User reviews

This film is a true classic and one against which many other films of the genre have been judged. This is basically THE representative film of all the World War 2 films made in the 50's. Some of those other films were better than this one, some worse. This film is a middle of the road type film. It has a couple of big stars and a lot of character actors as well....faces you've seen in lots of films, yet you don't know the actors name. LOTS of actors made very comfortable lives doing just this sort of work. Some of those actors eventually became stars, like Richard Boone and Jeff Chandler, but the majority didn't. War films flourished in the late 40's and through the 50's, usually black and white (this one is color), low budget films, but Hollywood churned them out. And people flocked to them. This one is no exception...well done, overall.

AWAY ALL BOATS differs from a lot of war movies at the time . It's shot in colour ( Don't forget that many prestigious war movies from the mid 1950s were still being done in monochrome )and doesn't suffer from the seriously deadpan pseudo intellectualism of many other war films of that period

The setting for the story is on the USS Belinda , a navy transport ( Assualt ? ) ship in the Pacific campaign . It should be pointed out that AWAY ALL BOATS is also a film that doesn't concentrate on action , so don't go into this film expecting massive explosions all the way through because it's a much more thoughtful film than that . We see why discipline is needed , why it's a bad idea to wax a floor on a ship and why aircraft identification is very important , it was very rare in those days for Hollywood to show a friendly fire scene and after seeing this movie you'll feel as though you've just served alongside Captain Hawks

A war film that's possibly more informative than it is exciting but one that has merit

Though frequently melodramatic, this film gives a viewer a good feel for the business of running one of the less glamorous but vital warships of the period. Much of the Navy footage is vivid and convincing. The opening dialogue between the old shipbuilder and the young officer is a memorable dramatic device.

Jeff Chandler's portrayal of Captain Jeb Hawks was an example of just how aloof a captain must be during a time of war. A captain's decision must not be made from friendship but what is best for the ship. Captain Hawks only real companion was a monkey. The men on the ship were almost all rookies that had never fought in a war. Hawks had to prepare them for "life and death" but made many enemies out of the crew because of his harsh techniques. The actual war scenes were very realistic. Overall a fine film to watch.

Interesting movie on a less well known and fairly unglamorous part of the US Navy's efforts in WW2: the amphibious assault ships. Decent plot, though has a few minor unnecessary detours. Good action sequences, well filmed.

Decent performances, by a cast of relatively unknowns (well, unknown to me). Does feature Clint Eastwood in a very minor role. So minor, he isn't credited (except on IMDB). At the time, he was only about one year into his cinematic career. Look out for him at about 1:33 - he has one line.

Away All Boats is directed by Joseph Pevney and adapted to screenplay by Ted Sherdeman from the novel written by Kenneth M. Dodson. It stars Jeff Chandler, George Nader, Lex Barker, Julie Adams, Richard Boone and Charles McGraw. A Technicolor/Vista/Vision production, music is by Frank Skinner and Heinz Roemheld and cinematography by William H. Daniels.

Captain Jebediah Hawks (Chandler) is determined to whip his newly acquired crew into shape aboard The Belinda, a transport ship serving the waters of the South Pacific as the Japanese hone in for the kill.

Standard rank and file war movie of the era here, it looks nice, action is decently put together and is dotted along the narrative at regular intervals. The cast are watchable thesps as well, but it lacks heart in the characterisations as written on the page. The core meat of the story is the emotional hodge-podge aboard the Belinda, as Captain Jebediah rules with an iron fist and his charges respond to varying degrees of annoyance, we await the inevitable bond of men and flag waving histrionics. It just takes too long to develop and when the finale comes, what should be a moment of emotional wallop, comes rather as a merciful release that finally the near two hour movie is over. 6/10

"Away All Boats" is a very good war film that celebrates the work of a WWII Attack Transport ship, the PA 22 'Belinda'. While the ship itself is fictional, it does a great service to the boats just like it-- boats that served with distinction even though they weren't the 'prestige' ships, such as cruiser, battleships and the like. Unfortunately, I'd like to score this one higher but can't...and I'll get to that in a bit.

When the film begins, the new skipper of the ship, Captain Hawks (Jeff Chandler) arrives aboard the Belinda. What follows is the story of how the Captain took a crew of mostly inexperienced seamen and turned them into an efficient fighting force. It follows them from their rocky beginning to their first battles to the ship's, as well as the Captain's, last.

