Action in the North Atlantic (1943)

An American tanker is sunk by a German U-boat and the survivors spend eleven days at sea on a raft. They're next assigned to the liberty ship "Sea Witch" bound for Murmansk through the sub-stalked North Atlantic.

Directors:

Lloyd Bacon, Byron Haskin (uncredited)

Writers:

John Howard Lawson (screenplay), Guy Gilpatric (story)

Stars:

Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale

Nominated for 1 Oscar.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Humphrey Bogart	...	Lt. Joe Rossi
Raymond Massey	...	Capt. Steve Jarvis
Alan Hale	...	Boats O'Hara
Julie Bishop	...	Pearl O'Neill
Ruth Gordon	...	Mrs. Sarah Jarvis
Sam Levene	...	Abel 'Chips' Abrams
Dane Clark	...	Johnnie Pulaski
Peter Whitney	...	Whitey Lara
Dick Hogan	...	Cadet Ezra Parker
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Virginia Christine	...	Pebbles (scenes deleted)
Ray Montgomery	...	Aherne (scenes deleted)

Storyline

Lieutenant Joe Rossi is 1st Officer on a Liberty Ship in a great convoy bound from Halifax to Murmansk. After German subs crushed the convoy his ship loses the convoy and is heading alone to Murmansk. In spite of attacks by German planes and subs he get the ship safely to Murmansk...

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Plot Keywords:

sinking ship | tanker | raft | convoy | u boat | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Action | Drama | War

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English German

Release Date:

12 June 1943 (USA)

Also Known As:

Heroes Without Uniforms

Filming Locations:

Santa Barbara, California, USA

Box Office

Gross USA:

$2,600,000, 31 December 1943

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

126 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White (archive footage) Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Film debut of Dane Clark (I).

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Goofs

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.

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Quotes

other: [title card] "Today in the face of this newest and greatest challenge of them all, we of the United Nations have cleared our decks and taken our battle stations. It is the will of the people that America shall deliver the goods. It can never be doubted that the goods will be delivered by this nation, which believes in the tradition of 'Damn the torpedoes; full speed ahead!'" Franklin D. Roosevelt

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Alternate Versions

The colorized version and many b&w TV prints, are edited to fit a two-hour time slot. Most of the cuts involve the interactions of the crew (notably Alan Hale Sr) in the rec room and virtually all of Raymond Massey's domestic scenes with Ruth Gordon with the exception of his actual arrival home. Also omitted are most of the scenes of the cook, extended scenes of the destruction of Massey's ship early on as well as several interstitial and transitional scenes.

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Connections

Referenced in McHale's Navy: Movies Are Your Best Diversion (1962)

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Soundtracks

Night and Day
(uncredited)
Written by Cole Porter
Performed by Julie Bishop (dubbed by Martha Mears)

User Reviews

A Far Crueler Ocean...

This comparatively little-known film should have done for the Merchant Sailors of WWII what "The Cruel Sea" did for the image of the Royal Navy. The men who sailed the convoy ships were treated appallingly by the owners of the vessels they crewed, who indeed where quick to institute "retroactive stoppage of pay" clauses upon receiving word of a ship's being lost. They also were subject to verbal --even physical-- abuse by their own countrymen, who routinely mistook them for "Service Shirkers". "Action" is one of the few films that gives them their due.

This film is remarkable on many counts. Not only is the acting rock solid, and the story in itself a fine "sea saga", but the director has managed to avoid many potential pitfalls thrown into in his path by the War (Propaganda?) Department. The obligatory leave-taking scenes are touching, but not maudlin; the even more obligatory "speech-making" is impassioned, but never embarrassingly so. And the Enemy is portrayed as a thoroughly competent if ruthless professional, as dedicated to his own trade as the convoy Sailors are to theirs. (I for one did not find the lack of English "subtitles" a problem --I could pretty well figure out what the U-Boat skipper and his crew were up to.)

To repeat my opening comments,-- this film, though not as well-circulated as "The Cruel Sea", certainly should rank as its equal.