Away All Boats (1956)

Jeff Chandler may have had top billing, but most of this film belonged to my peplum hero "Lex Barker" in the supporting role as "Cmdr. Quigley". Chandler, never an actor I rated in anything really, is the captain ("Hawks") of a US naval support ship. He wanted command of a cruiser, but he got this - and boy, is he determined to make sure he gets noticed. He drives his crew to breaking point with faster drills, speedier launches, target practice until, in the best tradition of Captain Bligh, they loathe him - he even maes them make him a sailing dinghy (aptly named "Albatross"). As their exercises in the Pacific start to morph from training to the real thing though, they begin to respect his visionary attitude a bit more and coupled with his experienced sidekick "MacDougall" (George Nader) this ship becomes a pretty cohesive unit. It plods. No other word for it. This film does feature some interesting seaborne photography, but the dialogue - of which there is way too much - is far too earnest and completely lacking in humour or humanity to sustain the interest for all but two hours. It's more of an all-male melodrama (save for a few reminiscences from Julie Adams' "Mrs MacDougall") that features for too little action until a brief lively spell at the end with some good aerial combat scenes that finally inject a degree of peril into this otherwise rather dull piece of cinema.