ACTION IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC (1943)

Not the catchiest of titles. For that matter, the Merchant Marines, not the sexiest branch of the services. But this WWII actioner, Humphrey Bogart’s immediate follow-up after CASABLANCA, really puts out. The opening two-and-a-half reels are quite exceptional as Captain Raymond Massey and Lieutenant Bogie defend their ship (loaded with war materiel) from the blistering attack of a German U-Boat. (Scripter, and future Hollywood Ten victim, John Howard Lawson taking his cue from Noël Coward/David Lean’s IN WHICH WE SERVE/’42. And listen out for some pointed political ramblings over a poker game in the mess.*) With better news from the war in ‘43 , the film can be a bit tougher & realistic than the more fanciful releases of the scary previous year, adding an almost quotidian angle to some scenes. Big action returns in the last act, as Massey and Bogart take their new ship to Russia as part of a giant flotilla, then have to fight on their own after the convoy is forced to break up. The whole sequence really exciting, with unusually good effects work even with miniatures. (Sea stuff always hardest to fake as water can’t change its nature to match up to a reduced scale.) Excellent support up and down the line, and a consistent level of good, hard-nosed filmmaking you don’t expect from director Lloyd Bacon. He did photo-service work back in WWI, but still hard to imagine him fully in charge of these stylish action set pieces. Was it second-unit staff? Special effects stuff? The montage guys? (Here, that’d be none other than Don Siegel.) Well, someone earns a slap on the back; topping many similar/better-known WWII rousers. (BTW: That film poster? From the understandably delayed Japanese release of 1951.)

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Paid by the Script Continuity Girl! She didn’t seem to notice that Bogie’s toothache moves from Right-to-Left between scenes.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Note how Lawson hypes the Soviet/American partnership, particularly rosy at the time. And in the political roundtable, has token Jew Sam Levene come closest to spouting ‘Party Line’ dictact. Levene also recites ‘Kaddish,’ the Jewish Prayer for the Dead while everyone else mouths ‘The Lord’s Prayer.’

DOUBLE-BILL: As mentioned above, IN WHICH WE SERVE/’42.