Evening star., 1943-06-12

who have missed the stirring drama
in this aspect of war. It says with
the greatest possible emphasis that
the men who deliver the goods are
. incredibly dramatic fellows. What
is more, it says it with quiet elo-
quence that makes Action in the
North Atlantic" one of the better
war pictures, a worthy sequel to "Air
Force" which was Warmers earlier,
highly successful bestowal of the
laurel wreath upon the more CLAM
orous aviation branch Of the fight
ing services.
Action in the North Atlantic"
like the service it deals with, is quiet
and transformations and yet manages
to be a highly exciting affair with
proper intervals of lightness. In the
style of the documentary film, it sets
out to show that here is very thrill
ing story which has suffered tenn
porary eclipse by its inability to
complete in glamour and noise with
the accounts of other service
branches. The merchant marine, it
comedies, is a drayage service, but
without it there would be no other
kinds of services and that all the
subsequent heroism people read
about stems from the heroism of
those who haul the planes, guns,
tanks, tank destroyers, etc.
This story of the merchant marine
Is told through the lives of members
of a single crew. They make two
voyages in the narrative which John
Howard Lawson wrote. The first is
trip aboard tanker carrying
aviation gasoline, very deadly sub
stance. Journeys end is somewhere
in mid-Atlantic, a wild. flaming
finale induced by a well-directed
torpedo from U-boat.
The ending is neither as gruesome
nor as unhappy as it might have
been, however. 1t turns out to be
merely prelude to a miracle of
courage, second journey on an
other boat which ends triumphantly
in Murmansk after one of the most
suspenseful and varied battle Sc
quences which has marked Holly
woods effort to report on the war.
Author Lawson's inspired climax
focuses upon an incident in which
the freighter carrying the pictures
heroic crew becomes detached from
Its convoy. In this apparently help
less Situa ton, it becomes the special
prey Of stalking U-boat in an un-
behevably exciting snail's pace chase
which contradicts every conception
Of pursuit as the movies have ap-
piled it. The U-boat, by every law
but one. is bound to emerge vic
torious, but that one is utilized TO
provide an interval of suspense as
exhausting, logical and dramatic as
any screen drama has boasted since
Hollywood decided the war was its
special dish.
Despite the accent on action and
suspense, Action in the North At
lantic" manages to tell a correlat tive
story of character of those who
make up the dauntless crews of
Americas cargo ships.
AS captain of the Seawich, it
offers Massey as a calm, resolute
character who has not learned the
meaning of fear in the most fear
full circumstances that confront the
mariner in today's perhdious seas.
This me-loving seaman is secon-
Diary in color, however. to his first
officer (Bogart, an arresting para
phrase of the hard-drinking sailor
with a sweetheart in every port
who, under the stress of war, mani
tests great deal more of under
standing of human nature than
many less rowdy character.
These are the principal figures in
Action in the North Atlantic" but
the others are drawn with equal
clarity if more sketchily. Among
the dramatically useful of the sub
ordinate characters are the patient,
loving wife of the captain, the semi
gaudy singer who eventually lands
the first ofiicer as husband, and a
merchant marine cadet. who gives
an Annapolis touch to the current
picture of the seemingly unglamor-
Gus cargo service.
These lesser parts are convinc-
1ngly portrayed, as you would ex-
pect in the case of Ruth Gordon as
the captains wife, not necessarily
as you would expect by Julie Bishop
and Dick Hogan in the roles of the
ex-singer and the cadet Others
who perform brightly in Action in
the North Atlantic are reliable
Alan Hale, Dane Clark and Sam
Levine
Photographically. whatever the
tricks employed, the picture carries
intimations of the authentic as def
mite as those in the quiet quality of
its script.
1t is grim. but good.
Harry Anger's stage show this
week is designed to provide light
some contrast for the picture and
thus becomes primarily thing of
the comedy of Bob du Pont and the
acrobatics of the Three Kings.
Thrice the Roxyettes are fitted into
the scheme of things with their
usual effectiveness. There is some
thing neatly contrasting, too, about
10 Lombardis overture, a very un-
nautical thing centering around the
fetching tunes of oklahoma"