Convoi vers la Russie

Well this is one movie title that's certainly not misleading. There's tons of action in this gripping WW2 movie about the Merchant Marine. I might even go so far as to say it's got the best and most realistic action sequences from any WW2 movie I've seen. I'm talking about movies made during the era not stuff made decades later with a gazillion dollar budget, of course. The story's about an American tanker crew that survives their ship being sunk by a German U-boat and spend eleven days adrift at sea before being rescued. They later return to sea on a Liberty ship leading a convoy. Once again they have to deal with the Nazis.

What's not to like? It's a WW2 movie with colorful Warner Bros. character actors Alan Hale, Dane Clark, Peter Whitney, and Sam Levene backing up Humphrey Bogart and Raymond Massey. There's only a couple of (minor) female roles, played well by Julie Bishop and Ruth Gordon. Yeah the plot's pretty basic and the characters may seem clichéd but it's all put together so well that I didn't mind. There's something to be said for using a successful formula.

The script is great with lots of funny lines and stirring speeches. Good music, both score and a nice rendition of Night and Day from a dubbed Julie Bishop. The photography is beautiful. The special effects are exceptional. The direction is terrific, especially in those spectacular action scenes. This is all the more remarkable when one considers director Lloyd Bacon didn't get to finish the picture. Bogart is great (as always) and his fans will love this one. Pretty much anyone who enjoys WW2 movies, particularly those from WB, will like this a lot. It's an emotional, exciting two hours of solid entertainment.

These were battles that saw merchant ships attacked, across the seas like fish in barrels they were tracked, a hidden foe that fought with stealth, their aim to sink the allies wealth, deploying tactics that were tough to counteract. In convoys odds of sinking were reduced, but on occasion isolation was induced, like a lamb that leaves the flock, you were open to be shot, but wise thinking often generates a boost. At its heart there is a little propaganda, encouraging those free to join and clamber, to ride the waves of victory, sailing logistics over sea, there was no reason to abstain, as a bystander.

From what my father described this is pretty much the way it was on the Murmansk run. My father was sunk twice on the way to Murmansk the second time with the PQ-17 convoy (The Massacred Convoy). He was Chief Engineer on the maiden voyage of the liberty ship "Daniel Morgan" and was sunk by the German U-88 on July 4th, 1942. After being picked up by a Russian tanker some three days later he and the survivors hid out behind Russian lines until he came back to Boston on The Queen Mary with hundreds of other merchant seaman that had been sunk. The day was October 15th, 1942...the day I was born.

That wasn't the last time he was sunk.

This film was so meaningful to me. My grandmother's first cousin, Alexander Miller MacKinnon 19, drowned during a March 1942 attack while serving in the Merchant Marine.

He was aboard the "Colabee," having just left Cuba with a load of sugar for Baltimore. 10 miles out they were hit by the German submarine U-126. 23 dead, 14 survivors. Ironically the U-126 was itself destroyed the following year with no survivors.

As a child in 1940s Buffalo all our windows were carefully covered with black-out shades each evening. I heard the adults whispering that this was in case the Germans came up the St. Lawrence to the Great Lakes but we did not really know U-Boats were operating so close to our shores.

A year earlier Alex had been assigned to the SS Santa Elisa, hauling sugar cane from Chile to New York, arriving Christmas Eve 1941. But on the return trip to Chile in January 1942 the Santa Elisa was attacked, just as she left NYC carrying crates of safety matches and barrels of highly explosive carbide crystals. She was then towed back to the Brooklyn Yard for repairs. Which is why Alex was aboard the Colabee.

After being refitted the Santa Elisa set out to carry gasoline from England to Malta as part of Churchill's 62 vessel Operation Pedestal. That August 1942 she was attacked a second time and torpedoed by Italian motorboats, the gasoline caught fire and she went up in flames off of Tunisia. (One account says no survivors; official MM record states no deaths.)

Many parts of the movie show what our Merchant Marine was really going through. Yet it wasn't until 1988 that President Reagan signed the bill conferring Veteran status on all mariners who served in WWII, guaranteeing their benefits.

The term "propaganda" has taken on a very negative connotation, though propaganda can also be a very positive thing--encouraging the masses through logical and/or emotional appeals to get on the bandwagon on a certain topic. In this case, the effort was noble--encouraging people to understand why we were fighting the Axis powers as well as drumming up their support. Now these types of films were made in the hundreds in the USA during the war and many of them are pretty forgettable. However, this might just be one of the very best due to its magnificent writing and acting. Plus, in many ways it's similar to the British wartime film IN WHICH WE SERVE (1942)--but I think that ACTION IN THE NORTH Atlantic is actually a bit better film. Much of this is because the acting is at least equal to the British film (Humphrey Bogart and Raymond Massey versus Noel Coward and John Mills in the 1942 film) and the story is a bit more exciting in ACTION IN THE NORTH Atlantic. Plus, I admired how the often forgotten men of the merchant marine were shown to be heroes--after all, a lot of them died transporting supplies to Britain during the war.

Both films excelled because unlike some jingoistic wartime films, the Allies were NOT shown as super-humans who could do ridiculous things (like in the movie AIRFORCE where a B-17 shoots down fighter plane after fighter plane--something that just could never have happened). In fact, both films feature ships being sunk right out from under the stars in the first half hour of the film! But here's where the films really succeeded, as they showed the indomitable human spirit that despite losses, continues to bravely and without too much complaint do their job. Balancing this need with the families back at home make these both stellar films. In fact, now that I think about it, I STRONGLY recommend you see both. Yes, they are similar, but also different enough to provide a lot of entertainment and wonderful insight into our history.