I wish this movie had been more enjoyable than it was. Set in the days right before Pearl Harbor, the plot concerns Humphrey Bogart who when the movie opens is being court marshaled out of the army, and we really don’t know the reason why until much later in the film. Bogart who looks awful and ...embarrassed in a uniform is soon back in his trench coat, and because of plot and holes in that plot finds himself on a Japanese ship heading for the Orient but making stops in Panama. The film also has in its cast two other members from The Maltese Falcon, Sydney Greenstreet and Mary Astor, but of course neither of them come up to the level of greatness that they showed in that film. Indeed this film is also directed by John Huston but he falls on his face big time with this turkey. In fact this might be the worse film of the early part of his career. Both Greenstreet and Astor are fellow passengers aboard this ship and right away we know that Greenstreet has got to be the villain, and Astor might or might not be one. They both bring a lot of baggage aboard the ship and to this early example of the war propaganda film, that would soon be flourishing in the movie studios of Hollywood U.S.A. We learn that Bogart is working undercover for the U.S. government with hopes of thwarting the Japanese plans of bombing the Panama Canal, and that Greenstreet who is in love with everything Asian, with a special fondness for the Japanese wants Bogart to work for him to spy on the Americans. There’s lots of chicanery, double dealings, and some nice sexual banter back and forth between Astor and Bogart who even uses a line right out of The Maltese Falcon, which I suppose Huston thought would be cute. The film does look good, after all this is a Warner Bros. movie so the sets are glossy the cinematography shiny & sharp (thanks to the fine restoration) and the clothes that Ms. Astor wears are quite beguiling. There is one beautiful scene, which takes up less than a minute of screen time of a wonderful set (it looks so good, I wonder if it was a location set up) of a nighttime exterior of the ship docked at a pier which makes up for the scenes using a fake looking back lot jungle towards the end of the film. But I did love Mary gallantly trudging through it in high heels, perfect hair and a nice dress to rendezvous with Bogart after he single handily takes out the Japanese. The war is on, and John Huston made a hasty retreat from the film to go overseas leaving the final footage to be shot by Warner Bros. contract director Vincent Sherman. Every Asian actor in Hollywood worked that month, and Don Siegel did the montages.
I wish this movie had been more enjoyable than it was. Set in the days right before Pearl Harbor, the plot concerns Humphrey Bogart who when the movie opens is being court marshaled out of the army, and we really don’t know the reason why until much later in the film. Bogart who looks awful and ...embarrassed in a uniform is soon back in his trench coat, and because of plot and holes in that plot finds himself on a Japanese ship heading for the Orient but making stops in Panama. The film also has in its cast two other members from The Maltese Falcon, Sydney Greenstreet and Mary Astor, but of course neither of them come up to the level of greatness that they showed in that film. Indeed this film is also directed by John Huston but he falls on his face big time with this turkey. In fact this might be the worse film of the early part of his career. Both Greenstreet and Astor are fellow passengers aboard this ship and right away we know that Greenstreet has got to be the villain, and Astor might or might not be one. They both bring a lot of baggage aboard the ship and to this early example of the war propaganda film, that would soon be flourishing in the movie studios of Hollywood U.S.A. We learn that Bogart is working undercover for the U.S. government with hopes of thwarting the Japanese plans of bombing the Panama Canal, and that Greenstreet who is in love with everything Asian, with a special fondness for the Japanese wants Bogart to work for him to spy on the Americans. There’s lots of chicanery, double dealings, and some nice sexual banter back and forth between Astor and Bogart who even uses a line right out of The Maltese Falcon, which I suppose Huston thought would be cute. The film does look good, after all this is a Warner Bros. movie so the sets are glossy the cinematography shiny & sharp (thanks to the fine restoration) and the clothes that Ms. Astor wears are quite beguiling. There is one beautiful scene, which takes up less than a minute of screen time of a wonderful set (it looks so good, I wonder if it was a location set up) of a nighttime exterior of the ship docked at a pier which makes up for the scenes using a fake looking back lot jungle towards the end of the film. But I did love Mary gallantly trudging through it in high heels, perfect hair and a nice dress to rendezvous with Bogart after he single handily takes out the Japanese. The war is on, and John Huston made a hasty retreat from the film to go overseas leaving the final footage to be shot by Warner Bros. contract director Vincent Sherman. Every Asian actor in Hollywood worked that month, and Don Siegel did the montages.
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