Action in the North Atlantic (1943)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Lloyd Bacon

Writers:

John Howard Lawson (screenplay)
Guy Gilpatric (story)

Release Date:

12 June 1943 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | War

Tagline:

Warner Bros. thunderous story of the men of the merchant marine!

Plot:

Lieutenant Joe Rossi is 1st Officer on a Liberty Ship in a great convoy bound from Halifax to Murmansk...

Plot Keywords:

Convoy | North Atlantic | Attack | U Boat | Camaraderie

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Humphrey Bogart	...	Lt. Joe Rossi
Raymond Massey	...	Capt. Steve Jarvis
Alan Hale	...	Boats O'Hara
Julie Bishop	...	Pearl
Ruth Gordon	...	Mrs. Sarah Jarvis
Sam Levene	...	Chips Abrams
Dane Clark	...	Johnnie Pulaski
Peter Whitney	...	Whitey Lara
Dick Hogan	...	Cadet Robert Parker

Runtime:

126 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #8706) | Australia:G (TV rating) | Canada:PG (video rating) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Spain:T | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Santa Barbara, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

When shooting the scene early in the movie, when their characters abandoned ship from their burning tanker, Humphrey Bogart and Raymond Massey got into a friendly argument over who had the better stunt double. In the end, the two stars decided to do away with their stunt doubles altogether and wound up doing the stunt themselves.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the ill-fated Jinks is trapped in the burning rec room during the opening attack, he pounds on the door and flames are flicking through the door frame on the immediate right of him. When one of the crew comes to rescue him, the reverse shot shows no flame whatever within immediate area of the door or frame.

Quotes:

Mrs. Jarvis: For a sailor's wife war is just another storm.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Warner at War (2008) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Night and Day

Memorial for the merchant heroes

I got to this movie more or less by chance and didn't know the background. However, this thing is rather gripping, suspenseful and emotional. It stars H. Bogart and R. Massey as the 2nd in command forced into the lead, when Massey as the skipper is heavily wounded in an air-attack on his Liberty freighter on the way to Murmansk. The ship is trailed by a German U-Boat, that is kept at distance during day light, but will certainly torpedo them at night and prevents them from rejoining their convoy, as they don't want to disclose it's course to the Germans. How they finally go thru alive and reach Murmansk offers many ways to show the heroics of the unlisted merchant sailors, who contributed in the same way as the Navy to the victory in war. All that is conveyed very well, sometimes to message-like, sometimes to much propaganda, but what you expect in 1943 ?. Some fun on the side : In the German (dubbed) version , all the Germans (esp. Pilots and Sub Marine Commanders) speak a (original, non dubbed) heavy chewing gum English, whereas the Americans speak perfect German. Such is the war (in the movies)