MOVIEGOER

Ably abetted by the triple threat team which placed "The Maltese Falcon" tops on last winter's entertainment bill, director John Huston has turned a routine espionage film into one of the fastest, most exciting pictures of the year. Unlike the "Falcon," "Across the Pacific" will not make movie history. Its plot and script, dashed off on a typewriter far less subtle than Dashiel Hammett's, are standardized portions of spy melodrama. The usual number of dead bodies up tortuous alleys combines with some amazingly handy Johnny-on-the-spot acts to make for a film which in other hands might have been only a better than average second feature.

But Huston's direction integrates the best in the techniques of Hitchcock and Welles to produce a picture which never falters. Even in the role of a government agent Humphrey Bogart loses none of his suave rapacity, and his characterization of an Army sleuth hoists the picture over many implausible bits of plot. With Nomura's grin still pacifying Washington, Bogart tracks Jap saboteurs in a wild chase from Canada to Panama. Ships, lonely docks, subway pursuits, and airplanes are all standard paraphenalia to this cast, which seems equally at home on land, on the sea, and in the air. Mary Astor, as the girl who's always there when the shooting starts, is always attractive scenery. The fact that she can act with the best of a strong cast does not weaken the film. Sydney Green Street, hugely imposing, is the perfect villain of the piece. To say that he plays a large part in its success is not a redundancy.

Whether or not you're a Terry-and-the-Pirates fan, you'll enjoy this picture. On the surface it has just substituted the Oriental face and accent for the Tentonic, but between the scenes of gun battles and pursuit are dramatic interludes which for their intensity and independence of melodramatic props are reminiscent of the best of the "Falcon." So whether you like your thrills plain or salted, "Across the Pacific" is more than a good way to waste an evening.