Across the Pacific (1942)

Director: John Huston

Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Syndey Greenstreet, Charles Halton, Victor Sen Yung, Roland Got

More info: IMDb

Tagline:

Plot: Rick Leland makes no secret of the fact he has no loyalty to his home country after he is court-marshaled out of the army and boards a Japanese ship for the Orient in late 1941. But has Leland really been booted out, or is there some other motive for his getting close to fellow passenger Doctor Lorenz? Any motive for getting close to attractive traveller Alberta Marlow would however seem pretty obvious.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Oh, yes!

ACROSS features a lot of people involved with THE MALTESE FALCON made the previous year and that's a good thing. Director Huston is back along with Bogart, Astor and Greenstreet; all of which are superb as if riding the high of FALCON's success, having a great time getting the band back together. The writing is sharp, the dialogue is fast, Bogart delivers it with machine gun speed, Astor takes it and throws it back just as quick (and she's hilarious), Greenstreet dominates every scene he's in (FALCON was his first film role EVER! This was his third), Victor Sen Yung is cool as hell with his 40s hip persona and manner of speaking, the pacing barely lets up and it flies by like nothing and Bogart saves the day by single handily thwarting the bombing of the Panama Canal! All of that in 97 short minutes.

Check out Victor Sen Yung in his first scene, Daddy-O...

WATCH HERE

Hear any sexual innuendo in this clip? At this point it should go without saying but I'm saying it anyway...Mary Astor needs to have my babies!

WATCH HERE

The stern going up and down, the mast? Hmmmmm. Stupid YouTube for not allowing me to embed my own damn videos!

I really dug this flick. It was fun from start to finish and it's got Bogart in fun mode. It's clear he was enjoying the hell out of making this picture and that makes it all the more fun for the audience. Bogart had found his on screen persona by this time and it's smooth sailing from her on out. Now go watch it.