Away All Boats (1956)

The story of a U.S. naval ship and its crew in the Pacific, 1943-1945.

Director:

Joseph Pevney

Writers:

Ted Sherdeman (screenplay), Kenneth M. Dodson (from the novel by)

Stars:

Jeff Chandler, George Nader, Lex Barker

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jeff Chandler	...	Capt. Jebediah S. Hawks
George Nader	...	Lieut. Dave MacDougall
Lex Barker	...	Commander Quigley
Julie Adams	...	Nadine MacDougall
Keith Andes	...	Doctor Bell
Richard Boone	...	Lieut. Fraser
William Reynolds	...	Ensign Kruger
Charles McGraw	...	Lieut. Mike O'Bannion
Jock Mahoney	...	Alvick
John McIntire	...	Old Man / Film Intro Voice-over
Frank Faylen	...	Chief Phillip P. 'Pappy' Moran
James Westerfield	...	Boatswain's Mate Chief 'Boots' Torgeson, Coxswain
Don Keefer	...	Ensign Twitchell
Kendall Clark	...	Lieut. Jackson
George Dunn	...	Hubert

Storyline

The story of USS 'Belinda', Attack Transport PA22, launched late 1943 with regular-navy captain Hawks and ex-merchant captain MacDougall as boat commander. Despite personal friction, the two have plenty to deal with as the only experienced officers on board during the "shakedown." Almost laughable incompetence gradually improves, but the crew remains far from perfect when the ship sees action, landing troops on enemy beachheads. And few anticipate the challenges in store at Okinawa...

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Plot Keywords:

pacific | nordenfelt gun | kamikaze | world war two | naval battle | 

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Genres:

War | Drama

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 August 1956 (USA)

Also Known As:

Brisants humains

Filming Locations:

U.S. Virgin Islands

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

114 min

Sound Mix:

Perspecta Stereo (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.00 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Kerama Retto is mentioned as the destination of the Bellinda after she is seriously damaged by a kamikaze. This island, about a dozen miles southwest of Okinawa, was taken by the 77th Infantry Division at the start of the invasion, and used as both a staging area and an emergency anchorage, exactly as shown in the movie.

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Goofs

When the boat rocks back and forth when the officer explains why the floors in the mess hall are waxed, there is an external shot that shows the boat and the ocean, the horizon moves with the boat.

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Connections

Edited into Battle of Midway (1976)

User Reviews

"Get away from my ship!"

There was a time that I would watch any war movie I could find. A Saturday afternoon on KHQ in Spokane would have either the "Creature Features" or something else innocuous and old, like Away All Boats, a movie that boasted being the most expensive film ever made by its studio or Hollywood, back in 1956.

Having read the book and seen the movie (probably a dozen times), it would be fair to say that it's one of my favorites, the story an attack transport in the Pacific War, captained by a man who wants to command a real warship, but is willing to pay his dues first.

It's all so vanilla, with every darn stereotype you can imagine, only on a big, lumbering freighter instead of in a foxhole. The skipper is wound too tight, the XO can't figure him out, the officers and men hate him, and they're all up to the task when the Kamikazes show up and turn the Belinda into a big, lumbering piece of almost scrap iron.

It is fun watching and identifying all the character actors who man the guns in this classically antiseptic, very '50s, WWII shootemup. The special effects are pretty impressive, what with a lot of the ships the US Navy lent to the film makers still in service. Modern kiddies might groan at the matte photography of Japanese Zeroes hurtling in to smash the Belinda into a blazing hulk, but I still have an image burned (pun intended) in my memory of Jeff Chandler screaming at the oncoming plane, waving as if he could by force of will make the crippled plane and its Jihadist pilot miss, "Get away from my ship, get AWAY from MY ship!"

Strong stuff.

That scene made Away All Boats step up a rung on the quality-meter and makes me recommend it to you, if you can find it in the "classics" section of your larger video store.