Grade: C-
Synopsis: On a boat to the Orient, a disgraced Army officer (Humphrey Bogart) becomes involved with a shady professor (Sydney Greenstreet), and a mysterious woman (Mary Astor).
Across The Pacific should have been a different movie. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor forced filmmakers to rewrite the script at the last minute and change the setting from an American Naval base in the Pacific to the Panama Canal. Once the rewrites were complete, John Huston began directing the film, only to leave midway through production to make war documentaries for Army. Vincent Sherman ended up finishing the picture. Given all this turmoil, it’s a wonder the picture didn’t turn out worse.
Much of the blame can fall on the script. It’s clearly a patched together piece, as the first half plays out like a mystery before abruptly shifting to a wartime actioner at the halfway mark. It’s also very talky. Across the Pacific uses exposition as a crutch, and suffers because of it.
At least the performances are enjoyable, if a bit soft. Bogart, Greenstreet and Astor are all fine enough, but their roles simply lack the edge they had in their last collaboration, The Maltese Falcon (1941).
Bottom Line: Maybe with a single director and a tighter script this could have been something special, but as it stands, it’s a disappointment.