The film is exciting and works well...mostly. I loved how the film humanized the men but also celebrated their exploits in a realistic and exciting manner. BUT, there is a small portion of the film that simply doesn't fit at all and was obviously tossed in later...and had nothing to do with the picture!!! At one point, one of the crew members starts thinking about his wife...and you see a montage with irrelevant footage of one of Universal's newest starlets, Julie Adams. And, for this unimportant and small portion, Adams received billing way above many of the talented actors that actually belonged in the film! I can only assume some bone-headed exec thought 'we got a war movie with only guys...we need a woman in order to attract female viewers' and thus the Adams sequence. Dumb and sad because without it the film would have earned at least an 8. The film is quite well made and tense...and reminiscent of an excellent film made around the same time, "Run Silent, Run Deep".

I saw this movie because I am a huge Clint Eastwood fan and want to see all his movies even his bit parts. Not that this turned out to be a bad movie, but I think it showed its age in a big way. I give it credit for some strong ideas and scenes, but maybe just not being around at that time made it difficult to relate to the style. I found myself having to hold back laughter at some points while still respecting what the story was getting across. The best thing was seeing Clint even if for just a few seconds as a medic!

A bit of a slog, is 'Away All Boats'.

I never quite felt the intended high stakes of the film, except right at the end when events reach the final destination - which is the only noteworthy part of the film. Aside from that, the whole plot just comes across as one whole training exercise as opposed to a war-torn trip across the Pacific Ocean.

Jeff Chandler is fairly good in his role, though those behind him kinda just mesh into one character in my mind to be honest. Clint Eastwood features in the absolute definition of a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance - in the penultimate 'uncredited' (exc. Cameos) role of his career.

This 1956 picture isn't one to rush off and watch, unfortunately. I was hoping for something more along the lines, if not an improvement, of 'The Battle of the River Plate' - which was, in fact, released roughly two months after this.

One of the best WW2 films. There are several reasons why I rate this as only just below the top notch WW2 films. The special effects for the period are excellent, particularly during the kamikaze attacks. You only need to look back to WW2 films from a few years before this (They Were Expendable, Guadalcanal Diary etc) to see the advances that were made in special effects over a short period. The fact that it is not based on one of the more high profile naval vessels such as aircraft carrier, submarine, battleship is also a bonus. The purpose of the transport ships was to land the troops safely at a given point at a given time. They were not glamorous but were critical to the success of island hopping in WW2. The film also shows human frailties as well as strengths such as incompetence, poor officers, even cowardice is hinted at.

The story develops well, and shows the moulding together of a crew to become an effective fighting force. How realistic it is I don't know, but it looks good on film. The fact that there are several character actors well known at the time such as Richard Boone is a bonus.

Some of the scenes are a bit over the top and detract slightly from the quality, but I think this is pretty typical of films from this era. Not sure the scenes between George Nader and Julie Adams add much to the film, but I suppose they do demonstrate that many of the crew were family men and that sacrifices were made by all, not just those directly involved in the war.

Altogether very good though, and a film I shall enjoy watching frequently.

There was a time that I would watch any war movie I could find. A Saturday afternoon on KHQ in Spokane would have either the "Creature Features" or something else innocuous and old, like Away All Boats, a movie that boasted being the most expensive film ever made by its studio or Hollywood, back in 1956.

Having read the book and seen the movie (probably a dozen times), it would be fair to say that it's one of my favorites, the story an attack transport in the Pacific War, captained by a man who wants to command a real warship, but is willing to pay his dues first.

It's all so vanilla, with every darn stereotype you can imagine, only on a big, lumbering freighter instead of in a foxhole. The skipper is wound too tight, the XO can't figure him out, the officers and men hate him, and they're all up to the task when the Kamikazes show up and turn the Belinda into a big, lumbering piece of almost scrap iron.

It is fun watching and identifying all the character actors who man the guns in this classically antiseptic, very '50s, WWII shootemup. The special effects are pretty impressive, what with a lot of the ships the US Navy lent to the film makers still in service. Modern kiddies might groan at the matte photography of Japanese Zeroes hurtling in to smash the Belinda into a blazing hulk, but I still have an image burned (pun intended) in my memory of Jeff Chandler screaming at the oncoming plane, waving as if he could by force of will make the crippled plane and its Jihadist pilot miss, "Get away from my ship, get AWAY from MY ship!"

