Despite plenty of wartime propaganda and the usual amount of clichés and other staples of WWII action melodramas, ACTION IN THE NORTH Atlantic is given a boost by some of the best staged action scenes ever featured in a Warner Bros. movie of that era.

The realism is startling considering that special effects then included no computer engineering. The script is basically the story of U.S. Merchant Marine survivors of a battle determined to sink the ship that ruthlessly cut into their lifeboat. The climax has them getting their revenge on the Germans after a fierce battle that concludes with the Americans and their farewell ceremonies to shipmates killed during battle. Bogart is given some flag-waving lines to read and the film concludes with a commentary using FDR's voice to salute the Merchant Marines and their contribution to the war effort.

Lloyd Bacon directs with a firm, vigorous treatment of all the battle scenes and only occasionally does the film slow down when dealing with the domestic front. Julie Bishop does a nice job as Bogart's girlfriend and later wife, while Raymond Massey shares his domestic homecoming with Ruth Gordon as his wife. But the film's merits are chiefly due to the action sequences, which are by far among the best ever featured in a Bogart film.

Action is what you get here...but don't expect anything deep. Bogart fans won't be disappointed. Dane Clark plays his usual hothead role with gusto and Alan Hale is a welcome addition to the supporting cast.

It's hard to dislike the Warner Brothers' war movies of the 1940s despite any weaknesses they might have had. They are inexpensive, unpretentious, and exciting. And, like most Warner Brothers flicks, they're oriented towards a working-class audience. No fancy philosophizing, no pop psych profundities, no ontological Angst.

"If dis fog gets any thicker we'll have to cut our way through it." "Yeah. A good day to be at home with a blond and a book." "Oh, yeah? When did you loin to read?" "Who said I could read?" "But you said --" (Dissolve) There are the usual familiar faces in this one: Bogart, Massey, Alan Hale, Dane Clark, Sam Levene (great as always).

Basically, the story is that the crew of an American freighter is torpedoed in mid-Atlantic and their lifeboat is rammed by the submarine. Picked up, they later gather and form the crew of a new Liberty ship, the Sea Witch, and assigned to a large convoy destined for Murmansk, USSR. The convoy is attacked by a Nazi wolfpack and scatters. One submarine follows the Sea Witch and radios its position to the Luftwaffe. Two Nazi planes are sent out to strafe and bomb the ship but both are shot down after causing considerable damage to the ship. The airplanes are curiously antiquated looking. I think the models are supposed to represent Heinkel HE 59s. Finally, the skulking submarine surface to shoot it out with the Sea Witch, fooled into thinking the Liberty ship is mortally wounded by a torpedo. (Cf., "The Enemy Below.") The Sea Witch rams the submarine and sinks her and the German crew dies screaming as water pours in.

The men killed at sea are buried with proper ceremony, their names and ranks read off, one by one -- John Murphy, Joe Anderson, Frank Ribetti, Morris Goldberg -- and Bogart after reading the burial service throws in his own two cents worth about how "it could be any one of us lying there." The screenplay is by John Howard Lawson, one of the "Hollywood Ten" who was blacklisted after the war for his membership in the communist party. The Red propaganda is visible to the naked eye. Lawson has the temerity to suggest that Russia and the USA fought on the same side in World War II.

Those Liberty ships, manned by civilian merchant seamen, were really Doozies. The first series was slapped together by Kaiser. It took a few days to build each ship from keel to tiptoptagallant. They were small, unarmed, uncomfortable, and underpowered. They were built in three modules that were then joined, and they had a tendency to come apart at the seams in heavy weather.

And the North Atlantic offers what is probably the lousiest weather in the northern hemisphere. The top speed of the ships was about 12 knots. Nicholas Monserrat, in his memoirs, describes being aboard an escort vessel in a convoy and watching the ships beating against a headwind that reduced their flank speed to that of a man walking.

Anyway, there is a romance thrown in here so Bogart can be married, but it's short, unobtrusive, and unsentimental. And, as in practically unavoidable in films describing duels between ships and submarines, there is as much suspense as there is action. At times the sea is more of a threat than the enemy is. The action scenes, when they come, are fast, arousing, and a little confusing.

As a footnote, the Merchant Marine was not well thought of by the Armed Services because, as civilians, their pay rate was far higher than that of enlisted men. Nevertheless, it was extremely dangerous duty and the percentage of men killed at sea was higher than in any branch of the service.

A good example of Warners' craftsmanship, a simple tale, skillfully done.

Lt. Joe Rossi (Humphrey Bogart) is the second in command of a tanker delivering needed fuel for the war effort. Capt. Steve Jarvis (Raymond Massey) is the hard-nosed veteran in charge. They get sunk by a U-boat. After they return home, Joe joins the Merchant Marine.

I assumed that this would be just one trip where they probably get sunk. All that happens in the first thirty minutes. The action is where the best parts live even if it's mostly miniature work. There is plenty of fire and large sets in the first act. The middle part is setting up the Merchant Marines. It's really a wartime recruitment effort. A better use of the screen time would be to show the men in action. That thirty minutes takes too long. It would be more compelling if the Merchant Marine comes to them while they are in the hospital recovering from the first sinking. They can just jump right onto the next ship. The movie gets bogged down by the minutia of convoy business. The last hour is a good improvement. I know it's a lot of miniature work. The real world footage is worth its weight in gold. Despite the chaos of the action, it's still very compelling. After the chaos, it turns into a cat and mouse game and that's pretty good too.