Across the Pacific (1942)

Good WW2 spy movie with the three leads and director from The Maltese Falcon. The plot is about Humphrey Bogart getting tangled up with baddie Sydney Greenstreet and love interest Mary Astor. Greenstreet's a Japanese sympathizer and is trying to recruit Bogie. Good luck with that, Gutman. Bogart is excellent playing a character he was totally at home playing: wisecracking tough guy ladies' man. Greenstreet is villainous as ever and perfect at it. Just as in Maltese Falcon, Mary Astor is playing a stunning beauty that makes heads turn. Just like in Maltese Falcon, she doesn't match the character description. Perhaps Huston had a bit of a crush. Otherwise I don't get her being cast in these types of parts at a time when the likes of Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner were around. Still, despite that element of the casting being off, Astor does fine.This movie has an interesting backstory. It was originally to be about a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor but when that actually happened in real life, they changed it to Panama. They never changed the title, though, despite the movie taking place nowhere near the Pacific. Then John Huston got called to serve before filming was complete so Vincent Sherman had to step in. Oddly, it seems Huston was the only one who knew how the movie was supposed to end so Sherman had to make up the final fifteen minutes or so of the movie!

. . . by machine-gunning the heir of an Axis ruler to death while saving a co-equal primary target on Pearl Harbor day, all the while dealing the classiest dame in the vicinity and having better luck this time compared to his closing months earlier in north Afr!ca. Though I personally cannot see what our boys fighting the Axis saw in Bogart's co-star here, Mary Astor, apparently she had a role in another previous effort from Humphrey, THE MALTESE FALCON, along with a fat dude named Sydney Greenstreet, who rounds out a trio reunited for PACIFIC. The idea that main villain Joe Totsuiko (played by Sen Young) is a "nisei," or American-born, Axis operative is perhaps the most racist element of this film, though I am sure those people who drive Hondas, Toyotas, and Nissans because they want to make a public statement apologizing for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to rile up true American patriots at a glance, would find many other instances in PACIFIC to commit hari kari over.

Over the years, I've come to look for posted comments from a few specific people who are frequent film reviewers. They usually have some interesting information or data related to the film, the cast or the staff. And, their tastes and interests seem to follow mine closely. Without mentioning any names, I found a couple of those regulars who commented on "Across the Pacific," but with whom I differed a lot. I think many reviewers missed a great deal in this movie. For one thing, most seemed to focus on one or two cast members. Several said that Bogie's performance was just OK and not on a par with most of his best work. Many seemed to want to evaluate this film only or mostly on the basis of it being a propaganda piece. With that goes an apparent assumption that all propaganda is all bad – or that it could have no other value on which to be judged or enjoyed. Too bad for those narrow views. I found this film very entertaining, very interesting and considerably intriguing. Indeed, I think it may be one of the best films of the Hollywood golden age in the group of multi-faceted genres. And what a number of genres it is – mystery, espionage, comedy, romance, action, war, drama and adventure. Of course, starting off, the viewer isn't aware of these many facets of the film, unless one has read a review or comments. But they unfold very nicely in the movie. This film has a great blend of intrigue, witticism, romance and action. The script is excellent and the writing is crisp and clever. The several exchanges between Bogart and Astor are delightful and show the genius of the screenwriters. Here's a sample when Bogart is called to Astor's cabin to help cool off her sunburn (which he had warned her against twice). Before that, she had been freezing on deck in shorts trying to get a tan; and she had gotten seasick after eating desert when the 'boat' hit rough seas. Bogie – "You sure are a girl of many colors. First your legs get blue, then your face turns green, and now you're red all over." Astor – "I never knew what suffering was 'til I came on this 'pleasure' trip." Bogie – "Your trouble is ... you always have all the answers – 'til the results are posted."Sydney Greenstreet is a delight, as always. There are a number of scenes when he gives the stoic mini-monologues he is so identified with that paint him a man of culture, refinement and education. However cunning and clever he may be, aside. This has a fresh, crisp script for all involved. And, the propaganda aspects of the film are very neatly woven into the intrigue and romance. The film came out Sept. 5, 1942, and although the plot is fiction, we are all too aware of the time and circumstances. On the day the passengers arrive in Panama and Bogie visits a contact in a bank, the contact hands him a newspaper that has the all too-familiar headlines of peace prospects promised by the Japanese right up to the time of Pearl Harbor. The date on the paper is December 6, 1941. The new DVD in the Bogart film collection I bought also has some interesting extras. One is a color short, "Men of the Sky," about the Army Air Corps. It's a promo film and shows pilot training and a talk by Gen. Hap Arnold who commanded the Army Air Forces during WWII, and later commanded the U.S. Air Force. Another interesting short is "Hollywood helps the Cause." It tells about the role of film companies and movie stars during WWII.

Director John Huston, right from the big success of THE MALTESE FALCON, recruits Humphrey Bogart to play ex-Army officer Rick Leland in this World War II propaganda flick. Espionage, treason, a bit of romance in this drama aboard a Japanese steamer. The viewer gradually discovers a few of the passengers are not who they claim to be...including Leland. Bogart woos a small-town girl Alberta Marlow(Mary Astor)...not so innocent. Sydney Greenstreet plays spy Dr. Lorenz, willing to pay for military information. A Japanese-American(Victor Sen Young) making a trip to see the old country may just be the most mysterious passenger aboard. Bogart and Astor trade flirty banter and lighten up some of the drama. Also in the cast: Monte Blue, Charles Halton, Keye Luke and Frank Wilcox.