Across the Pacific

Across the Pacific (1942)

A Warner Bros. Hit !

Rick Leland makes no secret of the fact that he has no loyalty to his home country after he is court-martialed out of the army and boards a Japanese ship for the Orient in late 1941. But has Leland really been booted out, or is there some other motive for his getting close to fellow passenger Doctor Lorenz?

Date of release
1942-09-04
TMDB
6.6 / 10 (90)
Runtime
1h 37m
Genres
Adventure, Thriller, Drama
Director
John Huston

Casting

Interesting facts

Across the Pacific is a 1942 American spy film set on the eve of the entry of the United States into World War II. It was directed first by John Huston, then by Vincent Sherman after Huston joined the United States Army Signal Corps. It stars Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, and Sydney Greenstreet. Despite the title, the action never progresses across the Pacific, concluding in Panama. The original script portrayed an attempt to avert a Japanese plan to invade Pearl Harbor. When the real-life attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, production was shut down for three months, resuming on March 2, 1942, with a revised script changing the target to Panama.

Production

On Dec. 20, 1941, The New York Times reported the sale of Robert Carson's story "Aloha Means Goodbye", which was originally published in The Saturday Evening Post, for $12,500.

After the hiatus caused by the attack on Pearl Harbor, production resumed on March 2, 1942, and filming continued through May 2, 1942 (including retakes). The film opened in New York City on September 4, 1942.

Colonel J. G. Taylor was technical advisor for the court-martial scene that opens the film.

Turner Classic Movies' Bret Wood reports that John Huston created the effect of being on the ocean by having the set of the ship's deck built on a platform supported by hydraulic lifts to keep everything moving. In some of the interior shots, “The camera subtly, almost imperceptibly, edges toward and away from the actors, providing a vaguely disorienting effect that well serves the film's ever-shifting moral ground.”

Adolph Deutsch turned the Engineers Hymn (as played to the tune of “The Son of a Gambolier”) into an evocative theme for the character of Richard Leland (Humphrey Bogart). A few poignant measures of West Point's “Alma Mater” are also heard after the court-martial, when Leland looks at his class ring and puts it back on his finger.

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