Men Without Women

Directed by John Ford, Men Without Women follows the crew of a submarine as they prepare to board their ship and, eventually, attempt to survive in the face of a calamitous disaster. Filmmaker Ford, working from Dudley Nichols’ screenplay, delivers a watchable (albeit entirely forgettable) drama that never quite becomes as engrossing or spellbinding as one might’ve anticipated, although, by that same token, there’s little doubt that the picture boasts its fair share of engaging sequences and interludes – with, for example, the subplot involving a panicky sailor certainly injects the proceedings with short-lived bursts of off-kilter excitement. It’s clear, as well, that Men Without Women benefits from a period inclusion of admittedly striking visual elements, including an opening stretch set at an impressively lengthy bar, while the movie’s third act possesses a poignancy and tension that ensures it concludes on a fairly positive note. The movie’s relative failure, then, is due predominantly to a wheel-spinning midsection that contains few attributes worth wholeheartedly embracing (eg it’s a lot of rather tedious problem-solving and in-fighting, ultimately), which does, in the end, prevent Men Without Women from packing the consistently stirring punch that Ford is clearly aiming for.

** out of ****