Action in the North Atlantic

This film was so meaningful to me. My grandmother's first cousin, Alexander Miller MacKinnon 19, drowned during a March 1942 attack while serving in the Merchant Marine.

He was aboard the "Colabee," having just left Cuba with a load of sugar for Baltimore. 10 miles out they were hit by the German submarine U-126. 23 dead, 14 survivors. Ironically the U-126 was itself destroyed the following year with no survivors.

As a child in 1940s Buffalo all our windows were carefully covered with black-out shades each evening. I heard the adults whispering that this was in case the Germans came up the St. Lawrence to the Great Lakes but we did not really know U-Boats were operating so close to our shores.

A year earlier Alex had been assigned to the SS Santa Elisa, hauling sugar cane from Chile to New York, arriving Christmas Eve 1941. But on the return trip to Chile in January 1942 the Santa Elisa was attacked, just as she left NYC carrying crates of safety matches and barrels of highly explosive carbide crystals. She was then towed back to the Brooklyn Yard for repairs. Which is why Alex was aboard the Colabee.

After being refitted the Santa Elisa set out to carry gasoline from England to Malta as part of Churchill's 62 vessel Operation Pedestal. That August 1942 she was attacked a second time and torpedoed by Italian motorboats, the gasoline caught fire and she went up in flames off of Tunisia. (One account says no survivors; official MM record states no deaths.)

Many parts of the movie show what our Merchant Marine was really going through. Yet it wasn't until 1988 that President Reagan signed the bill conferring Veteran status on all mariners who served in WWII, guaranteeing their benefits.

Considering the splendid contribution director Lloyd Bacon had made to Warner Bros his treatment by Jack Warner was pretty shabby and having been given the old heave-ho over a contractual dispute, his film was completed by Byron Haskin and Raoul Walsh, both of whom are uncredited. It is based upon the Oscar-nominated story by the ill-fated Guy Gilpatric.

In keeping with a film depicting naval warfare the scenes on dry land are far less effective with the notable exception of the beautifully realised homecoming scenes between the captain of Raymond Massey and Ruth Gordon as his wife. Massey is here stepping in for an otherwise engaged Edward G. Robinson whilst we should be grateful for small mercies in that Humphrey Bogart has replaced George Raft as Massey's First officer. Dane Clark in his biggest role to date, Sam Levene and inveterate scene-stealer Alan Hale role provide the Everyman element.

Combining some stock footage with scenes shot on sound stages, backlots and in the studio water tank, the seaborne action sequences are tense, visceral, thrilling, superbly edited and brilliantly scored. Production design, second unit direction and special effects(for the time) are of the finest. Cameraman Ted McCord warrants a nod as this marks his promotion from B's to A's. An unique feature for the period is that the non-American characters speak in their own language and without sub-titles which lends greater authenticity, not least in the case of the U-Boat crews.

Unashamedly patriotic in nature, simplistic in its sentiments and designed to boost morale this must rank among the best of the 'Hollywood goes to War' movies and certainly does what it says on the tin.

These were battles that saw merchant ships attacked, across the seas like fish in barrels they were tracked, a hidden foe that fought with stealth, their aim to sink the allies wealth, deploying tactics that were tough to counteract. In convoys odds of sinking were reduced, but on occasion isolation was induced, like a lamb that leaves the flock, you were open to be shot, but wise thinking often generates a boost. At its heart there is a little propaganda, encouraging those free to join and clamber, to ride the waves of victory, sailing logistics over sea, there was no reason to abstain, as a bystander.

Despite plenty of wartime propaganda and the usual amount of clichés and other staples of WWII action melodramas, ACTION IN THE NORTH Atlantic is given a boost by some of the best staged action scenes ever featured in a Warner Bros. movie of that era.

The realism is startling considering that special effects then included no computer engineering. The script is basically the story of U.S. Merchant Marine survivors of a battle determined to sink the ship that ruthlessly cut into their lifeboat. The climax has them getting their revenge on the Germans after a fierce battle that concludes with the Americans and their farewell ceremonies to shipmates killed during battle. Bogart is given some flag-waving lines to read and the film concludes with a commentary using FDR's voice to salute the Merchant Marines and their contribution to the war effort.

Lloyd Bacon directs with a firm, vigorous treatment of all the battle scenes and only occasionally does the film slow down when dealing with the domestic front. Julie Bishop does a nice job as Bogart's girlfriend and later wife, while Raymond Massey shares his domestic homecoming with Ruth Gordon as his wife. But the film's merits are chiefly due to the action sequences, which are by far among the best ever featured in a Bogart film.

Action is what you get here...but don't expect anything deep. Bogart fans won't be disappointed. Dane Clark plays his usual hothead role with gusto and Alan Hale is a welcome addition to the supporting cast.

This comparatively little-known film should have done for the Merchant Sailors of WWII what "The Cruel Sea" did for the image of the Royal Navy. The men who sailed the convoy ships were treated appallingly by the owners of the vessels they crewed, who indeed where quick to institute "retroactive stoppage of pay" clauses upon receiving word of a ship's being lost. They also were subject to verbal --even physical-- abuse by their own countrymen, who routinely mistook them for "Service Shirkers". "Action" is one of the few films that gives them their due.

This film is remarkable on many counts. Not only is the acting rock solid, and the story in itself a fine "sea saga", but the director has managed to avoid many potential pitfalls thrown into in his path by the War (Propaganda?) Department. The obligatory leave-taking scenes are touching, but not maudlin; the even more obligatory "speech-making" is impassioned, but never embarrassingly so. And the Enemy is portrayed as a thoroughly competent if ruthless professional, as dedicated to his own trade as the convoy Sailors are to theirs. (I for one did not find the lack of English "subtitles" a problem --I could pretty well figure out what the U-Boat skipper and his crew were up to.)

To repeat my opening comments,-- this film, though not as well-circulated as "The Cruel Sea", certainly should rank as its equal.