GetPapa Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

jacobs-greenwood Directed by John Huston, though finished by Vincent Sherman when Huston was called into war service, with a screenplay by Richard Macaulay that was based on a story by Robert Carson (or Garson, depending upon the source), this war adventure attempted to recapture the magic that director Huston shared with three of its leads in the previous year's The Maltese Falcon (1941).In this one, Humphrey Bogart plays Rick Leland (in his next film, he would play his most famous Rick; Blaine in Casablanca (1942)), Mary Astor plays Alberta Marlow, and Sydney Greenstreet plays Dr. Lorenz. All three are involved in an intrigue that couldn't have been more timely, a Japanese attempt to blow up the Panama Canal (the original story involved Pearl Harbor, hence the film's incongruent title, which actually was attacked during the production). It captures the style, if not the substance, of the earlier film.Artilleryman Leland is bucked out the service just before his country would be forced in World War II, a curious time to dishonorably discharged; John Hamilton plays the court-martial president. It's a ruse by the U.S. Military Intelligence intended to draw enemy spies to the ex-soldier, who may be able to provide information they need. Leland goes through the motions of attempting to enlist in the Canadian army before he boards a ship headed to the Orient where he hopes to serve China and Chiang Kai-shek against Japan. He meets, and is curiously attracted to Alberta, but their would-be romance has a rough start (she gets seasick; later, she gets sunburned). Leland also meets, and is befriended by, some other passengers: Dr. Lorenz and Joe Totsuiko (Sen Young). After sharing drinks and pretending to be both intoxicated and willing to part with certain strategic details for a price, Leland learns that Dr. Lorenz is a buyer of just this type of information; he's working for the Japanese.There's plenty of intrigue, and a lot of it's confusing (intentional or otherwise). Rick's not sure if Alberta has any connection to his dealings with Lorenz, or whether to trust her - at first she wants to help him, but later she disappears. Once the ship from New York reaches Panama, the plot thickens. Charles Halton plays A. V. Smith, Rick's go-between who gives the ex-soldier a schedule of air patrols to reel in Lorenz. Lee Tung Foo plays a friend of Rick's, a Panamanian hotel proprietor, that assists Rick. Plus, the usual suspects in these war pictures, Richard Loo and Keye Luke, also play roles (as does Philip Ahn, though uncredited). Smith is killed, Rick is knocked out, and eventually everything leads to a plantation where it is learned that Dan Morton (Monte Blue) is being held. Alberta is Morton's daughter, and both were being played by Lorenz. Naturally, Rick recovers, saves the day and the Panama Canal.

rboyter Most of the cast of The Maltese Falcon is reunited with John Huston and, sadly, a very awkward, dull script attempting to be topical about the Japanese plotting against the US. Mary Astor is terrific and much freer to play an attractive character and flirt with Bogey who is as amusing as the script lets him be (which is not very). Sydney Greenstreet is gloriously oily and sinister as always. The trouble is the script which just isn't up to much either in originality or in good dialogue. Don't get me wrong, I own the movie, but I watch it only about every 5 years or so whereas The Maltese Falcon is a once a year treat, sometimes more often.

cricket crockett . . . by machine-gunning the heir of an Axis ruler to death while saving a co-equal primary target on Pearl Harbor day, all the while dealing the classiest dame in the vicinity and having better luck this time compared to his closing months earlier in north Afr!ca. Though I personally cannot see what our boys fighting the Axis saw in Bogart's co-star here, Mary Astor, apparently she had a role in another previous effort from Humphrey, THE MALTESE FALCON, along with a fat dude named Sydney Greenstreet, who rounds out a trio reunited for PACIFIC. The idea that main villain Joe Totsuiko (played by Sen Young) is a "nisei," or American-born, Axis operative is perhaps the most racist element of this film, though I am sure those people who drive Hondas, Toyotas, and Nissans because they want to make a public statement apologizing for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to rile up true American patriots at a glance, would find many other instances in PACIFIC to commit hari kari over.

gpeevers Bogart plays a dishonorably discharged artillery officer prior to U.S. entry into the war, who lacking other prospects goes looking for chance to use his training in whatever army will take him. It is with this intention that he boards a small Japanese freighter from Halifax bound for the Pacific via the Panama Canal. On board he meets Dr Lorenz (Sydney Greenstreet) a sociologist and a man who openly admires the Japanese and the beautiful Alberta Marlow (Mary Astor) who says she's on vacation.While it's not as good as The Maltese Falcon (from which it draws four of its principals) the film still has some wonderful elements reminiscent of former film including some wonderful dialog, particularly the flirting between Bogart and Astor but almost any conversation is enjoyable.The story works both as an effective spy thriller but also as one of the first propaganda pieces to be put out by Hollywood following the attack upon Pearl Harbor. The title is misleading as the action never goes further west than Panama; it's a throwback to an earlier version of the script where the target of the intrigue was Pearl Harbor rather than the Panama Canal. But the actual bombing necessitated the change. Despite the change the film still works quite well and well it's not one of Bogie's classics it still quite good.Not surprisingly the film does have some obviously racist overtones reflecting the current attitudes perhaps magnified by the recent outbreak of war with Japan. This is unfortunate but from a historical point of view it does serve to illustrate the attitudes of the time as well as some of the avenues the propaganda efforts might employ.