Warners had a problem in transferring the Robert Carson Sat Eve Post serial to the screen. Original, under title of Aloha Means Goodbye, depicted a spy melodrama on ship that finally reached Hawaii but after the war’s start and studio purchase scripter Richard Macauley had to change things around.
Result is switch of locale from the west to east coast – and the yarn never gets into the Pacific Ocean, despite the title.
After Humphrey Bogart is court-martialed out of the army coast artillery, he shifts to Canada in attempt to enlist in the Dominion artillery. Turned down, he gets passage on a Jap freighter bound for Panama and the Orient.
Although picture does not quite hit the edge-of-seat tension engendered by Maltese Falcon, it’s a breezy and fast-paced melodrama. Huston directs deftly from thrill-packed script by Macauley.
