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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Witty, entertaining propaganda - good package, January 5, 2007
As a follow up to "The Maltese Falcon" with John Huston directing and Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor paired again, "Across the Pacific" promised to be an entertaining film and so it is. The film is an unbelievable thriller in which Bogart infiltrates a group of Japanese sympathisers plotting to blow up the Panama Canal. Sydney Greenstreet heads the traitors and is as enigmatic as he was in the previous film. The film was made at the time of Pearl Harbour so the plot contrivances are an understandable nod to the current events of the day.
The real interest of the film though is in the amusing by play between Bogart and Astor who were never more relaxed on the screen. They have some very funny moments. The film is beautifully staged by Huston with the exception of some pathetic models of ships. In fact, they are so poor that they add to the unreal comic nature of the film. You can not help but laugh out loud! The DVD preserves the film's beautiful black and white photography in an exceptional print and comes with a load of extras.
First of all, there is an excellent featurette which describes the major role Hollywood would play in the war effort, whether it be with ground breaking films such as "Confessions of a Nazi Spy" or Bette Davis and John Garfield forming the Hollywood Canteen. This is a valuable history lesson. A Warners Blooper reel for 1942 is included and these are always entertaining, particularly if you know your Warner's films.
The DVD also contains a Warners Night at the Movies in which the theme is certainly propaganda. The short film extols the virtues of 4 airman, ordinary men joining the forces for their country. Among the Warners starlets performing is a very young Eleanor Parker. The film is preserved in excellent technicolour and while you may cringe at the naivety and patriotism, one can see how it would have been used as a recruitment tool. One Newsreel item tries valiantly to put a positive spin on the devastation in Pearl Harbour by showing a Jap plane which was shot down. The cartoon is yet another recruiting poster in the form of a draft horse trying to enlist. It is funny in parts, when you are not cringeing. Finally, for coming attractions, there is a superb technicolour trailer for "Captain of the Clouds", a Cagney film which celebrates the Canadian Air Force.
As part of the second set of the Bogart Signature Collections, this DVD is particularly good value.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Impetuous, easy-going and very enjoyable spy picture..., December 16, 2006
Not only did "Across the Pacific" add some brightness to Bogart's rising stature as an actor, it more than justified the promise shown by director John Huston after his success with "The Maltese Falcon."
The story begins on November 17, 1941. Lt. Rick Leland (Humphrey Bogart) is being cashiered from the Army at Governor's Island, New York... The reasons are vague, but before five minutes have passed, Bogie is decked out in his familiar trenchcoat... Leland tries to enlist in the Canadian army, but his disgrace is so widespread that they won't have him... Wondering aloud if perhaps the Japanese will take him on, Leland buys a ticket on the 'Genoa Maru' bound for Yokohama via the Panama Canal... On board the freighter, Leland meets Alberta Marlow (Mary Astor), who lies about her past, and Dr. Lorenz (Sydney Greenstreet), a sociologist with an undisguised affinity for all things Japanese...
It's really not spoiling anything to reveal that Leland is engaged in counterespionage because neither Huston nor the screenwriters take the material very seriously... For most of the film, they're more interested in the cutesy shipboard romance between Leland and Alberta--getting seasick, drunk, sunburned...
As a thriller, the film doesn't really get wound up until the third act, when it has a few fine moments, most memorably a long chase scene in a Spanish-language movie theater, and a conventional conclusion...
Sydney Greenstreet was excellent as a jovial yet cunning Japanese sympathizer and Mary Astor played a doubtful role with the same mental adroitness she had displayed in "The Maltese Falcon."
Bogart, of course, carried the story line here and it was a delight to watch his enigmatic character change from one of calculated indifference to that of relentless determination...
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable WWII espionage, February 16, 2007
The film was witty and reunited the stars of the previous year's "Maltese Falcon". The propaganda gets a bit heavy handed at times in the final 3rd.
However, really enjoyable is the Warners blooper reel from '42. It is fun to see some of the studio's big names cursing when they flub lines (John Garfield, Barbara Stanwyck, Olivia DeHavilland, even Reagan.)
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