Across the Pacific (1942)

Director:

John Huston

Writers:

Richard Macaulay (screenplay)
Robert Carson (serial)

Release Date:

5 September 1942 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Romance | War

Plot:

Rick Leland makes no secret of the fact he has no loyalty to his home country after he is court-marshaled...

Plot Keywords:

Panama | Japanese | Passenger | Panama Canal | Hara Kiri

Cast

Humphrey Bogart	...	Rick Leland
Mary Astor	...	Alberta Marlow
Sydney Greenstreet	...	Dr. Lorenz
Charles Halton	...	A.V. Smith
Victor Sen Yung	...	Joe Totsuiko (as Sen Young)
Roland Got	...	Sugi
Lee Tung Foo	...	Sam Wing On
Frank Wilcox	...	Captain Morrison
Paul Stanton	...	Colonel Hart
Lester Matthews	...	Canadian Major
John Hamilton	...	Court-Martial President
Tom Stevenson	...	Unidentified Man
Roland Drew	...	Captain Harkness
Monte Blue	...	Dan Morton
Chester Gan	...	Captain Higoto

Also Known As:

Aloha Means Goodbye (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Japanese

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Canada:G (video rating) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #8248)

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Director Vincent Sherman met with John Huston just before Huston left the project to join the Army Signal Corps and shoot documentaries for the war effort. The two directors conferred just before they were about to shoot the scene in which Leland is trapped in the movie theatre and three assassins are trying to kill him. "How does he get out?" Sherman asked. Huston replied, "That's your problem! I'm off to the war!"

Goofs:

Continuity: When Rick is using the machine gun, the end of the ammunition belt is clearly visible as he is firing. When he stands up a second later, the belt goes all the way to the ground.

Quotes:

Rick Leland: [to Lorenz as they both view U.S. planes overhead] Any of your friends in Tokyo have trouble committing hari-kiri, those boys'd be glad to help them out.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Projectionist (1971)

Good Intentions, Perhaps, But It Didn't Deliver

Here's one Humphrey Bogart movie that didn't click, and this is after he became a big star. It's also a similar cast and director from the previous year's hit film, "The Maltese Falcon," but a good cast doesn't guarantee a good movie. The same hold true for director John Huston. Maybe these people were just doing their duties as patriotic Americans by starring in a World War II movie to boost the home front during the war. I applaud them, if that's the case. However, this is no award-winner. Bogart's character, "Rick Leland," was not a guy I could get involved with caring about and that helped make me lose interest in the film.

Myrna Loy didn't help, either. How anyone could call her "glamorous" is beyond me. Her face, with the exaggerated eye shadow makeup, was disgusting in this film. After awhile, I couldn't look at her.

Having it set in the wrong ocean didn't help, either. I mean, come on - you only have two big oceans on either side of the U.S. and you get the wrong one in the story? What were they thinking? The setting takes place in the Atlantic, not the Pacific.Maybe, like today, Hollywood thought the whole world revolved around its neck of the woods.

There are too many hokey things in here, like people getting knocked off a second before they are going to divulge information. That happened more than once. In fact, how often has that ploy been used over the years?

Outside of the patriotic effort, which should be made more these days, the only positive of this film was the nice black-and-white photography.