ACROSS THE PACIFIC Movie Review

1942 John Huston

For his third feature, John Huston tries to repeat the screen chemistry that made his debut, The Maltese Falcon, so successful. He gets it about half right, and turns a fairly predictable piece of propaganda into a diverting, but derivative entertainment. In strictly visual terms, the film is spookily similar to other more famous films of the period. The bleary-eyed channel surfer who happens across it early one morning might for a moment think that he's stumbled across an alternative combination of Casablanca, The Big Sleep, and The Thin Man.

The story begins on November 17, 1941. (Those who miss the significance of the date, the month, and year will be reminded often.) 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 writers Robert Carson and Richard Macaulay 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, and swapping coy banter every step of the way. The stars handle the material lightly, but none of their scenes strike the dark spark of the sexual manipulation that goes on between Sam Spade and Brigid O'Shaughnessy in Falcon. Similarly, the efforts of Lorenz to recruit Leland never reach the level of the verbal sparring Spade and Gutman enjoy so much.

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. Today, the film is more interesting for its revelation of American attitudes toward Japan. Given the circumstances of the times, the “yellow peril” racism may be defensible, but it didn't begin in 1941 and it's still ugly.

Cast: Humphrey Bogart (Rick Leland), Mary Astor (Alberta Marlow), Sydney Greenstreet (Dr. Lorenz), Charles Halton (A.V. Smith), Victor Sen Yung (Joe Totsuiko), Roland Got (Sugi), Keye Luke (Steamship office clerk), Richard Loo (First Officer Miyamu), Frank Wilcox (Capt. Morrison), Paul Stanton (Col. Hart), Lester Matthews (Canadian Major), Tom Stevenson (Tall thin man), Roland Drew (Capt. Harkness), Monte Blue (Dan Morton), Rudy Robles (Filipino assassin), Lee Tung Foo (Sam Wing On), Chester Gan (Capt. Higoto), Kam Tong (T. Oki), Spencer Chan (Chief Engineer Mitsuko), Philip Ahn (Informer in theater), Frank Faylen (Sidewalk vendor), Frank Mayo (Trial Judge Advocate); Written by: Richard Macaulay, Robert Carson; Cinematography by: Arthur Edeson; Music by: Adolph Deutsch. Producer: Jerry Wald, Jack Saper, Warner Bros. Running Time: 97 minutes. Format: VHS.