Robert Aldrich's second feature as director is his first real "Aldrich" picture - he used many of the cast and crew from the China Smith TV series he'd worked on and was one of the producers. Many of the crew would work on his later films - especially DOP Joe Biroc whose style is all over this, with weird camera angles and characters having sweaty faces. Writer Hugo Butler uses a flowery dialogue style that Aldrich would often use.
It's a pretty entertaining picture. I was never sold on Dan Duryea as a star - far better in support roles, particularly villainous - but it was low budget and he's fine. There's a strong support cast including Nigel Bruce in his last film, Gene Lockhart excellent as a villain, Marian Carr interesting as the femme fetale who Duryea touchingly loves, Patric Knowles good as her slimy cousin (I never liked Knowles much but I didn't mind him here).
It's set in backlot Singapore which I always like. The story revolves around kidnapping a scientist. There's plenty of betrayal and double cross and I thought this was pretty good.
No comments:
Post a Comment