6/10
The Battle Cry Of The South Pacific!
7 March 2014
Away All Boats is directed by Joseph Pevney and adapted to screenplay by Ted Sherdeman from the novel written by Kenneth M. Dodson. It stars Jeff Chandler, George Nader, Lex Barker, Julie Adams, Richard Boone and Charles McGraw. A Technicolor/Vista/Vision production, music is by Frank Skinner and Heinz Roemheld and cinematography by William H. Daniels.

Captain Jebediah Hawks (Chandler) is determined to whip his newly acquired crew into shape aboard The Belinda, a transport ship serving the waters of the South Pacific as the Japanese hone in for the kill.

Standard rank and file war movie of the era here, it looks nice, action is decently put together and is dotted along the narrative at regular intervals. The cast are watchable thesps as well, but it lacks heart in the characterisations as written on the page. The core meat of the story is the emotional hodge-podge aboard the Belinda, as Captain Jebediah rules with an iron fist and his charges respond to varying degrees of annoyance, we await the inevitable bond of men and flag waving histrionics. It just takes too long to develop and when the finale comes, what should be a moment of emotional wallop, comes rather as a merciful release that finally the near two hour movie is over. 6/10
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