Action in the North Atlantic
Directed by Lloyd Bacon
Written by John Howard Lawson; story by Guy Gilpatric
1943/USA
Warner Bros
First viewing/Amazon Instant Video
[box] Lt. Joe Rossi: No matter how many tanks and planes and guns you pile up, no matter how many men you got, it doesn’t mean a thing unless the men get the stuff when they need it.[/box]
The great action sequences make this film. Humphrey Bogart and Raymond Massey don’t hurt either.
The story is more or less a tribute to the merchant marine, which delivered the goods in WWII in constant danger of torpedo attack and air strikes. It begins on an oil tanker. Captain Steve Jarvis (Raymond Massey) and First Officer Lt. Joe Rossi banter on deck in a thick fog. We meet the crew headed by Boatswain ‘Boats’ O’Hara (Alan Hale). Before ten minutes are out, a submarine torpedoes the ship. All on board are forced to abandon ship amid a terrible fire and take refuge on a raft. To add insult to injury, the submarine rams the raft. The men spend 11 days drifting at sea.
They are rescued and after a bit of shore leave are ready to take on a new assignment. Most of our heroes end up on a new ‘Liberty Ship’. This will travel in a huge convoy with naval escorts and navy gunners on board. A bigger target only attracts more and better U-Boats. With Ruth Gordon as Jarvis’s wife and Sam Levine and Dane Clark on the crew.
The action scenes in this had me on the edge of my seat. I wonder if Raul Walsh, who is listed as an uncredited director, had anything to do with this. The other scenes are filled with some pretty heavy-handed propaganda. Nonetheless, the speeches are expertly delivered by Bogart and go down easily. The other dialogue among the men is better written than in most of these pictures. I liked the fact that there are several scenes inside the subs in which the Germans speak only German. If this kind of thing appeals at all, I would recommend this one.
Action in the North Atlantic was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Story. How it missed a nomination for Best Special Effects is beyond me. Amazingly, the entire film was made on the Warner Brothers backlot and soundstages. Everything looked real enough to make me jump.
Trailer
