Away All Boats

Jeff Chandler's portrayal of Captain Jeb Hawks was an example of just how aloof a captain must be during a time of war. A captain's decision must not be made from friendship but what is best for the ship. Captain Hawks only real companion was a monkey. The men on the ship were almost all rookies that had never fought in a war. Hawks had to prepare them for "life and death" but made many enemies out of the crew because of his harsh techniques. The actual war scenes were very realistic. Overall a fine film to watch.

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.

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.

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.

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.