Action in the North Atlantic **** (1943, Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale, Julie Bishop, Ruth Gordon, Sam Levene, Dane Clark) – Classic Movie Review 4783

Director Lloyd Bacon’s exciting 1943 wartime flag-waving adventure movie is a self-proclaimed ‘thunderous story of the men of the merchant marine’ and focuses on American naval bravery in the face of a German submarine attack on one ship of a US convoy. The US Liberty Ship loses the convoy from Halifax to Murmansk and the Captain and First Officer have to steer it safely to its destination attacked by German planes.

Humphrey Bogart and Raymond Massey star as officers Lieutenant Joe Rossi and Captain Steve Jarvis, while Alan Hale Sr, Sam Levene and Dane Clark play the ratings Boats O’Hara, Chips Abrams and Johnnie Pulaski who are among those fighting it out in the Warner Bros studio tank on the back lot with the help of good special effects for their day by Jack Cosgrove and Edwin DuPar. With John Howard Lawson’s screenplay based on the Oscar nominated Best Original Story by Guy Gilpatric, this is virile action, stirringly performed and directed.

Ruth Gordon plays Massey’s wife Sarah and Julie Bishop plays Pearl O’Neill.

Also in the cast are Peter Whitney, Dick Hogan, Minor Watson, J M Kerrigan, Chick Chandler, Glenn Strange, Creighton Hale, Ludwig Stossel, Frank Puglia, Iris Adrian, Irving Bacon, James Flavin and Don Douglas.

It is shot in black and white by Ted McCord, produced by Jerry Wald, scored by Adolph Deutsch and designed by Ted Smith.

When Bacon’s contract ran out during shooting, studio boss Jack L Warner told him: ‘Finish the picture and we’ll talk about it.’ Bacon would not work without a contract so Warner dumped him and got Byron Haskin to finish the film.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4783

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