Away All Boats

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

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.

There was a time that I would watch any war movie I could find. A Saturday afternoon on KHQ in Spokane would have either the "Creature Features" or something else innocuous and old, like Away All Boats, a movie that boasted being the most expensive film ever made by its studio or Hollywood, back in 1956.

Having read the book and seen the movie (probably a dozen times), it would be fair to say that it's one of my favorites, the story an attack transport in the Pacific War, captained by a man who wants to command a real warship, but is willing to pay his dues first.

It's all so vanilla, with every darn stereotype you can imagine, only on a big, lumbering freighter instead of in a foxhole. The skipper is wound too tight, the XO can't figure him out, the officers and men hate him, and they're all up to the task when the Kamikazes show up and turn the Belinda into a big, lumbering piece of almost scrap iron.

It is fun watching and identifying all the character actors who man the guns in this classically antiseptic, very '50s, WWII shootemup. The special effects are pretty impressive, what with a lot of the ships the US Navy lent to the film makers still in service. Modern kiddies might groan at the matte photography of Japanese Zeroes hurtling in to smash the Belinda into a blazing hulk, but I still have an image burned (pun intended) in my memory of Jeff Chandler screaming at the oncoming plane, waving as if he could by force of will make the crippled plane and its Jihadist pilot miss, "Get away from my ship, get AWAY from MY ship!"

Strong stuff.

That scene made Away All Boats step up a rung on the quality-meter and makes me recommend it to you, if you can find it in the "classics" section of your larger video store.

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.

One of the best WW2 films. There are several reasons why I rate this as only just below the top notch WW2 films. The special effects for the period are excellent, particularly during the kamikaze attacks. You only need to look back to WW2 films from a few years before this (They Were Expendable, Guadalcanal Diary etc) to see the advances that were made in special effects over a short period. The fact that it is not based on one of the more high profile naval vessels such as aircraft carrier, submarine, battleship is also a bonus. The purpose of the transport ships was to land the troops safely at a given point at a given time. They were not glamorous but were critical to the success of island hopping in WW2. The film also shows human frailties as well as strengths such as incompetence, poor officers, even cowardice is hinted at.

The story develops well, and shows the moulding together of a crew to become an effective fighting force. How realistic it is I don't know, but it looks good on film. The fact that there are several character actors well known at the time such as Richard Boone is a bonus.

Some of the scenes are a bit over the top and detract slightly from the quality, but I think this is pretty typical of films from this era. Not sure the scenes between George Nader and Julie Adams add much to the film, but I suppose they do demonstrate that many of the crew were family men and that sacrifices were made by all, not just those directly involved in the war.

Altogether very good though, and a film I shall enjoy watching frequently.