A treasury agent becomes obsessed with exposing an international drug ring.
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Reviews
CinemaSerf
6
By CinemaSerf
This is one of those rare movies where the imperious narration provided to reassure the American public that Uncle Sam has their back isn't too annoying. It's provided by Dick Powell who's the Treasury Agent "Barrows" in this standard drug smuggling drama. The authorities know that illicit narcotics are arriving, pretty much unhindered, in California and then permeating throughout the country, but they don't really know how. His suspicions are aroused when a mass fatality at sea convinces him that Shanghai is the place he needs to be. That's where he meets the enigmatic "Ann" (Signe Hasso) of whom he is not at all sure. Quickly he picks up the scent and after travels across the globe, believes himself to finally be on the trail of the ingenious gang. It's based on a real-life investigation and actually delivers quite convincingly as it depicts just how complex and lucrative these clandestine operations were. Powell could always be relied upon to come up with the goods in set-piece affairs like this and here he's helped along by a few studio regulars to create a sense of peril as the denouement builds. Boats are always a good place to base a thriller with their claustrophobic infrastructure and loads of metal for the bullets to bounce off, and though this is easily half an hour longer than anyone needs it to be, it's written and directly tautly enough once it's underway to help each citizen sleep more easily in their beds.
