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John Wayne takes on the mantle of a Swedish sailor embarked on a freighter carrying a cargo of high explosives from the USA to the UK at that start of WWII. His "Olsen" character is maybe the most stable of the crew aboard the vessel as at least he has an home and an elderly mother to go home to. Just about everyone else on the ship is truly rudderless. They live their lives staving of the peril and the loneliness by drinking as much rum as they can lay their hands on and availing themselves of any ladies who will deign to come aboard. It's a tight community and though they fight and bicker, sometimes quite violently, they do look out for each other. They are led, after a fashion, by the wily "Driscoll" (Thomas Mitchell) but there is also Ward Bond, Barry Fitzgerald and Ian Hunter amongst their number who also have to deal with a gamut of emotions not often portrayed by men in Hollywood movies. There's a prevailing humanity in this John Ford adventure that's not so much an action on the high seas story as a psychological analysis of just how permanently toxic conditions can affect the mind sets of even the strongest of characters - and, let's face it, none of these men are exactly that! It also delivers quite a salutary lesson in just what constitutes masculinity in the face of prolonged uncertainty and is entirely devoid of any semblance of romance - unless you count Mildred Natwick's duplicitous "Freda" towards to end! It's quite a thoughtful piece that's maybe not quite what you'd expect.
2025-01-15Where to Watch:
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