Away All Boats (1956)

"Away All Boats" is a very good war film that celebrates the work of a WWII Attack Transport ship, the PA 22 'Belinda'. While the ship itself is fictional, it does a great service to the boats just like it-- boats that served with distinction even though they weren't the 'prestige' ships, such as cruiser, battleships and the like. Unfortunately, I'd like to score this one higher but can't...and I'll get to that in a bit. When the film begins, the new skipper of the ship, Captain Hawks (Jeff Chandler) arrives aboard the Belinda. What follows is the story of how the Captain took a crew of mostly inexperienced seamen and turned them into an efficient fighting force. It follows them from their rocky beginning to their first battles to the ship's, as well as the Captain's, last.The film is exciting and works well...mostly. I loved how the film humanized the men but also celebrated their exploits in a realistic and exciting manner. BUT, there is a small portion of the film that simply doesn't fit at all and was obviously tossed in later...and had nothing to do with the picture!!! At one point, one of the crew members starts thinking about his wife...and you see a montage with irrelevant footage of one of Universal's newest starlets, Julie Adams. And, for this unimportant and small portion, Adams received billing way above many of the talented actors that actually belonged in the film! I can only assume some bone-headed exec thought 'we got a war movie with only guys...we need a woman in order to attract female viewers' and thus the Adams sequence. Dumb and sad because without it the film would have earned at least an 8. The film is quite well made and tense...and reminiscent of an excellent film made around the same time, "Run Silent, Run Deep".

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

This movie contains great examples of how to lead people, especially in extreme circumstances. Captain Hawks reports aboard a ship with a terrible record and sets about getting it and its crew ready to fulfill its mission as an amphibious landing ship. At the same time, he starts them on a project of building him a small sailboat. It seems like madness but is really a bit of camouflage. While the sailors are going through the constant drills and the laborious work of repairing their ship, they also have to do work that contributes to the sailboat. The grousing turns from their regular work to the hated sailboat. Soon nobody grouses about anything except the sailboat. However, when they pull into their next liberty port, with their ship squared away and their drill times excellent, they watch proudly as the old man sails his new boat past the other ships lying at anchor there, their captains green with envy at Captain Hawks' new toy.General Merrill McPeak did much the same thing with us when he was Air Force Chief of Staff. He kept us from grousing as much about the personnel drawdowns of the 90's by giving us a red herring to grouse about, namely a change to our uniforms. While the drawdowns were decimating our ranks, the thing you heard about the most was how people hated the new uniforms, how expensive they were, and how they made us all look like pilots for a commercial airline.I've always remembered that red herring example. Once it sunk in, I started recognizing it in other places like Patton's infamous order about the wear of neckties. Patton knew his men would hate that order. He also knew it would give them something to grouse about that he could discard if it became enough of a problem and in the meantime, it kept their minds off the heat, the sand and their fear of the next battle.Actually, for a movie about a boat that was not supposed to be a fighting craft, this is a pretty enjoyable piece of film. Jeff Chandler was magnificent. Richard Boone gives another of the solid performances that made him one of the most underrated actors who ever lived.I highly recommend that you check this movie out, especially if you are in a leadership role where you work.

Jeff Chandler's portrayal of Captain Jeb Hawks was an example of just how aloof a captain must be during a time of war. A captain's decision must not be made from friendship but what is best for the ship. Captain Hawks only real companion was a monkey. The men on the ship were almost all rookies that had never fought in a war. Hawks had to prepare them for "life and death" but made many enemies out of the crew because of his harsh techniques. The actual war scenes were very realistic. Overall a fine film to watch.