Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

MartinHafer "Away All Boats" is a very good war film that celebrates the work of a WWII Attack Transport ship, the PA 22 'Belinda'. While the ship itself is fictional, it does a great service to the boats just like it-- boats that served with distinction even though they weren't the 'prestige' ships, such as cruiser, battleships and the like. Unfortunately, I'd like to score this one higher but can't...and I'll get to that in a bit. When the film begins, the new skipper of the ship, Captain Hawks (Jeff Chandler) arrives aboard the Belinda. What follows is the story of how the Captain took a crew of mostly inexperienced seamen and turned them into an efficient fighting force. It follows them from their rocky beginning to their first battles to the ship's, as well as the Captain's, last.The film is exciting and works well...mostly. I loved how the film humanized the men but also celebrated their exploits in a realistic and exciting manner. BUT, there is a small portion of the film that simply doesn't fit at all and was obviously tossed in later...and had nothing to do with the picture!!! At one point, one of the crew members starts thinking about his wife...and you see a montage with irrelevant footage of one of Universal's newest starlets, Julie Adams. And, for this unimportant and small portion, Adams received billing way above many of the talented actors that actually belonged in the film! I can only assume some bone-headed exec thought 'we got a war movie with only guys...we need a woman in order to attract female viewers' and thus the Adams sequence. Dumb and sad because without it the film would have earned at least an 8. The film is quite well made and tense...and reminiscent of an excellent film made around the same time, "Run Silent, Run Deep".

Theo Robertson AWAY ALL BOATS differs from a lot of war movies at the time . It's shot in colour ( Don't forget that many prestigious war movies from the mid 1950s were still being done in monochrome )and doesn't suffer from the seriously deadpan pseudo intellectualism of many other war films of that period The setting for the story is on the USS Belinda , a navy transport ( Assualt ? ) ship in the Pacific campaign . It should be pointed out that AWAY ALL BOATS is also a film that doesn't concentrate on action , so don't go into this film expecting massive explosions all the way through because it's a much more thoughtful film than that . We see why discipline is needed , why it's a bad idea to wax a floor on a ship and why aircraft identification is very important , it was very rare in those days for Hollywood to show a friendly fire scene and after seeing this movie you'll feel as though you've just served alongside Captain Hawks A war film that's possibly more informative than it is exciting but one that has merit

bkoganbing Away All Boats is a nice war picture about the captain and crew of a Navy transport ship in World War II. Jeff Chandler is all navy and the total professional as he takes command of the USS Belinda and whips the crew and the ship into professional fighting trim.But command is a lonely business and the captain is slowly broken down both physically and mentally. In a way, Chandler's Jebediah Hawks is the antithesis of the Captain in Mister Roberts. Chandler is also in one of the less glamorous parts of the Navy, but even as a disciplinarian, he commands respect in a way that James Cagney in Mister Roberts never could and never will.Chandler gets good support in this film from the rest of the cast which includes such professionals as Richard Boone, George Nader, Lex Barker, and Charles McGraw.Good war picture, I highly recommend it.

grahamsj3 This film is a true classic and one against which many other films of the genre have been judged. This is basically THE representative film of all the World War 2 films made in the 50's. Some of those other films were better than this one, some worse. This film is a middle of the road type film. It has a couple of big stars and a lot of character actors as well....faces you've seen in lots of films, yet you don't know the actors name. LOTS of actors made very comfortable lives doing just this sort of work. Some of those actors eventually became stars, like Richard Boone and Jeff Chandler, but the majority didn't. War films flourished in the late 40's and through the 50's, usually black and white (this one is color), low budget films, but Hollywood churned them out. And people flocked to them. This one is no exception...well done, overall.