Klar Schiff zum Gefecht

Away All Boats is a World War II movie about men at sea. The first time I watched it, I thought it was rather slow moving. I've now seen it 5 times, and it gets better every time. I catch something new each time I watch it. I'm looking forward to seeing it again. How did I miss so much the first time I saw it? I now love the pace of this movie and see that it is well suited to telling the story. The photography is great and sometimes even spectacular in Away All Boats. There are also some nice moments of humor in this movie. I recommend this one. 8/10.

The ship that served as the "Belinda" in the movie was a sister ship to the one I served on in the Pacific Amphibious Force in the 1960s. She is a World War II Victory Class Attack Transport who main battery, as the Captain said, are her boats (we carried 26). The ships in one of the scenes with the sailing craft were all Atlantic Amphibious Force ships. The USS Sandoval (APA-194) was the "Belinda". The five inch gun, seen firing in the air attack scene, is at the USS Alabama (BB-60) Memorial along with the five inch guns off of other attack transports. When I see this movie I can see my own ship of so long ago. I hope those who see this movie will understand a little better what was involved in the over-the-beach invasions during World War II. Jeff Chandler did a good job of portraying a Captain who's job it was to put a new ship into commission and get the crew prepared for combat. A great many of the officers of these ships were Naval Reservists, some with merchant marine background as is the 1st Lieutenant in the movie, so many of them had years at sea and had commanded ships of their own. Thrown into active naval service they sometimes, as shown, hold a little resentment at being told what to do. The Executive Officer was shown to be, at best, lazy or uninterested. He comes around and volunteers for a hazardous duty which earns the admiration of the 1st Lieutenant. Overall, the movie was well done and, for the reasons stated above, believe it would be worth viewing by the younger generation.

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.

Though frequently melodramatic, this film gives a viewer a good feel for the business of running one of the less glamorous but vital warships of the period. Much of the Navy footage is vivid and convincing. The opening dialogue between the old shipbuilder and the young officer is a memorable dramatic device.

Away All Boats is directed by Joseph Pevney and adapted to screenplay by Ted Sherdeman from the novel written by Kenneth M. Dodson. It stars Jeff Chandler, George Nader, Lex Barker, Julie Adams, Richard Boone and Charles McGraw. A Technicolor/Vista/Vision production, music is by Frank Skinner and Heinz Roemheld and cinematography by William H. Daniels.

Captain Jebediah Hawks (Chandler) is determined to whip his newly acquired crew into shape aboard The Belinda, a transport ship serving the waters of the South Pacific as the Japanese hone in for the kill.

Standard rank and file war movie of the era here, it looks nice, action is decently put together and is dotted along the narrative at regular intervals. The cast are watchable thesps as well, but it lacks heart in the characterisations as written on the page. The core meat of the story is the emotional hodge-podge aboard the Belinda, as Captain Jebediah rules with an iron fist and his charges respond to varying degrees of annoyance, we await the inevitable bond of men and flag waving histrionics. It just takes too long to develop and when the finale comes, what should be a moment of emotional wallop, comes rather as a merciful release that finally the near two hour movie is over. 6/10