Action in the North Atlantic

This is a quality propaganda film about the World War 2 effort. It is designed purely to prop up the home front. It is quite effective in this effort. The cast- Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale & Dane Clark is very strong. Granted the cast doesn't get a lot of quality dialog but it does pretty well with what they do have. The sailors wife is really well illustrated. A whole section of the film is kind of a World War 2 headline for diversity (which was invented way before the 1990's). It shows our hero's ship steaming into Nova Scotia & how diverse a fleet is there from many Allied Countries to ship war materials to fight the Nazi's. The action sequences in this war time film are well done, & the lack of mechanical detail had much to do with the war effort. While a type of sonar is mentioned, no mention is made of radar & everything appears to be quite crude. This doesn't make the action suffer.

Certainly there have been many war movies made about WWII. But this is the only one I can recall that is about the Merchant Marines' efforts. Made during the height of the war, this film boasts of a splendid cast (even if they are somewhat predictable in their characters), and spectacular cinematography. I highly recommend this film to those who have never seen it. Bogart & Massey are great. A solid 10.

I am a proud graduate of the U.S.Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point.I am also a retired US Navy Captain. The screening of "Action in the North Atlantic" was an annual event at Kings Point, since one of the characters was a Cadet serving sea time as part of his training. Cadet Parker well represents the 142 Cadet-Midshipman who were killed in action in WWII (Kings point is only Federal academy which is thus authorized to carry a Battle flag with their color guard.) The characters are real and Warner Bros. could not have picked a better cast. This movie was and is only one of a handful which tried to show the contribution of the merchant marine during the war. I particularly liked the scene where Alan Hale tries to explain to a couple of his shipmates the meaning of the word "rendezvous". They don't make 'em like that any more. I still watch this flic every time it screens.

From what my father described this is pretty much the way it was on the Murmansk run. My father was sunk twice on the way to Murmansk the second time with the PQ-17 convoy (The Massacred Convoy). He was Chief Engineer on the maiden voyage of the liberty ship "Daniel Morgan" and was sunk by the German U-88 on July 4th, 1942. After being picked up by a Russian tanker some three days later he and the survivors hid out behind Russian lines until he came back to Boston on The Queen Mary with hundreds of other merchant seaman that had been sunk. The day was October 15th, 1942...the day I was born. That wasn't the last time he was sunk.

Great WW2 drama. The story of a the crew of a merchant ship, crossing the Atlantic during World War 2, the perils they face and how they cope with them. Gritty, with a real feel to it. Being made in 1943, it has a degree of propaganda and the inevitable speeches, but not to the extent of most other WW2 movies. This makes it much more watchable today than your average WW2 movie. Has a few historical inaccuracies, but they are not overly impactful on the feel of the movie. Solid performances from Humphrey Bogart (as you would expect), Raymond Massie and the supporting cast.