Across the Pacific (1942)

[7]

Maltese Falcon cast mates Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, and Sydney Greenstreet reunite with director John Huston for this wartime espionage flick. Bogart plays a dishonorably discharged army captain who catches passage on a Japanese steamboat headed for the Panama Canal. While on board, Bogey strikes up interesting and entertaining relationships with two other passengers played by Astor and Greenstreet. None of the characters seem to have anything in common, but that’s part of the trick Across the Pacific seeks to play on its viewers. No one is who they seem and their interests are certainly entangled in a way that has global impact.

To say too much about the story would ruin the fun of it. I enjoyed the film’s defiance of formula and not knowing (at least for a long while) where the characters’ allegiances lay. I didn’t even know the film was duping me until about halfway through. And it was already entertaining enough up to that point, with Bogart and Astor displaying remarkable comedic chemistry in their many scenes together. This is perhaps the most beguiling Greenstreet performance I’ve seen — you want to like him, but you also know you should probably keep him at arm’s length.

Normally, I don’t like movies that pull twists out of left field and jerk audiences around, desperate to surprise them. But Across the Pacific does it organically and manages to stay character-driven through its twists and turns. Between the star power and the mystery, I was far more hooked than I thought I’d be.