When your next six films are STAGECOACH, YOUNG MR. LINCOLN, DRUMS ALONG THE MOHAWK, THE GRAPES OF WRATH, THE LONG VOYAGE HOME and HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY* (1939 - 1941), no surprise to see John Ford’s comic-skewing programmer about the wackiest wooden sub chaser in the WWI Navy snubbed. Unjustly so. 20th/Fox production chief Darryl F. Zanuck hoped to pump this into an A-pic, a star-making vehicle for Richard Greene & debuting Nancy Kelly, sweethearts separated by class & boat schedules. But Ford knew a clunker when he saw one, and emphasized/embellished all possible comic opportunities as an idle crew on a forgotten vessel is whipped into (ship)shape by Lieutenant Preston Foster, hoping to salvage his career with a daring mission. Happily, Ford’s comic instincts are firing on all cylinders (less alcohol-based gags than usual which helps), with his stock company of character actors still young enough to pull off the hijinks. (LINK: It shows what Ford was trying to do in his unhappy, if wildly popular, MISTER ROBERTS. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2017/08/mister-roberts-1955.html) With its landlocked look and casually handled model work in soundstage water tanks, only the last act asks to be taken even semi-seriously. And while those dramatics don't quite come off, they do provide George Bancroft as Kelly’s suspicious freight-captain dad with a chance to briefly show some stunning silent film acting technique with a brilliant dialogue-free display of reaction shots as he works the ship’s engine room during an attack and belatedly bonds with future son-in-law Greene. Then, back to lighter things for a swift wrap-up.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Eagle-eyed film mavens will note TOBACCO ROAD/’41 left off this list.
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