Strong stuff.

That scene made Away All Boats step up a rung on the quality-meter and makes me recommend it to you, if you can find it in the "classics" section of your larger video store.

A routine World War II movie, "Away All Boats" takes place aboard the "Belinda," a PA-22 U.S. Navy landing-craft transport operating in the Pacific Theater. Written by Ted Scherdeman from a novel by Kenneth M. Dodson, the film purports to trace the ship's life through a series of incidents: from a shaky shake-down cruise to Pearl Harbor, through action in Kwajelein, Saipan, and Guam, to a climactic kamikaze attack off Okinawa. Beginning with a brief aside from John McIntire, who helped construct the ship and hears it talking to him, a largely inexperienced crew stumble through mishaps, which are supposed to be comic, but seem silly and incompetent behavior during wartime. As time passes at sea, the crew grow discontent, and conflicts arise; but these too seem like petty nonsense out of "South Pacific," such as two sailors fighting over a coconut. Somehow, the esteemed captain thinks that building a sailboat with a red sail will solve ship board problems; wonder how many times that idea surfaced during the War.

The lumbering film stars a bevy of ruggedly handsome actors of limited depth, led by silver-haired Jeff Chandler as Captain Jebediah Hawks. Hawks wants to excel, because he has his eye on the captaincy of a cruiser; he emphasizes discipline and pushes the crew to improve the ship's "away all boats" timing. Hawks's Executive Officer is Commander Quigley, played by Lex Barker, who is inexperienced, initially aloof, and generally disliked. The third major role is played by George Nader, who, as Lieutenant Dave MacDougall, was previously a captain in the merchant marine, but accepted a lesser rank to join the Navy and aims to become a captain again; MacDougall is the only officer with a personal life. Keith Andes as Doctor Bell and Richard Boone as Lieutenant Fraser round out the all-white, all-male leads. However, sharp-eyed observers may glimpse an African-American sailor or two, spot an Asian aboard, and catch a young Clint Eastwood.

Doubtlessly aware that women go to movies, and females must be patronized, Julie Adams appears in a gratuitous flashback as MacDougall's wife; although the lovely Adams is always a welcome sight, she has little to do, and the sequence adds nothing but padding to the film. The scene, however, highlights the loneliness of command; the captain appears to have no home life or friends, he generally eats alone, and he adopts a monkey for company. Unfortunately, the captain, like his officers and crew, is a cardboard character, and most viewers will care little about him, although the monkey may have her admirers as the only female besides Adams in the cast.

Filmed in Technicolor by William Daniels and directed by Joseph Pevney, "Away All Boats" is further padded with extensive stock footage played against rousing music by Frank Skinner. After 90 minutes of dull stretches, occasionally interrupted by trite dialog, the film does come alive during an exciting kamikaze attack off Okinawa. Unfortunately, the action is too late to resuscitate the film. With no over-arcing story line to hold the film together and a cast of wooden actors in two-dimensional roles, "Away All Boats" should have been re-titled "Away All Moviegoers."

I first saw "Away All Boats" during the 1950's when I was about 10 years old.

It had similarities with one of my all-time favourites, "Mister Roberts", which was released about the same time. Both films portrayed men and ships in a behind-the-scenes role during the war in the Pacific. But the thespian firepower of actors such as Jeff Chandler, George Nader and Lex Barker hardly raised a flicker when compared to Henry Fonda, William Powell and Jack Lemon in "Mister Roberts" whose performances, along with an inspired script, helped make that film such an emotional rollercoaster.

However the loneliness of command emerged as a key theme in "Away All Boats".

It's the story of the Belinda, an Attack Transport carrying troops to the beachhead during the Pacific War and landing them in landing craft. Like Doug Roberts (Henry Fonda) in "Mister Roberts, the commander of the Belinda, Captain Jebediah Hawks (Jeff Chandler) yearns for an assignment aboard a frontline fighting ship. In fact most of the characters seem to want to be doing something else - in the beginning anyway.

Maybe Jeff Chandler's stiff persona suited the character of the Captain who is aloof and awkward with his officers and crew.

George Nader always played serious, but he was a very ripped-looking guy back in the day when actors didn't necessarily have personal trainers or bench press at the gym. Nader played Lieutenant Dave MacDougall, the sort of officer that was best described in "The Caine Mutiny" as, "...the fireball, the guy who gets things done; there's one on every ship".

