Across the Pacific

For the 1926 film, see Across the Pacific (1926 film).
Across the Pacific
Directed by John Huston
Vincent Sherman
Produced by Jack Saper
Jerry Wald
Written by Robert Garson
Richard Macaulay
Starring Humphrey Bogart
Mary Astor
Sydney Greenstreet
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release dates
  • September 4, 1942
Running time
 97 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $1.3 million[1]

Across the Pacific is a 1942 American spy film set on the eve of the entry of the United States into World War II. The film was directed first by John Huston, then by Vincent Sherman after Huston joined the United States Army Signal Corps. It stars Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, and Sydney Greenstreet.

The title had been used before by Warner Brothers for a 1926 silent adventure film starring Monte Blue, who also has a small role in this film. However, the plots of the two films bear no resemblance to each other.

Initially, it was planned that the film would portray an attempt to avert a Japanese plan to bomb Pearl Harbor. When the real-life Pearl Harbor bombing occurred, the script was quickly rewritten to change the location of the planned attack to Panama.[2] The title however remained the same, even though the Pacific is never seen, let alone crossed.

Director John Huston was called up to military service during filming; he claimed he left at the point near the end of the film in which Bogart is trapped in a house at gun-point. Vincent Sherman finished directing the film, minus the script which Huston took with him, explaining "Bogie will know how to get out". An implausible escape and plot wrap-up was shot, which Huston declared "lacked credibility".[3]

Plot

In late 1941, Captain Rick Leland (Humphrey Bogart) is court-martialed and discharged from the U.S. Coast Artillery after he is caught stealing. He tries to join the Canadian Army, but is coldly rebuffed. He subsequently boards a Japanese ship, the Genoa Maru, in Halifax to make his way to China via the Panama Canal to fight for Chiang Kai-shek.

On board, he meets Canadian Alberta Marlow (Mary Astor) and Dr. Lorenz (Sydney Greenstreet), a professor of sociology who makes no secret of his admiration of the Japanese and is thus not popular in the Philippines, where he resides. Leland, in his turn, makes it clear to Lorenz that he has no loyalty toward his country and would fight for anyone willing to pay him.

During a stop in New York, Leland reports to Colonel Hart (Paul Stanton), an undercover intelligence officer. Lorenz is a known enemy spy, but Hart and Leland are uncertain about Marlow. Upon returning to the ship, Leland surprises a Filipino man (Rudy Robles) who is about to shoot Lorenz, thus gaining Lorenz's confidence. Second-generation Japanese-American Joe Totsuiko (Victor Sen Yung) embarks as a passenger.

As they arrive in Panama, the captain announces that the ship has been denied passage through the strategically vital canal and will be forced to take a long detour around Cape Horn. Leland, Marlow and Lorenz disembark to wait for another ship. Several crates are unloaded addressed to a Dan Morton at the Bountiful plantation.

Lorenz asks Leland, who was once stationed in the area, to procure up-to-date schedules for the American planes that patrol the canal. Leland meets with his local contact, A.V. Smith (Charles Halton), and convinces him to provide the real schedules, as Lorenz could easily find out if he were given fake ones. The date is December 6, 1941 - the eve of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Having delivered the schedules after haggling with Lorenz over their price, Leland is knocked out. He wakes up several hours later and finds out that both Lorenz and Marlow have left the hotel. He immediately calls Smith and warns him to change the patrol schedule, then heads out to the Bountiful plantation, where he sees a torpedo bomber being prepared. He is caught, however, and brought inside to Lorenz, Marlow, and Totsuiko.

Marlow turns out to be the daughter of the plantation's owner, Dan Morton (Monte Blue), a drunk whose weakness is being exploited by the spy ring to provide a base for its activities. To Leland's relief, Marlow's only stake in the affair is concern for her father.

Lorenz reveals that they killed Smith before he could have the schedule changed and that they are planning to torpedo the Panama Canal Locks. At the last minute, Leland overpowers Totsuiko (Marlow's father is killed in the process). Leland takes over a machine gun and shoots down the bomber aircraft, piloted by no less than an Imperial Japanese prince, as it tries to take off. Leland dispatches Lorenz's men in the ensuing firefight. At the end, a defeated Lorenz tries to commit seppuku, but his nerve fails him and he begs Leland to shoot him. Leland refuses, as Lorenz has "a date with Army intelligence".

Cast

Alberta Marlow (Mary Astor) and Rick Leland (Humphrey Bogart) aboard the Genoa Maru.

Radio adaptation

Across the Pacific was adapted as a radio play on The Screen Guild Theater's January 25, 1943 broadcast with Bogart, Astor, and Greenstreet reprising their film roles.

References

  1. ↑ Thomas Schatz, Boom and Bust: American Cinema in the 1940s Uni of California Press, 1999 p 218
  2. ↑ Astor, Mary - "A Life on Film", Dell Publishing 1967, New York, p157
  3. ↑ Huston, John - "An Open Book", Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 1980, New York, p88

External links