Across The Pacific

1942, Movie, NR, 97 mins

starstarstarstar
With the success of THE MALTESE FALCON under his belt, young director John Huston took on this first-rate espionage adventure, using three principals from his previous film, Bogart, Astor, and Greenstreet. Bogart is introduced as a disgraced ex-Army man who has been court-martialed for selling military secrets, and who boards a Japanese ship bound for the Pacific via the Panama Canal. On board he meets Astor, a fashion designer going to the Canal Zone to visit her father; Greenstreet, a mysterious sociologist returning to his professorial post in Manila, a man who praises the Japanese to excess; and Tong, a silent Japanese passenger who identity is assumed by a replacement when the ship docks in New York. Here the viewer is allowed to see that Bogart is not a callous creature willing to sell his services to the highest bidder, but that his traitorous posture is only a cover for his true role of undercover agent; he has been planted on board to establish a liaison with Japanese agent Greenstreet and to discover what he can about Astor. As in THE MALTESE FALCON, Bogart takes a terrible beating, again at the orders of the sadistic Greenstreet. Yet he goes on to overcome all the odds in a wonderfully impossible ending which brazenly spoofs the spy genre. Good quality fun. leave a comment
Are You Watching?
Across The Pacific
Loading ...
Advertisement

Advertisement