Raymond Massey and Humphrey Bogart head the cast of this World War II epic detailing the role of the U.S. Merchant Marine, a film apparently convincing enough that it was used as a training film for the real military branch of that name. In fact, the action sequences are very real and convey a sense of what it must have felt like to be under fire and in peril most of the time the men were at sea.
Bogart is Chief Officer Joe Rossi, and Raymond Massey is Captain Steve Jarvis, first of the ship "Northern Star", and later aboard the more modern ship the S.S. Seawitch. The Northern Star was blown out of the water by a German submarine, the villainous Nazis shown ramming the survivors' life boat and casting them adrift for eleven days before being rescued. Curiously, when the men are found aboard a raft, the remains of their ship is seen still smoking behind them in the background; it seems to me this marker should not have gone unnoticed by search parties for almost two weeks.
Bogie and Massey both have love interests back on dry land, actually Rossi has a girl in every port as his character is portrayed. Though in a whirlwind romance he manages to meet, marry and leave his wife Pearl (Julie Bishop) for active duty, all in what seems like a matter of days. Jarvis on the other hand, has had a long marriage to an understanding wife, capably played by Ruth Gordon. She has an atypical reaction to his next assignment - "To a sailor's wife, war is just another storm".
On the opposite side of the spectrum, Alfred "Boats" O'Hara (Alan Hale) finds refuge at sea; he's been married a number of times and finds war safer to matrimony - "Those Liberty boats are sure well named". He's part of a colorful supporting cast that includes a hot headed Polish seaman named Pulaski (Dane Clark), and a dedicated cat lover who stows his pets aboard ship each time out. Probably the most curious thing about the film is how the whole rag tag bunch manages to stay together throughout the war. I'm curious as to the accuracy of the scene where the boys all sign up for a hitch together aboard the Seawitch.
The second half of the movie offers an interesting cat and mouse game between the German sub and the Seawitch. With Captain Jarvis severely wounded, Rossi takes over command and hits upon a clever ruse to defeat the Germans. Setting his ship on fire to make a torpedo hit seem more disastrous than it really was, he directs the ship to ram the surfaced U-Boat, destroying the sub and it's occupants. As the Seawitch makes it's way into the Russian port of Murmansk, an American commander comments on their cunning - "It's not a miracle, it's American seamanship."
Not that it's all guts and glory for the Amercicans, the tragic side of war is conveyed effectively as well. For an early 1940's film, there are a number of battle scenes depicting bodies flying in the air quite realistically amid explosions and torpedo strikes. The poignancy of death is handled discreetly with a burial at sea presided over by Bogie's character. War time audiences must have found some solace in films like this, at a time when patriotism was still a respected ideal.
Bogart is Chief Officer Joe Rossi, and Raymond Massey is Captain Steve Jarvis, first of the ship "Northern Star", and later aboard the more modern ship the S.S. Seawitch. The Northern Star was blown out of the water by a German submarine, the villainous Nazis shown ramming the survivors' life boat and casting them adrift for eleven days before being rescued. Curiously, when the men are found aboard a raft, the remains of their ship is seen still smoking behind them in the background; it seems to me this marker should not have gone unnoticed by search parties for almost two weeks.
Bogie and Massey both have love interests back on dry land, actually Rossi has a girl in every port as his character is portrayed. Though in a whirlwind romance he manages to meet, marry and leave his wife Pearl (Julie Bishop) for active duty, all in what seems like a matter of days. Jarvis on the other hand, has had a long marriage to an understanding wife, capably played by Ruth Gordon. She has an atypical reaction to his next assignment - "To a sailor's wife, war is just another storm".
On the opposite side of the spectrum, Alfred "Boats" O'Hara (Alan Hale) finds refuge at sea; he's been married a number of times and finds war safer to matrimony - "Those Liberty boats are sure well named". He's part of a colorful supporting cast that includes a hot headed Polish seaman named Pulaski (Dane Clark), and a dedicated cat lover who stows his pets aboard ship each time out. Probably the most curious thing about the film is how the whole rag tag bunch manages to stay together throughout the war. I'm curious as to the accuracy of the scene where the boys all sign up for a hitch together aboard the Seawitch.
The second half of the movie offers an interesting cat and mouse game between the German sub and the Seawitch. With Captain Jarvis severely wounded, Rossi takes over command and hits upon a clever ruse to defeat the Germans. Setting his ship on fire to make a torpedo hit seem more disastrous than it really was, he directs the ship to ram the surfaced U-Boat, destroying the sub and it's occupants. As the Seawitch makes it's way into the Russian port of Murmansk, an American commander comments on their cunning - "It's not a miracle, it's American seamanship."
Not that it's all guts and glory for the Amercicans, the tragic side of war is conveyed effectively as well. For an early 1940's film, there are a number of battle scenes depicting bodies flying in the air quite realistically amid explosions and torpedo strikes. The poignancy of death is handled discreetly with a burial at sea presided over by Bogie's character. War time audiences must have found some solace in films like this, at a time when patriotism was still a respected ideal.