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Ishmael · 03-06-07, 06:32 PM

My father and his friend saw this movie in Northern Nebraska in late 1943 as merchant seamen on the way from New York to San Francisco. I wrote about it in the general forum at the following location:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...rtent+pacifist

Read the story, it's pretty funny.

I watched it for the first time about a year ago and found it interesting on a couple of levels. I had heard my father's story many times over the years before actually seeing the film. I found the dialogue of the crew pretty close to what I knew from my father, grandfather & their friends. On the other hand, the general plot was a typical wartime propaganda film of the genre with merchant seamen substituting for other troops against a sadistic and ruthless enemy. What got my Dad & his friend were probably the scenes of an old Liberty tub slewing around the ocean like a destroyer. The reason it was kept in the vaults all those years is that it showed the Russians as our gallant Soviet allies & that was verboten in the anti-communist years. On a side note, I looked it up on IMDB and found that the screenwriter was nominated for an Acadamy award for best original screenplay.

03-06-07, 06:32 PM	#4
Ishmael Seasoned Skipper Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Morro Bay, Ca. Posts: 659 Downloads: 79 Uploads: 0	My father and his friend saw this movie in Northern Nebraska in late 1943 as merchant seamen on the way from New York to San Francisco. I wrote about it in the general forum at the following location: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...rtent+pacifist Read the story, it's pretty funny. I watched it for the first time about a year ago and found it interesting on a couple of levels. I had heard my father's story many times over the years before actually seeing the film. I found the dialogue of the crew pretty close to what I knew from my father, grandfather & their friends. On the other hand, the general plot was a typical wartime propaganda film of the genre with merchant seamen substituting for other troops against a sadistic and ruthless enemy. What got my Dad & his friend were probably the scenes of an old Liberty tub slewing around the ocean like a destroyer. The reason it was kept in the vaults all those years is that it showed the Russians as our gallant Soviet allies & that was verboten in the anti-communist years. On a side note, I looked it up on IMDB and found that the screenwriter was nominated for an Acadamy award for best original screenplay.