MovieChat Forums > Across the Pacific (1942) Discussion > Ending Baffled Me

Ending Baffled Me

posted 17 years ago by woodprinz-2
5 replies | jump to latest

Scene at the plantation: Marlow's dipso dad (Morton) staggers into view; in a struggle for Joe Totsuiko's gun, Joe appears to gutshoot dad a few times; CPT Rerand punches Joe out, and escapes to the airfield. After CPT takes care of business there and humiliates Lorenz, he and Astor hook up affectionately whilst a powerful formation of U.S. patrol planes flies over head.

My Qs: #1 what happened to Joe? I.e. did he run off into the jungle, or did the CPT kill him with that punch? And another Q: #2 How did Marlow's dad fare? Dead at the plantaton house scene, or merely suffered flesh wounds that would permit that happy reunion between the CPT and daughter in the finale? Or did the script forget Joe and him? My choice: Morton and Joe run off together, and later open a Chinese restaurant in Colon. After all, Joe was secretly a Chinese-American (not Nisei), known in real life as Victor Sen Yung!

[–] dim_sumus 16 years ago

Yeh, the ending to this movie is a mess. Rick punches Joe and knocks him out and Marlowe's dad has been shot twice in the gut. But, we have no idea what happened to either of them.

However, it's likely Joe escaped and kidnapped and killed Jimmy Chan who was in Panama working on a cruise ship during summer break from college. Without proper papers he was arrested in put in jail as a suspected spy. Charlie Chan happened to run into him in jail and had him bailed out.

See Charlie Chan in Panama for details.

[–] Skye_Reynolds 15 years ago

The ending is what happens when John Huston goes to war and a less accomplished director takes his place in filming the final scenes.

[–] romarub 15 years ago

Yes, it seemed that Marlowe (Astor) was pretty carefree at the end considering that her father, Morton, had just been shot, and possibly killed. There were no signs of grief or concern, or any explanation as to what happened to the Morton character. Interestingly, this most serious void in the film comes at the very end.

[–] ajgenard 12 years ago

While I don't find this movie bad per se, it's nowhere near "great" given the talent involved in this. The first 2/3 of it is kind of sloppy storytelling with convoluted plot points (some of which are never explained). The last half hour it really picks up, but the ending leaves a lot to be desired. I too was left scratching my head about her father, amongst other things. Seems like he died considering not many people get shot 2 or 3 times and live but if he did indeed buy the farm then Marlowe certainly didn't show it. Just what the hell happened? Anytime I see a movie like this where they leave too many loose ends, that's automatically points off. Bogie, Mary Astor, and Sydney Greenstreet were great though despite the unrefined script.

[–] Jhines01 11 years ago

Released nine months after Pearl Harbor, "Across the Pacific" became a propaganda film to buck up the home front.

It doesn't matter what happened to Joe, Mr Marlow, the Japanese machine gunner that Bogie knocked out with his pistol instead of killing him, or all of the other Japanese guards and soldiers at the plantation.

Once Bogie killed the prince, there was no more reason for any of them to hang around, so they headed for the Japanese submarine waiting for them. Oh, and Lorenz had an appointment with Army intelligence.

The final scene was pure propaganda: hundreds of American aircraft flying over the Panama Canal, symbol of the strength of the Allies who would soon defeat the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis.