Not a very imaginative or subtle story but it's full of movement and adventure. McLaglen is a Chief Boatswain's Mate on a Coast Guard cutter in the north Atlantic, conducting periodic ice patrols and searching for dangerous ice bergs. Preston Foster is a low-ranked enlisted man who becomes interested in McLaglen's daughter, Ida Lupino. McLaglen is angry because he wants Lupino to marry a bright young enlisted man headed for officer status.
On a berg, the nice young man is accidentally killed while McLaglen and Foster are having a fist fight. Both men are court martialed. McLaglen is busted down to Boatswain First Class and decides to resign out of pique. Foster winds up in the brig but busts his way out in order to join a rescue group on a dangerous assignment. Both perform heroically and save half a dozen yachters in jeopardy. However, after Foster is saved, the rescue apparatus collapses and McLaglen is left alone on the wrecked yacht as it slips beneath the stormy seas.
It's not a bad movie. It's B level, true, but effectively directed. The performances vary a good deal. Ida Lupino has never looked better and she delivers the goods. McLaglen's range was limited but this role was within his limits and he blusters his way manfully through it, though without any of whatever texture he brought to his award-winning role as Gypo Nolan in "The Informer," two years earlier. Just before the ocean gushes into the dying yacht's saloon, the drenched and grinning McLaglen pops open a bottle of champagne, up ends it, shouts, "Put it on the slate!", then is demolished by the waves. He was good at that sort of thing.
I don't know about Preston Foster. He was always professional but never quite seemed the leading man. Perhaps his best role was as the avuncular priest in "Guadalcanal Diary." The film isn't really worth much analysis or attention. It was designed to be a crowd pleaser and it probably got the job done. There are interesting scenes of ships at sea -- the model work is pretty good for the period -- and some exciting action during the scene on the foggy ice berg and aboard the doomed yacht.
It's curious that McLaglen's rank of Chief Petty Officer is consistent with his age and experience, while Foster's uniform indicates that he has spent between four and eight years in the Coast Guard and still is a non-rated seaman. His highest rank couldn't be any greater than E-3. I suppose promotions were slower during the Great Depression.
Just a few other observations. The international ice patrol was established after the Titanic disaster and discontinued after aircraft and radar were able to do a better and faster job. Also, when the distress call comes into headquarters from the yacht "Mona," subtitles gives us the translation of the Morse code. The subtitles are accurate -- word for word.
Not worth seeking out but diverting.
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