A fine World War II movie, indeed.
What a superb war movie. It's got all the right elements: action, adventure, interesting characters, a couple of love stories, brains versus brawn, patriotism, etc. Plus, you have Humphrey Bogart as the effortlessly cool (I say that a lot huh?) Lt. Joe Rossi. That's delicious buttercream icing on an already fantastic cake. It does what a war movie in 1943 should do: make you hate the Germans and pump your fist in the air when the American prevail. Or in my case, make you clutch your soft blue blanket in fear when the German submarines DARE to fire off underwater torpedos at my beloved American ship. How DARE they?!
And now, a special message from Chris Rock:
(click on the image to watch the video. NSFW)
No matter what a stripper tells you, there's no Robert Mitchum in this Bogie movie.
IMDB and other sources claim that Robert Mitchum has a bit part and one line of dialogue in this movie. Mitchum? Really? I was so excited! I looked and looked and looked and looked for him. Couldn't find him. It was a big fat lie. Mitchum wasn't in the movie at all. I looked through Lee Server's bio of Robert Mitchum and Server devotes a section to 1943 when Mitchum was getting his start in Hollywood playing lots of bit parts. No mention of Action in the North Atlantic whatsoever. Again, it's a big fat lie. Unless you can show me proof, I'm calling this one's bluff. Moral of the story: don't believe everything that IMDB or Wikipedia tells you.
