UnowPriceless hyped garbage

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Maleeha Vincent It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Martha Wilcox Here we see a much stronger Edward G. Robinson challenging Victor McLaglen who was never really in the contest anyway. The film itself is not that good, but it does explore how people you work with who may appear to be friends are actually spying on you for the opposition. McLaglen plays an unconvincing Nazi spy who betrays Robinson leading to the sinking of his ship.Robinson marries a woman who is rescued from a sinking ship and doesn't have the necessary documentation to get into Mexico. He takes her under his care which is quite touching and shows the sensitive side of his acting repertoire.

bkoganbing Edward G. Robinson and Victor McLaglen co-starred in this inflated B war time action/adventure saga of the merchant marine. Both of these guys must have had nothing else going on at this point in their careers.Robinson is captain and McLaglen first mate of an oil tanker operating out of the Caribbean and one fine day they rescue some folks whose ship was torpedoed by a U-boat. Among those rescued are Lynn Bari who has no passport and no one else can quite account for her among the survivors.She and Robinson hit it off and they have one of those impulsive marriages. But later on Robinson's ship is also torpedoed and when he's rescued he starts to think he might have made a bad decision. And he's determined to find out one way or another.Tampico is one of those films that gives homage to that famous wartime slogan of 'loose lips sink ships'. But as it turns out it wasn't some flannel mouthed indiscretion by someone that got Robinson's ship sunk. This was quite calculated and planned.It's also an inflated B film with very little thought given to plot structure and a story line that is well nigh implausible at times. A relic of World War II years much like Robinson's oil tanker.

MartinHafer Maybe it's just me, but I had a hard time believing Edward G. Robinson and Victor McLaglen as officers in the Merchant Marines. But, this could have worked--as these men were not regular military men and were sometimes older and less physically fit men. However, Robinson really was not up to this part for another reason. When their oil tanker comes upon the wreckage of a ship sunk by the Nazis, they rescue a group of survivors--including Lynn Bari who is inexplicably attracted to Robinson. Why a seemingly 'hot' woman would come on THIS strong to a short, paunchy, middle-aged man didn't make sense. Perhaps Robinson's character was a nice fella, but she didn't even have a chance to find out before she started pouring on the charm and sex appeal. In real life, such a woman NEVER would have made such a play or the guy would have wondered what were her ulterior motives--as it just made no sense. With a different cast, perhaps this could work. Now it is NOT that I dislike Robinson--he was a fine actor and I ALWAYS try to see any film of his I haven't seen before (like this one). He just was cast badly...or, perhaps, it might have worked if the relationship between him and Bari had occurred slowly and realistically.Once the group was rescued, for some odd reason none of the other survivors seems to have remembered seeing Bari among the passengers. And so, the viewer is expected to somehow suspect her motives--like she's some sort of a Nazi plant. However, if you think about it, it just didn't make any sense. Why would the Nazis sink a ship and then toss a female spy among the debris and then have her marry the captain of a very insignificant merchant vessel?!?! Yet, for much of the film, you are expected to believe that she is a Nazi agent who has been sending reports to Nazi subs about the location of various ships--including, possibly, one she was on herself. Does this make any sense except on Bizarro World?! All this occurs in the first half of the film--how it's all resolved is something you'll need to see for yourself.Despite the bad casting and stupid plot, the film has some things going for it. Even miscast, I love Robinson and would watch him in anything (except porn....ewwww!!!). Second, if you turn off your brain and refuse to question anything, the film is entertaining. As far as wartime propaganda films go, however, it's at best average...at best.

Michael_Elliott Tampico (1944) ** (out of 4) Standard spy yarn has Edward G. Robinson playing a skipper of an oil rig during WW2 when the German's are trying to sink all the rigs. He saves a beautiful woman (Lynn Bari) from the sea and marries her but when his ship gets hit by a torpedo his men think the new wife was a spy. This film only runs 75-minutes but there's not really enough story for a twenty-minute movie. Robinson is pretty good in his role as is Bari but the supporting cast, including Victor McLaglen, doesn't add much spice to the story. The direction is pretty uninspired throughout and some of the dialogue is quite laughable.