Mar abierto

I hadn't seen this movie for many years, and when I watched it again recently I was amazed at the surprising realism for a 1942 era war propaganda movie. Veteran skipper Randolph Scott is forced to put to sea in a new corvette (a very small ship) with almost no other experienced crew members, and virtually no time to train the new crew. The horrid living conditions aboard ship are realistically portrayed: the tiny ship tosses about on the ocean while water cascades over and through every part of the ship. On top of this there are also German U-boats to contend with. Of course all of this was done on sound stages and model sets, but they are amazingly realistic for the period. I am ready to watch it again!

It's one of those rare w.w.2 movies that spotlights Canada.I felt very proud watching it.There's not very many movies showing my counties contibutions during the war.Great story,great acting.A realistic telling of the battle of the atlantic.

Though this takes place on a warship, it bears resemblance to WB's Action in the North Atlantic also of 1943 which is set on a merchant ship. Randolph Scott is the sheriff uh captain of the named ship,among the crew is a young Robert Mitchum. Mr. Scott delivers but not until the postwar period will he develop in my mind the seriousness that saved him from the wooden Indian junk heap. The final duel between the U Boat and the corvette is exciting and (very rare in films of this era)the enemy are portrayed as formidable foes.

A pretty good not great action film if say this film and the Magnificent Seven or the Tall T came on different channels would opt for the others with a switchback to watch the ship to sub duel.

****I checked with a military buff friend of mine to be sure, but the Corvette was the Canadian name for a ship that would be classified as a destroyer escort****

I certainly agree with your assessment of the movie, but I'm going to "split a hair or two" about how a Corvette compares to other navy ships.

Actually, a Corvette was quite a bit smaller than an American Destroyer Escort. Corvettes were about 1000 tons and had one engine and screw. DEs had twin screw propulsion and were 1500 tons or more.

A Destroyer Escort was closer to what the Royal Canadian Navy called a Frigate, which was larger and had twin screws. A typical smallish convoy would have a Frigate and 4 Corvettes as its navy escort.

My dad served in the RCN doing convoy duty on HMCS Arnprior, a castle-class Corvette. He always felt that the depiction of a Corvette rolling in heavy seas as shown in the movie was spot on. The RCN joke was that "a Corvette would roll on wet grass".

...from Universal Pictures, producer Howard Hawks, and director Richard Rosson. The story follows the adventures of the crew of the title ship, the smallest class of naval battleship, this one operating out of Canada and escorting merchant vessels across the dangerous North Atlantic. Captain MacClain (Randolph Scott) tries to keep his men rallied and ready, although young officer Lt. Cartwright (James Brown) is having confidence issues. Also featuring Ella Raines, Barry Fitzgerald, Noah Beery Jr., Andy Devine, Fuzzy Knight, Richard Lane, Thomas Gomez, David Bruce, Walter Sande, Frank Faylen, Peter Lawford, Charles McGraw, Cliff Robertson, Milburn Stone, Ian Wolfe, and Robert Mitchum.

There's little to distinguish this from most of the other naval-based war pictures of the day. You have the usual assortment of characters among the crew, with the square-jawed captain leading the day. The movie has several notable actors very early in their career, such as Lawford, McGraw, Robertson, and Mitchum, here playing one of the many lower-ranked sailors.

The most memorable scene in this is when a group of officers are learning battle plans back at headquarters. They are all seated around a long dining table which is covered in a map. The man in charge is seated in an elevated chair above the table, and sailors slowly move the chair along the length of the table as the chief is pointing out tactics. The movie earned an Oscar nomination for Best Black and White Cinematography, which is I can't comment on due to the poor quality of the print I watched. As with most movies produced by Hawks, he's rumored to have actually directed much of this himself.