Thunder Afloat

I'm giving this 6/10 mainly because anything with either Chester Morris or Wallace Beery is usually good viewing and this is no exception, but there are lots of problems with this one.

This is a film about WWI that is actually pro-war and anti-German, something you rarely saw in the 1930's at either end of the decade. At the beginning of the 1930's, before the rise of Hitler, people were still looking back at the pointlessness of WWI and most films presented it as such. At the end of the decade, American films avoided any direct criticism of the Nazis because the studios were afraid of losing German business for their films and also because so many of the studio moguls of the era were Jewish themselves and did not want to call attention to that fact due to anti-Semitic feelings both here and abroad.

What this film is basically doing is getting Americans accustomed to thinking of the Germans as the enemy without actually calling out Hitler's regime as the enemy. The film starts out with two rivals in the shipping business who are not afraid to resort to violence and sabotage (Chester Morris as Rocky Blake and Wallace Beery as John Thorson). The time is supposed to be the beginning of the entry of America into WWI, but our leads are hardly patriotic. Rocky is tricked by Thorson into joining the navy so that Thorson can rid himself of his competition, and Thorson later joins up himself because a German sub sinks his ship and he wants payback. Of course, Thorson finds himself under the command of Rocky, and time has healed no wounds on either side. The whole thing plays out rather formulaicly. If you don't know what I mean watch any film about the navy in which two enemies on land are forced to work together at sea against a common enemy.

The real problem here is the art design and the acting of one player that really gums up the works. First I'll discuss the art design. A common problem in the early talkies was that films set in the past had people wearing the fashions of "present day" - 1930 or so. By 1939 most studios were dressing their actors appropriately for the time period. This film has everyone dressed as though it is 1939, not 1917. Seeing Virgina Grey (as Thorson's daughter Susan) parade around in what appear to be knock-offs of Judy Garland's gingham dress from the Wizard of Oz can only conjure up visions of President Wilson in a zoot suit. This brings me to the second problem - Virginia Grey's acting. She's either talking like a gun moll - which doesn't go with the seafaring town setting - or she's bursting into tears like a twelve year old. She gets quite tiresome before it's all over and thus there's no way I can believe the purported build up of sexual tension between her character and Rocky.

Watch this one for Beery at his bellicose best, for Chester Morris when he was still in the angry phase of his acting career, and for the great naval action scenes. Just remember this probably was not an A-lister for MGM in 1939 and try to overlook the flaws.

It was definitely about WW 1 because one of the ships sunk was sunk off Long Island in 1918. The USS San Diego was cruising 10 miles off Fire Island, NY in July of 1918 when it struck a mine that was laid by German U Boat 117 . It sank bow first with the loss of 5 or 6 men . The rest of the crew rowed ashore to Long Island and were saved. It was over 500 feet long and it was the only US Capital ship sunk during WW 1. The movie shows the San Diego hitting the mine and blowing up. I have never seen a movie that mentioned the San Diego sinking.

If you know anything about the U boat war off the Eastern US during WW 1 this movie makes sense. They used the 110 foot sub-chasers the Navy had built to fight the U boats near shore. They showed schooners being attacked on the surface by the U boats , many schooners were sunk with deckguns up and down the US east coast during WW 1.

A very nice movie , the acting was pretty good and the story was good too.

By this point in his career, Wallace Berry had settled into the role of MGM's star galoot; accompanied by a kid -- in this case Virginia Grey, a perennial MGM starlet who rarely got a chance to shine -- and opposed by a juvenile lead -- here, the great Chester Morris -- they all get a chance to produce a lot of serio-comic fireworks around the sub-chaser service during the World War One East Coast raids.

Tremendous credit must be offered to director George Seitz -- a specialist in comedy, now best remembered for the Andy Hardy series -- and director of photography John Seitz; sorry, they were not related. These two veterans knew how and when to apply the high-priced gloss that MGM boasted in this period, but also when to settle back and let their actors carry the scenes: Beery, just staring as his ship goes down; Morris grinning as a surly Beery retreats; and Grey looking as if she is going to reach up and clunk the leading men's heads together.

The Beery vehicles of this period were programmers, as close as MGM went to B pictures, carried on his aw-shucks charm. In this one, he has to work for his star credit when everyone is working their hardest. The result is among the best of his last decade.

In a New England port, Pop Thorson (Wallace Beery) and his daughter Susan (Virginia Grey) struggle to save their small tug boat. They are certain that it was sunk by rival Rocky Blake. It's WWI and the US Navy is desperately recruiting men in the fight against the U-boat menace. The Thorsons decide to trick Rocky into enlisting and get a valuable contract for themselves. The Germans sink Pop's beloved boat and he vows revenge by signing up with the Navy.

The message is undeniable. Pop is a bombastic sailor who is more concerned about himself and his boat. This is a call to arms for everyone. I would change one thing. His daughter should be his son so that they can stay together after enlisting in the Navy. The best part is the use of some real boats and some good action. I really like the first battle where Pop is over-confident. Quite frankly, I would want the movie and the battle to finish it there. It seems set up for an epic back-and-forth battle. I'm less enamored with the decoy part. The second half is a bit too convoluted. I prefer something simpler.

"Thunder Afloat" is a very unusual film. Although it appears to be a film about WWI, it really seems to be about WWII. However, the US was officially neutral in 1939 and Congress actually enacted legislation forcing the studios to remain neutral (though this law clearly violated the US Constitution). So, studios were VERY apprehensive to speak out against Hitler and Nazis. But, by 1939 it appeared as if the US might be entering the war eventually and the human rights violations were too great to ignore--plus the war just broke out in Europe. So if you wanted to find an anti-Nazi film in the US in 1939, you'd be VERY hard-pressed to find one aside from the VERY brave "Confessions of a Nazi Spy" (1939). In order to bolster anti-German sentiment, "Thunder Afloat" shows Germans as evil...but this film is set in 1917, not 1939--a clever way to get around the stupid neutrality laws.

The film begins with an old tugboat captain (Wallace Beery) tricking his 'friend' (Chester Morris) into joining the Navy during WWI. However, soon Beery himself would join after his tugboat was sunk by a German sub. Beery is given command of a patrol boat but mucks it up badly. He won't take orders and acts as if he's a one-man Navy--and ends up is serious hot water with his commander--who is, incidentally, Morris!! Is there any redemption or will Beery just be a dope and the US lose eventually the war because of him? Is there any doubt! Again, like so many US military films made about that time, the MAJOR theme is teamwork--most notably the power of the group over the individual. However, the film manages to be both entertaining and fun--with a very rousing finish. So, despite following formula, it does so very well.