alexanderdavies-99382
"Across the Pacific" was a film that re-united three actors from "The Maltese Falcon" and was also directed by the same director, John Huston. I didn't realise that Vincent Sherman took over the directing after Huston was drafted into the Second World War. "Across the Pacific" was supposed to have a different ending but the one that was used is very good. Bogart is an American government agent who goes undercover by using a front of being a disgraced Army officer, whilst investigating Sidney Greenstreet who is in league with Japan and who is their ally during the Second World War. Once again, Bogart and Greenstreet are engaged in a battle of wits. Mary Astor doesn't really have much to do and I found her character to be rather irritating. She is much better in "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Great Lie." The film plays more along the lines of being a bit "comic strip" in the way the story unfolds but it is enjoyable all the same. It has a good pace, some intrigue and a thrilling climax. I enjoyed the scene that demonstrated the art of Judo, especially when Bogart is on the receiving end!
drjgardner
Think Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, and Sydney Greenstreet along with John Huston and what do you come up with? "The Maltese Falcon" of course. But think again, because no sooner had Warner Bros created one of the best films of all time, they re-teamed the actors and the director and cinematographer and came up with this piece of flotsam that is hardly worth viewing. Called "Across the Pacific", this 1942 film came out just after the Pearl Harbor attack, so the original script had to be changed from Pearl Harbor to the Panama Canal, although the name somehow stuck.It's nice to see some of my favorite Asian actors at work here, including Richard Loo (Master Sun from "Kung Fu), Keye Luke (Master Po), and Kam Tong (Hey Boy from "Have Gun Will Travel"). But other than that, the film has little value.
rboyter
Most of the cast of The Maltese Falcon is reunited with John Huston and, sadly, a very awkward, dull script attempting to be topical about the Japanese plotting against the US. Mary Astor is terrific and much freer to play an attractive character and flirt with Bogey who is as amusing as the script lets him be (which is not very). Sydney Greenstreet is gloriously oily and sinister as always. The trouble is the script which just isn't up to much either in originality or in good dialogue. Don't get me wrong, I own the movie, but I watch it only about every 5 years or so whereas The Maltese Falcon is a once a year treat, sometimes more often.
cricket crockett
. . . by machine-gunning the heir of an Axis ruler to death while saving a co-equal primary target on Pearl Harbor day, all the while dealing the classiest dame in the vicinity and having better luck this time compared to his closing months earlier in north Afr!ca. Though I personally cannot see what our boys fighting the Axis saw in Bogart's co-star here, Mary Astor, apparently she had a role in another previous effort from Humphrey, THE MALTESE FALCON, along with a fat dude named Sydney Greenstreet, who rounds out a trio reunited for PACIFIC. The idea that main villain Joe Totsuiko (played by Sen Young) is a "nisei," or American-born, Axis operative is perhaps the most racist element of this film, though I am sure those people who drive Hondas, Toyotas, and Nissans because they want to make a public statement apologizing for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to rile up true American patriots at a glance, would find many other instances in PACIFIC to commit hari kari over.
AD
