A great flag waver, especially at the end, when Humphry Bogart, as Lt. Rossi, gives an appropriate speech. He had taken over as the de facto commander of the lightly armed Liberty ship Seawitch after Major Jarvis((Raymond Massey) had been incapacitated by enemy fire. Well into the film, after having been blown out of the water by a U boat, the officers were given the new ship to try again. They joined a convoy of merchant ships out of Halifax, each given a particular position to be maintained throughout the transit, if possible. The convoy was taking the northern route across the Atlantic, to the Russian port of Murmansk, on the Barents Sea: an indentation of the Arctic Ocean. They were bringing supplies badly needed for the war effort. Of course, during the transit, the convoy was attacked by a wolf pack, and a number of ships, as well as U boats, sunk. You feel the constant fear of being blown up by a U boat, or occasionally a German light bomber. The Seawitch is separated from the convey during the main attack of the wolfpack, and battles one particular sub, along with a couple of light bombers. Rossi has a very risky trick up his sleeve to hopefully induce the U boat to surface within firing range. Previously, he had a trick to make the U boat think the ship had vanished, at night.

Action in the North Atlantic is an interesting film about the US merchant marine during World War II.It chronicles the adventures of a Liberty cargo ship delivering war supplies from the US to Murmansk in the Soviet Union while evading German U-boats. Humphrey Bogart plays the second in command on the ship, the rest of the cast is made up mainly of a few fellow officers and the crew who are there for some comic relief.The production values are pretty decent with some good model work and a full size mock up of a Liberty ship as the backdrop. The tension is constant as the men face an uncertain fate on their journey across the ocean.Given this was made in 1943, the film is packed full of patriotism and propaganda but it is simply a product of its times. An interesting watch.

"Action in the North Atlantic" was a disappointing, predictable, trite propaganda film. I can only assume that Humphrey Bogart did this movie out of patriotism, for this is no Casablanca or Maltese Falcon.There isn't really a plot, I cannot imagine how one could even write a spoiler about this movie. After the first ten minutes you know the rest of it. It essentially glorifies the US effort to deliver logistics across the Atlantic, but does not in any way expound on this objective (other than that it's a good thing that we deliver).The acting is contrived and formula-like, the minor characters frequently get on political soapboxes; pontification about God, country and President Roosevelt abound.I'd recommend this movie only in the context of seeing how Hollywood supported the US war effort.

My grandfather fought in the U.S. Merchant Marine and lost half a finger while at it, so I perked up when I saw that this film focused on these oft-forgot veterans of WWII. There sure aren't many films about them. In fact, they weren't even given the right to be buried as war veterans until 1988, when President Reagan signed the bill.And happily, it's a solid, interesting film. It doesn't shy away from showing how vulnerable these ships were, how many casualties they could take. Real attention is paid to individual members of the crew. Each one comes from a different walk of life, and they have their own views on the war and whether or not they want to be here. Raymond Massey does a fine job as the experienced, honourable captain, and Bogart takes a break from his dark, cynical characters to play the friendly and wise first-mate. He's still Bogart, of course -- a number of his lines have some of the trademark eloquent wit that he was given in his previous movies (such as Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon). He's worldly-wise, but not grim or disillusioned. He's a bit of a womaniser, but perhaps is not as loose as he pretends to be. He's firm and doesn't believe in nonsense, but has none of the hard cruelty or anger that comes out in his noir or "insane" role (i.e. Treasure of the Sierra Madre). He's as likable and dependable as ever. The other performances range from blandly adequate to quite good, with Alan Hale being as wonderfully likable and friendly as ever as the curmudgeonly comic relief. (love a good alliteration there, heh) The film is quite long, surprisingly. It takes its time to do scenes right, and give things weight. Only one element of the story was rushed, that being Bogart's romance. It doesn't last long, and is rather superfluous anyway. But the film never dragged too much. It could have been trimmed in some areas, but does not suffer badly for it.The special effects are quite impressive, actually. They must have used models for the ship and submarine battles, but darn if they don't look good. There is one shot in particular, near the end: a boat is ramming a surfaced submarine, and the impact is filmed from underwater. It is absolutely convincing, and very dramatic.And yes, it is a patriotic film, though not a fake or overbearing one. These men knew what they were fighting for, and in the movie they talk about it quite a bit. At one point, Bogart expresses the main reason why the experienced merchant mariners keep voluntarily returning to their ships instead of taking constant leave to be with their families. The essence of it is this: "We've spent a lot of time around Nazi ports, and we've seen what they're doing." Keep in mind, this movie was made in 1943, before the full horrors of the Holocaust were known. The Allies didn't know all that was happening yet, but they knew enough to be sure that it had to be stopped.This is not an extraordinary classic, but it is a very fine film, and a good one.