weezeralfalfa A great flag waver, especially at the end, when Humphry Bogart, as Lt. Rossi, gives an appropriate speech. He had taken over as the de facto commander of the lightly armed Liberty ship Seawitch after Major Jarvis((Raymond Massey) had been incapacitated by enemy fire. Well into the film, after having been blown out of the water by a U boat, the officers were given the new ship to try again. They joined a convoy of merchant ships out of Halifax, each given a particular position to be maintained throughout the transit, if possible. The convoy was taking the northern route across the Atlantic, to the Russian port of Murmansk, on the Barents Sea: an indentation of the Arctic Ocean. They were bringing supplies badly needed for the war effort. Of course, during the transit, the convoy was attacked by a wolf pack, and a number of ships, as well as U boats, sunk. You feel the constant fear of being blown up by a U boat, or occasionally a German light bomber. The Seawitch is separated from the convey during the main attack of the wolfpack, and battles one particular sub, along with a couple of light bombers. Rossi has a very risky trick up his sleeve to hopefully induce the U boat to surface within firing range. Previously, he had a trick to make the U boat think the ship had vanished, at night.

John T. Ryan WHEN WE THINK of World War II era movies, we immediately are filled with of Army, Navy, Marines, Air Corps(Force) and Coast Guard. Occasionally there is one that tells a lesser known story; such as THE FIGHTING SEABEES, THE FLYING TIGERS and GOD IS MY CO-PILOT.* SUCH IS THE purpose and story told in ACTION IN THE NORTH Atlantic (Warner Brothers/1943). Up until then, no one had given proper credit nor portrayal of the United States Merchant Marine and the role that the Merchant Sailor played in our winning of World War II.WE CAN EVEN top this, for in the Ryan household, we hadn't even heard of the Merchant Marine (The United States Maritime Service). Being 'Boomers', it was our Dad, Clem Ryan (1914-74), who clued us in. Dad was a Veteran of WWII; being an enlisted man, trained as an Electrician's Mate.ONE Friday EVENING, circa 1956, when ACTION IN THE NORTH Atlantic was being shown on Channel 9, WGN in Chicago, the discussion and our disclosure and discovery of our Merchant Marine came about. It was just one of the little tid bits of Historical revelation that Dad had given to us.AS FOR THE movie, it was given the Red Carpet treatment; what with a very large cast, headed up by two of Warners top stars in Humphrey Bogart and Raymond Massey. Otthers prominent in the saga were WB regulars: Alan Hale, Dane Clark, Dick Wessel and Peter Whitney; joined by Ruth Gordon, Sam Levene, Iris Adrian, Kirk Alyn, Chick Chandler, Monte Blue, Kane Richmond and many others.AS FOR THE story, we are told of the bravery of the average sailor in time of War; with Submarine warfare's being a heavily relied on tool of Axis partners, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. In response to the U Boat Wolf Packs' prowling and preying on shipping going to Britain, a huge convoy is organized; surely this would be the Super Convoy of all time.LEAVING NORTH America from the Canadian Province of Newfoundland, special preparation for protection by Allied Naval Forces. Furthermore, because of the circumstances, the merchant ships are equipped with anti-submarine guns and Naval Crews to operate them.WHAT THE STORY brings us is a sort of microcosm of the Free Allied Nations who were locked in the struggle to restore freedom wherever Fascism has taken it away. There is one scene when the Convoy is preparing to begin its journey across the Atlantic, we are treated to a montage of Flags of the various participating Nations; accompanied by a verbal stating of the Country's name. It was, if you will, a sort of huge maritime roll call! FROM OUR LESSONS learned in World War II and occurrences such as the fabled sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior in 1979, we have learned just how dangerous such work is ; be it in Peace or Wartime.NOTE * As for these films, we single them out as being examples of little told stories. THE FIGHTING SEABEES (Republic, 1944) is a fictionalized account of the formation of the Navy's Construction Batallion (Sea Bees = C.B.'s. Get it, Schultz?) The others, THE FLYING TIGERS (Republic, 1942) and GOD IS MY CO PILOT (Warner Brothers, 1945) both tell the story of the American volunteers who fought for China against Imperial Japan, later merged into the U.S. Air Corps.

kenjha During World War II, a Merchant Marine unit keeps getting into skirmishes with German U-boats as it tries to deliver supplies to the Russians. As the title indicates, there is a lot of action in this movie. Better than half of the film is devoted to extended battle scenes. While these are fairly well executed, they do become tedious as there is little dramatic tension. Scenes of civilian life represent a nice respite from the fighting but they are all too brief. In his follow-up to "Casablanca," Bogart isn't given much to do but he is always worth watching. There's a good supporting cast headed by the likes of Massey, Hale, Levene, and Clark.

carvalheiro "Action in the North Atlantic" (1943) directed by Lloyd Bacon is or still is an adventurer hymn of joy to those who traveled and entering the bay, evicting the blockade to the Murmansk port during WWII, which impeached promissory vessels with the food help and also other material coming to Russia, after the victory in Stalingrad ground against German army. It is somewhat oldest as style, with a touch of war propaganda, that annoys its interest now and fabricated behavior as movie, notwithstanding its good spirit as a fiction almost narrated partly as a documentary about if not with some lines between characters on the boat. The scenes of the maritime workers union are powerful, as influenced by social convictions that were considered before as subversives for the bosses, but is there where is discussed the problem of ship wrecking during this kind of trips over the seas. Namely concerning wreckage of vessels, as only attended by any kind of civil cargo in that path and, by consequence, the increasing of the tremendous death toll of crews in the recent past, it is the dramatic jump for another step in the fight against closed influence by the top hierarchical oppression of any structure. Meaning that, however, humble people of sailors are strength enough for changing plans from the previous catastrophe of such an isolationist mind and irresponsibleness of supreme fighters, whom previously not had heard with accuracy the experiment of the survivors. Preparing continually courage for the worst, next in the darkness of the maritime fog inside the cargo, across mining undersea shelling sometimes with such horror people. Or, in a given sequence, when a submarine was waiting for a little bit of noise at surface, inducing that nearby Allies were there for well done, escaping after a war of nerves and sacrifices. The scene with the Russians squadron of airplanes, welcoming the ship's convoy of maritime cargo, it is one of the most ironic and best conceived for the time, as opening the space for the good will of the goods. That survived the successive battles on the trip made almost in closed atmosphere, during the most part of the story of this movie, made too with the anxiety from the condensed way of acting. Why not understanding the limits of the way, that Lloyd Bacon composed with fast understatement such a victory of humanity ? When this movie is considered still now, as a piece of warrior's art since then, with such an enthusiasm from the icy harbor of Murmansk, from the entire population, as common interest from the then spelled Allies of fortune.