Although the special effects can't compete with a film such as 2019's "Midway", they still give the eerie sensation of blazing kamikazes heading straight for us as the Belinda takes part in the Battle of Okinawa, surely one of the most terrifying battles ever.

The movie was made in an era when film companies could photograph the army and marines on manoeuvre - unfortunately between wars as it turned out. Real ships that had served in WW2 also gave the film a look of authenticity that contrasted with the flatness of scenes shot in the studio

If it does anything, "Away All Boats" gives an insight into how the US Navy trained that vast force of mainly inexperienced men to perfect those epic amphibious landings in the Pacific.

Wartime story, actually made eleven years after the war had ended. We are told right at the beginning that their mission is to deliver boats full of men right into enemy territory. A new ship, with a mostly new crew. And an unpopular exec officer. All the usual navy battle gags. Lots of wartime footage. It's okay. Script needed tuning up to remove the really silly stuff. The locations on imdb include the virgin islands. The trivia section appears to confirm that they actually did join a military drill occurring there at the time. Another interesting thing I hadn't seen used before is the paravane. A very specific tool used to detect and move mines away from the ship. At which point a sharp shooter can destroy it! Clearly they weren't allowed to talk about this in the actual wartime films. Directed by joe pevney. He also directed numerous episodes of star trek. Chandler died young at at 42.

Away All Boats is a nice war picture about the captain and crew of a Navy transport ship in World War II. Jeff Chandler is all navy and the total professional as he takes command of the USS Belinda and whips the crew and the ship into professional fighting trim.

But command is a lonely business and the captain is slowly broken down both physically and mentally. In a way, Chandler's Jebediah Hawks is the antithesis of the Captain in Mister Roberts. Chandler is also in one of the less glamorous parts of the Navy, but even as a disciplinarian, he commands respect in a way that James Cagney in Mister Roberts never could and never will.

Chandler gets good support in this film from the rest of the cast which includes such professionals as Richard Boone, George Nader, Lex Barker, and Charles McGraw.

Good war picture, I highly recommend it.

I have watched this movie countless times and still rate it as one of the best to ever come out of Hollywood. Jeff Chandler is superb in his leadership role, and one has to feel touched by his loneliness, trying to play the role of leadership and friend. George Nader did an outstanding job in support along with a star-studded cast of Julie Adams, Lex Barker, Keith Andes, William Reynolds, Don Keefer, Jock Mahoney and everybody else who participated in this movie. The photography was well ahead of it's time with the battle scenes and beautifully filmed in every way. A must to see, and always looking for re-runs.

Away All Boats is a World War II movie about men at sea. The first time I watched it, I thought it was rather slow moving. I've now seen it 5 times, and it gets better every time. I catch something new each time I watch it. I'm looking forward to seeing it again. How did I miss so much the first time I saw it? I now love the pace of this movie and see that it is well suited to telling the story. The photography is great and sometimes even spectacular in Away All Boats. There are also some nice moments of humor in this movie. I recommend this one. 8/10.

The ship that served as the "Belinda" in the movie was a sister ship to the one I served on in the Pacific Amphibious Force in the 1960s. She is a World War II Victory Class Attack Transport who main battery, as the Captain said, are her boats (we carried 26). The ships in one of the scenes with the sailing craft were all Atlantic Amphibious Force ships. The USS Sandoval (APA-194) was the "Belinda". The five inch gun, seen firing in the air attack scene, is at the USS Alabama (BB-60) Memorial along with the five inch guns off of other attack transports. When I see this movie I can see my own ship of so long ago. I hope those who see this movie will understand a little better what was involved in the over-the-beach invasions during World War II. Jeff Chandler did a good job of portraying a Captain who's job it was to put a new ship into commission and get the crew prepared for combat. A great many of the officers of these ships were Naval Reservists, some with merchant marine background as is the 1st Lieutenant in the movie, so many of them had years at sea and had commanded ships of their own. Thrown into active naval service they sometimes, as shown, hold a little resentment at being told what to do. The Executive Officer was shown to be, at best, lazy or uninterested. He comes around and volunteers for a hazardous duty which earns the admiration of the 1st Lieutenant. Overall, the movie was well done and, for the reasons stated above, believe it would be worth viewing by the younger generation.