Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

jacobs-greenwood Directed by Lloyd Bacon, with a story by Guy Gilpatric, additional dialogue provided by W.R. Burnett and A.I. Bezzerides, and a screenplay by John Howard Lawson, this slightly above average war drama details the contributions of the Merchant Marines ("Heroes Without Uniform") during World War II. Gilpatric's Original Story was nominated for a Best Writing Oscar.This Warner Bros. propaganda film features several of its stars and goes hand in hand with studio's many other contributions to the war effort, providing a stark contrast to the anti-military "propaganda" most movie studios have been turning out since Vietnam. Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale, Sam Levene, Dane Clark, and even Ruth Gordon (who plays Massey's wife as she did in their only other film together, Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940)), among others, appear.Set during World War II, Steve Jarvis (Massey) is the Captain of an oil freighter that's transporting needed fuel to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Unfortunately, the sea is crawling with German U- boats, determined to sink the unarmed ship to keep it from helping the Allies. His longtime first mate, Lieutenant Joe Rossi (Bogart) has enough experience to be captain of his own ship, but prefers to remain a subordinate, closer to the crew with no paperwork responsibilities. Their usual shipmates include Boats O'Hara (Hale), Chips Abrams (Levene), Johnnie Pulaski (Clark), Whitey Lara (Peter Whitney), and cook Caviar Jinks (J. M. Kerrigan, uncredited). During this particular voyage, they've picked up a studious new youngster Robert Parker (Dick Hogan). Soon, however, their ship is sunk by a German submarine, and all hands must abandon ship. Several of the non-credited seaman, including Kerrigan, Creighton Hale & Glenn Strange, die in the burning sea while Jarvis, and the rest of his crew, man the only lifeboat. But the U-boat surfaces and, after some hostile banter between the two captains, the German orders his boat to sink the American's lifeboat. Fortunately, Jarvis had expelled some rafts from the freighter before it sunk and, after 11 days at sea without food or water (not really possible?), the men are rescued.Jarvis returns to his wife while Rossi meets a bar (Irving Bacon appears, uncredited, as the bartender) singer, Pearl (Julie Bishop), whom he marries rather hastily. Parker goes to Merchant Marine school where he becomes a cadet, while the rest of the crew gathers at their union's meeting place to wait for another ship to join. The family man Pulaski voices the things that perhaps the others are only thinking about not necessarily wanting to go out again so soon after nearly being killed.However, when the opportunity presents itself, all sign on again together for another mission and all hard feelings towards Pulaski are forgotten. Jarvis "retrieves" Rossi and all the men find themselves assigned to the U.S.S. Sea Witch, including Cadet Parker and a regimen of other sailors assigned to operate the ship's guns. The Sea Witch is part of a 73 ship convoy assigned the mission to transport much needed supplies (including aircraft, tanks, and more) to Murmansk, Russia. Charles Trowbridge appears, uncredited, as the Rear Admiral.Naturally, the convoy runs into a wolf-pack of German U-boats. Lots of exciting action sequences follow with torpedoes launched, most hitting their targets, and subs sunk by Destroyers with depth charges. The Sea Witch gets separated from the convoy and must proceed to the destination without escort; their only defense are their installed guns and its Navy crew. They battle a German U-boat (perhaps even the same one that sunk the oil freighter at the beginning of the film, if you can believe the coincidence) and dive bombers on their way.It should come as no surprise that the Sea Witch reaches its destination, much to the delight of the Russian town and its residents. However, Jarvis is injured by strafing fire from one of the dive bombers while Parker is killed by the other when it's shot down and crashes into the Sea Witch's bow. Rossi must then perform a crude surgery to remove the bullet in Jarvis's leg. After having escaped the German U-boat in the fog and by turning off all power such that they were "invisible" to it, the Sea Witch encounters it again before reaching port.The German U-boat commander was smart enough to determine the target destination such that it rendezvoused with Jarvis's boat again. In any case, after their ship receives a wounding torpedo, Rossi (now in charge per Jarvis's injury) orders the men to light fires on its deck to fool the U-boat captain into thinking their damage was greater such that he might surface. The commander takes the bait which, along with a smoke screen he'd ordered, allows Rossi to ram the submarine broadside, sinking it.This same strategy was actually copied by director Dick Powell in his film The Enemy Below (1957), though Powell chose to add a bit more (having Mitchum, the American Captain, rescue Jurgens, the German).

kindtxgal I was happy to discover the writing for this film earned an Oscar nod. It's well deserving.Brisk, exciting action explodes across the screen for the first 30 minutes before seguing into quieter character sketches on the primary actors for the World War II film highlighting the Merchant Marines' role in aiding convoy supply ships headed for Russia.Exremely well-written and edited to create a really great film and overview of the primary focus of the film, the Merchant Marines. I enjoyed the film's character sketches as well.Fantastically shot battle scenes between ships, submarines, and airplanes hurl the story to a patriotic, flag-waving conclusion and keep viewers glued to it to see what is next.The balance between battles, the human condition of the characters, and strategy are phenomenal. I would have liked to rate the film five stars, but became distracted by a great deal of film time focused on the German UBoats and planes, without any captioning. All of the German dialogue simply wasted the film timing & created a feeling of frustration just because SO MUCH time is given them. Had captioning been done, it would have served the story very well.Look for small bit parts played by familiar faces Dane Clark and Sam Levene, and the ever-gregarious Alan Hale just enough comic relief.

stphifer My dad was a sonar man on a destroyer escort and made two convoys across the mid-Atlantic. I saw this film as a kid and quickly reproduced the battle sequences in the bathtub with my model ships. When it finally came out on DVD I snatched it up. It holds up through repeated viewings. I even used the burial at sea sequence in a Memorial Day Service! There is something about Bogey leading in the Lord's Prayer! I buy every WW2 naval picture I can get my hands on--but this is the best of them. If you ever built WW2 ship models, you will love the miniatures in this film-a whole convoy with escorts and a menacing wolf pack of U-boats.Another favorite is "The Enemy Below" (1957) which takes place on a DE like the one my dad was on. But that film is more personal--two ships battling each other. "Action in the North Atlantic" is on a much grander scale.

Casablanca3784 Three cheers for "AITNA" because it salutes guys who are not saluted in war films, our Merchant Marines. Yes, of course we Americans pay homage to the brave peoples of Great Britain and Soviet Russia who respectively wore Hitler down and then chopped him to pieces however let us not forget that without ordnance and supplies of every type from us,both nations would not have been able to pull off their miracles.I suppose "AITNA" can be considered a movie about revenge, specifically about a certain German U-boat which did Bogart, Massey and the rest, dirt at the outset of the film however it goes deeper. It's more about the perseverance, determination and aptness of a free nation, us,to weather the storms and Nazi U-boat dangers during our runs to England and Murmansk, Russia.There are 109 acting credits assigned to this film, five of which are such Warner Brothers stars such as Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale, Dane Clark and Sam Levene. The story line was most interesting indeed, the battle scenes were graphic and I found all 126 minutes to be of high quality and riveting viewing.