Away All Boats

A bit of a slog, is 'Away All Boats'. I never quite felt the intended high stakes of the film, except right at the end when events reach the final destination - which is the only noteworthy part of the film. Aside from that, the whole plot just comes across as one whole training exercise as opposed to a war-torn trip across the Pacific Ocean. Jeff Chandler is fairly good in his role, though those behind him kinda just mesh into one character in my mind to be honest. Clint Eastwood features in the absolute definition of a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance - in the penultimate 'uncredited' (exc. cameos) role of his career. This 1956 picture isn't one to rush off and watch, unfortunately. I was hoping for something more along the lines, if not an improvement, of 'The Battle of the River Plate' - which was, in fact, released roughly two months after this.

Jeff Chandler may have had top billing, but most of this film belonged to my peplum hero "Lex Barker" in the supporting role as "Cmdr. Quigley". Chandler, never an actor I rated in anything really, is the captain ("Hawks") of a US naval support ship. He wanted command of a cruiser, but he got this - and boy, is he determined to make sure he gets noticed. He drives his crew to breaking point with faster drills, speedier launches, target practice until, in the best tradition of Captain Bligh, they loathe him - he even maes them make him a sailing dinghy (aptly named "Albatross"). As their exercises in the Pacific start to morph from training to the real thing though, they begin to respect his visionary attitude a bit more and coupled with his experienced sidekick "MacDougall" (George Nader) this ship becomes a pretty cohesive unit. It plods. No other word for it. This film does feature some interesting seaborne photography, but the dialogue - of which there is way too much - is far too earnest and completely lacking in humour or humanity to sustain the interest for all but two hours. It's more of an all-male melodrama (save for a few reminiscences from Julie Adams' "Mrs MacDougall") that features for too little action until a brief lively spell at the end with some good aerial combat scenes that finally inject a degree of peril into this otherwise rather dull piece of cinema.