Across the Pacific (1942)

In December 1941, ex-army captain Rick Leland boards a Japanese ship heading to Asia via the Panama Canal where his Japanese hosts show interest in the American defense plans for the canal zone.

Directors:

John Huston, Vincent Sherman (uncredited)

Writers:

Richard Macaulay (screenplay), Robert Carson (serial "Aloha Means Goodbye")

Stars:

Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Humphrey Bogart	...	Rick Leland
Mary Astor	...	Alberta Marlow
Sydney Greenstreet	...	Dr. H.F.G. 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	...	Capt. Morrison
Paul Stanton	...	Col. Hart
Lester Matthews	...	Canadian Major
John Hamilton	...	Court-Martial President
Tom Stevenson	...	Man Harassing Alberta
Roland Drew	...	Capt. Harkness
Monte Blue	...	Dan Morton
Chester Gan	...	Capt. Higoto

Storyline

Rick Leland makes no secret of the fact he has no loyalty to his home country after he is court-martialed, kicked out of the Army, and boards a Japanese ship for the Orient in late 1941. But has Leland really been booted out, or is there some other motive for his getting close to fellow passenger Doctor Lorenz? Any motive for getting close to attractive traveler Alberta Marlow would however seem pretty obvious.

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Plot Keywords:

damsel in distress | held at gunpoint | deception | double cross | cigarette smoking | 

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Taglines:

A Warner Bros. Hit !

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Romance | War

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Japanese

Release Date:

5 September 1942 (USA)

Also Known As:

Aloha Means Goodbye

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of the Japanese is mentioned as a member of the "Kokuryukai", or Black Dragon Society. This was a nationalist Japanese organization, formed in 1901 to protect and develop Japanese interests, initially working against Russian expansion in Asia. In the US, during the Second World War, it became a convenient scapegoat for anti-Japanese propaganda and actions.

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Goofs

The background for the opening titles is a map of the Panama Canal. The orientation of the map and the compass is correct, but the labeling of the map is incorrect. In fact, the Atlantic end of the canal and the city of Colon are at the upper left (Northwest), and the Pacific end of the canal and Panama City are at the lower right (Southeast). The map is correctly labeled behind the closing credits.

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Quotes

Rick Leland: I'm sorry to be late, angel. I was held up.
Alberta Marlow: Oh, I like waiting for you Ricky. Wouldn't I make a splendid wife.
Rick Leland: What'll it be?
Alberta Marlow: Something cool and long.

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Crazy Credits

Opening Card:

Governor's Island

New York

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Alternate Versions

Also available in a computer colorized version.

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Connections

Referenced in Five Came Back: Combat Zones (2017)

User Reviews

Maltese Albatross

This film is okay -- watchable and even interesting -- but one can't help comparing it to "The Maltese Falcon" which appeared the previous year. Same principle actors -- Bogart, Mary Astor, Sidney Greenstreet -- no Peter Lorre fondling the handle of his cane, alas, and no gunsel -- and, for the most part, the same Director, John Huston. Huston was called up for Signal Corps duty halfway through filming and as a gag shot the scenes up to the point at which Bogart was strapped helplessly into a chair and surrounded by armed guards, a situation seemingly without the possibility of escape. Then Huston cheerfully said goodbye and walked off the set, leaving his replacement, Vincent Sherman, to try to figure out how to get Bogart free.

It may be unfair to compare "Across the Pacific" to a lucky shot like "The Maltese Falcon," but this film invites the comparison. Not just the same performers but similar lines -- "You're good, Angel, very, very good." But in Falcon the actors fit their fictional characters like enzymes accommodating themselves to a substrate. Here they are just actors playing familiar roles: the obese villain, the officer who's dishonorable discharge is faked so he can go undercover (Gary Cooper could have done as well, and in fact DID in a later movie), the innocent woman made to look bad because the enemy has imprisoned her dissolute father. The Japanese are all plain-vanilla bad guys, even the familiar young one who makes amusing wisecracks in American slang. And all the Japanese have real names like Tong, Chan, Loo, Fong, and Ahn. (To be fair, the last one is Korean, not Chinese.)

If the characters are not nearly as much fun to watch as in "The Maltese Falcon," the plot is no more than a simple war-time mystery involving secret information that the Japanese want to use to start the war by torpedoing the locks of the Panama Canal. Actually, the Japanese did develop such plans later in the war. They intended to deliver a handful of torpedo planes to the vicinity of the Canal in huge submarines, which were available. The planes were not, and the plans folded when the war ended.

In the movie, the characters move from New York to Canada, then board a Japanese steamer, back to New York, then to Panama, where they disembark. They travel from the Atlantic side of the canal to the Pacific -- but they never make it across the Pacific.