Customer Reviews

Action in the North Atlantic - Authentic Region 1 DVD from Warner Brothers starring Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Massey & Alan Hale

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They didn't sail powerful destroyers or fill the skies with waves of carrier-borne fighters, but the men of the US Merchant Marine nevertheless fought and won the second world war's most crucial and consistently bloody battles - the Battle of the Atlantic. This excellent film follows the travails of a merchantman bound for Russia's arctic port of Murmansk with a cargo of materials the Russians need to keep the Germans pegged on the eastern front. Through the war, American convoys sailed mass-built "Liberty Ships" through waters teeming with German planes, cruisers and U-Boats to keep both England and Russia properly equipped. While tides of war may have shifted thruought the war, allied convoys faced constant attacks by axis units until the end, relying mainly on their ability to absorb severe casualties.

This film is fiction and, produced during the war (1943) has the hallmarks of a propaganda film. But "Action" is so much more - with winning performances by Humphrey Bogart and Ray Massey, and a fine supporting crew that sounds like they may have actually sailed the dreaded "Murmansk Run". The special effects are astoundingly good for 1943 and hold up pretty well today. The Germans are perfect as skilled hunters - I still get a chill during the battle scenes when whole crews utter "torpedo - los!" - not quite dehumanized, but still fearsome. Crisp direction makes their untranslated lines the best case against sub-titles. This flick easily surpasses similar movies like "Air Force" in capturing the warime fervor while serving up a great story. In short, a great film.

Much of Allied success in the Second World War depended on the delivery by sea of American munitions, tanks, and planes to our allies in Great Britain and Russia. The men of the U.S. Merchant Marine manned the liberty ships that delivered the goods against tremendous odds in the form of German submarine and aircraft attack. 1943's "Action in the North Atlantic", filmed while that battle was still in progress, is a tribute to their courage.

"Action in the North Atlantic" follows the crew of a liberty ship in their journey across the North Atlantic and then across the North Sea, bound for the port of Murmansk in Soviet Russia. Raymond Massy is the stalwart ship's captain, Humphrey Bogart his sympathetic lieutenent, and Alan Hale the rowdy but effective bosun's mate. The crew is the obligatory cross section of humanity, including a ship's engineer with a broad Scottish accent, a sailor whose feet hurt when a submarine is around, and an augmentation of young Navy gunners who help defend the ship.

The ship survives a hair-raising crossing of the North Atlantic, as German submarines repeatedly challenge its convoy. One German submarine in particular makes the war personal, pursuing the liberty ship into the North Sea. The climax of the movie is a suspensful cat-and-mouse duel to the death between Bogart, now acting ship's captain, and the wily German submarine captain. A mass burial at sea provides Bogart the opportunity to put into appropriate words the credo and patriotism of his merchant mariners.

For a wartime effort, the movie is remarkably even-handed. The German submariners are portrayed as the tough and competent fighters they were. The movie finds time to pay homage to the regular Navy and the Army Air Corps for their parts in the Battle of the North Atlantic. The special efforts pale in comparison to today's CGI, but were state of the art for the time. Real footage is intercut with the simulations to add to the effect of ships racing around the ocean.

This movie is very highly recommended as a suspenseful war movie and as an exemplar of its wartime genre.

This dvd was in perfect condition and arrived on my doorstep in three days. I couldn't be happier!

By the time that ACTION IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC was released in 1943, Hollywood had been fully invested in raising morale for a war that was far from being won. Most of the big budget war films of the time focused tightly on the major armed services. AINA dealt with the far less known exploits of the Merchant Marines. Director Lloyd Bacon showed a microcosm of war that was the cold waters of the North Atlantic. This vast area of ocean was a vital cog in keeping the supply lines open between the factories of the United States and the Allied powers that so desperately needed them. The actors for the most part were well known and the audience had an immediate connection. Raymond Massey was the captain of a freighter that was transporting war supplies to our then ally the Russians in Murmansk. Massey plays the captain as the rock of respectability that was his essential screen persona. Humphrey Bogart was his executive officer whose own gruff manner well pairs off against Massey's avuncular style. Then there is a host of lesser lights led by Alan Hale, a man whose low brow humor blends seamlessly into the maelstrom that was marine combat.

The plot involves an American Liberty sea freighter running the gauntlet of Nazi submarines trying to choke off the nearly infinite flow of supplies from America. There is one German submarine whose captain plays a cat and mouse game that would set the standard for future ship versus ship war epics (remember the STAR TREK episode where Kirk engages in a similar battle against a Romulan commander?). Here, Massey and the German captain try all the tricks to force the other into a fatal and premature move. The battle scenes are clearly miniaturized ships in a big tub but nevertheless engrossing for that. There is never any doubt about the "rightness" of the Allied cause nor does the film try to undermine public morale by implying that somehow we were the cause of hostilities. What emerges by the final reel is the quaint but reassuring feeling that when war is truly necessary, Hollywood can step in with the confidence that America was and is in the right.

IF YOU ENJOY WORLD WAR TWO NAVAL MOVIES, YOU WILL ENJOY THE STORY OF THE MERCHANT MARINE TRYING TO GET SUPPLIES TO THE ALLIED TROOPS IN EUROPE DURING THE WAR YEARS WHEN U BOATS PROWLED OFF THE UNITED STATES AND TRIED TO SINK OUR MERCHANT SHIPS........I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FINE FLICK TO COME OUT ON DVD............I"M LOOKING FORWARD TO WATCHING IT AND I RECCOMEND IT TO ANYONE WHO ENJOYS A GOOD THRILLER.........

This is one of Bogart's best movies. It has a great cast of supporting actors and the action is great. It is obviously a propaganda movie but most of the movies made at that time were. Funny how much hollywood has changed. You don't see that anymore.

finally this bogart movie was put out on dvd, i've been hoping for some time for them to put it out. i ordered it right away and the quality of the movie is much better the the vhs version. thank's

Husband served on a carrier during WW2 and wanted to have his own copy of this great movie. Your order came through very quickly and he was very much impressed; not only with your quick response but the quality of the DVD. Keep up the good work.