I always assumed George Raft's career went into freefall after he left Warners, a studio which made films that he was so ideal for, but actually he hung on as a decent star for a few years freelancing. This in particular was a big hit, making over a million dollars in profit - true, it was at a time when Hollywood was doing gangbusters business, but not every film did that well, so audiences must have still liked Raft.
It's a pretty good little film - a programmer in many ways, but a decent mystery with some beautiful black and white photography and decent direction from Ed Marin. Raft at first seems odd as a sea captain but it's nice to see him in uniform - anyway he doesn't spend much time on a boat, but more poking around night clubs and docks investigating what happened to his father's boat, which has turned up empty and bobbing in the sea Marie Celeste style.
Signe Hasso isn't very good as the mystery girl but Claire Trevor is enjoyable as a gold digging woman. I liked Hoagy Carmichael popping up as an enigmatic cab driver and there's excellent performances from Marvin Miller as a sad sack in love with Trevor (great final scene) and Lowell Gilmore as a suave red herring. I really loved the ending with Miller blubbering his confession and then Margaret Wycherly stepping in to blow him away. It was also fun how Raft uses his sex appeal on Trevor to solve the case (he wasn't able to get away with that much longer.)
I don't want to over praise this - there's too many scenes set in the sunlight when it really all should've been at night or on cramped ships, the romance between Raft and Hasso is so undercooked that when they get together at the end its a surprise, I wish there had been more creepy boat stuff.
But Raft is solid, the film is entertaining. It's easily one of his best later movies and I can see why he persisted on working with Marin.
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