and its Navy crew. They battle a German U-boat (perhaps even the same one that sunk the oil freighter at the beginning of the film, if you can believe the coincidence) and dive bombers on their way.It should come as no surprise that the Sea Witch reaches its destination, much to the delight of the Russian town and its residents. However, Jarvis is injured by strafing fire from one of the dive bombers while Parker is killed by the other when it's shot down and crashes into the Sea Witch's bow. Rossi must then perform a crude surgery to remove the bullet in Jarvis's leg. After having escaped the German U-boat in the fog and by turning off all power such that they were "invisible" to it, the Sea Witch encounters it again before reaching port.The German U-boat commander was smart enough to determine the target destination such that it rendezvoused with Jarvis's boat again. In any case, after their ship receives a wounding torpedo, Rossi (now in charge per Jarvis's injury) orders the men to light fires on its deck to fool the U-boat captain into thinking their damage was greater such that he might surface. The commander takes the bait which, along with a smoke screen he'd ordered, allows Rossi to ram the submarine broadside, sinking it.This same strategy was actually copied by director Dick Powell in his film The Enemy Below (1957), though Powell chose to add a bit more (having Mitchum, the American Captain, rescue Jurgens, the German).

utgard14 Well this is one movie title that's certainly not misleading. There's tons of action in this gripping WW2 movie about the Merchant Marine. I might even go so far as to say it's got the best and most realistic action sequences from any WW2 movie I've seen. I'm talking about movies made during the era not stuff made decades later with a gazillion dollar budget, of course. The story's about an American tanker crew that survives their ship being sunk by a German U-boat and spend eleven days adrift at sea before being rescued. They later return to sea on a Liberty ship leading a convoy. Once again they have to deal with the Nazis. What's not to like? It's a WW2 movie with colorful Warner Bros. character actors Alan Hale, Dane Clark, Peter Whitney, and Sam Levene backing up Humphrey Bogart and Raymond Massey. There's only a couple of (minor) female roles, played well by Julie Bishop and Ruth Gordon. Yeah the plot's pretty basic and the characters may seem clichéd but it's all put together so well that I didn't mind. There's something to be said for using a successful formula. The script is great with lots of funny lines and stirring speeches. Good music, both score and a nice rendition of Night and Day from a dubbed Julie Bishop. The photography is beautiful. The special effects are exceptional. The direction is terrific, especially in those spectacular action scenes. This is all the more remarkable when one considers director Lloyd Bacon didn't get to finish the picture. Bogart is great (as always) and his fans will love this one. Pretty much anyone who enjoys WW2 movies, particularly those from WB, will like this a lot. It's an emotional, exciting two hours of solid entertainment.

Spikeopath A cracking formulaic war propaganda piece that brings notice to the often forgotten work that the Allied Merchant Marines did during World War II. Lloyd Bacon directs with John Howard Lawson adapting from Guy Gilpatric's story "Heroes Without Uniform". Leading the cast list are Raymond Massey, Humphrey Bogart, Alan Hale, Dane Clark & Sam Levene. While Ruth Gordon & Julie Bishop play the two "filler" female roles of the girls left to fret back on dry land.The story follows the crew of the cargo tanker Northern Star, who at the start of the film are torpedoed by the Nazis in the North Atlantic. Out on a raft without food and water for eleven days, the surviving members of the crew are finally rescued by the Navy. Once recuperated, the men wait at home for another ship and finally get assigned to the Sea Witch, which is required to take supplies to Murmansk in the Soviet Union. What follows is a perilous journey as the Sea Witch is engaged in battles by a German "wolf pack".Brisk in pace, Bacon's film contains great 1940s special effects and has a number of excellently constructed action sequences. Successfully blending real life footage and model work with the work on the Warner's lot, the makers have managed to craft a piece that shows propaganda movies are not all boorish excuses for flag waving. Yes from the outset we are in no doubt that the German's are dastardly devils, the first twenty minutes of the film is both exciting and tense as "The Hun" try to obliterate our protagonists in a whirl of explosions and burning oil slicks. But at its heart is a very humanistic tale of a group of men from a cross section of ethnic backgrounds trying to keep it together as they do their bit for the war effort. These characters are well formed, and thankfully they are acted accordingly by the largely on form cast. Given a thumbs up over the years by veterans of the Merchant Marines, the film was also used as a recruitment tool for said service. That in itself is reasons for the movie to hold its head up high. That it's also a ripper of an action movie, with very interesting characters, doubly makes this a fine entry in the propaganda led genre of 40s war movies. 7.5/10

Merciful_Wolf My grandfather fought in the U.S. Merchant Marine and lost half a finger while at it, so I perked up when I saw that this film focused on these oft-forgot veterans of WWII. There sure aren't many films about them. In fact, they weren't even given the right to be buried as war veterans until 1988, when President Reagan signed the bill.And happily, it's a solid, interesting film. It doesn't shy away from showing how vulnerable these ships were, how many casualties they could take. Real attention is paid to individual members of the crew. Each one comes from a different walk of life, and they have their own views on the war and whether or not they want to be here. Raymond Massey does a fine job as the experienced, honourable captain, and Bogart takes a break from his dark, cynical characters to play the friendly and wise first-mate. He's still Bogart, of course -- a number of his lines have some of the trademark eloquent wit that he was given in his previous movies (such as Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon). He's worldly-wise, but not grim or disillusioned. He's a bit of a womaniser, but perhaps is not as loose as he pretends to be. He's firm and doesn't believe in nonsense, but has none of the hard cruelty or anger that comes out in his noir or "insane" role (i.e. Treasure of the Sierra Madre). He's as likable and dependable as ever. The other performances range from blandly adequate to quite good, with Alan Hale being as wonderfully likable and friendly as ever as the curmudgeonly comic relief. (love a good alliteration there, heh) The film is quite long, surprisingly. It takes its time to do scenes right, and give things weight. Only one element of the story was rushed, that being Bogart's romance. It doesn't last long, and is rather superfluous anyway. But the film never dragged too much. It could have been trimmed in some areas, but does not suffer badly for it.The special effects are quite impressive, actually. They must have used models for the ship and submarine battles, but darn if they don't look good. There is one shot in particular, near the end: a boat is ramming a surfaced submarine, and the impact is filmed from underwater. It is absolutely convincing, and very dramatic.And yes, it is a patriotic film, though not a fake or overbearing one. These men knew what they were fighting for, and in the movie they talk about it quite a bit. At one point, Bogart expresses the main reason why the experienced merchant mariners keep voluntarily returning to their ships instead of taking constant leave to be with their families. The essence of it is this: "We've spent a lot of time around Nazi ports, and we've seen what they're doing." Keep in mind, this movie was made in 1943, before the full horrors of the Holocaust were known. The Allies didn't know all that was happening yet, but they knew enough to be sure that it had to be stopped.This is not an extraordinary classic, but it is a very fine film, and a good one.