A fast-moving tale of foreign intrigue set in the port of Macao, on the south coast of China, across the Pearl River Delta from Hong Kong. The convoluted plot involves three newcomers to the region, Robert Mitchum's ex-serviceman on the run out east on account of some domestic trouble back in New York, Jane Russell as a similarly nomadic nightclub singer, looking for a fresh start after a series of failed love affairs and William Bendix as an enthusiastic travelling salesman. However their arrival off the boat is being watched by the local chief of police, who is in the pocket of American crime-boss Brad Dexter who suspects that Mitchum is an undercover cop out to lure him beyond the three mile zone protecting him in Macao.
Dexter has a girlfriend, played by Gloria Grahame, who becomes jealous of Russell after he employs Russell as a singer, but also so that he can keep tabs on Mitchum. The plot thickens as Mitchum and Russell fall for each other, the real cop is revealed and a ploy involving stolen jewellery is instigated to bring Dexter to Hong Kong where he can finally be arrested. After an exciting foot-chase around the dark, deserted docks involving Mitchum and a couple of Dexter's knife-wielding Chinese henchmen, the denouement takes place on Dexter's boat climaxing in a roughhouse fist-fight between Dexter and Mitchum and a reconciliation between Mitchum and Russell which gives Mitchum a cheeky, risqué closing line before the end titles.
The film was a return to Hollywood film-making by Dietrich's celebrated German director of the 30's, Josef Von Sternberg, after a gap of several years and his stylised technique of lighting is evident especially in the night time scenes, although Nicholas Ray, then married to Grahame, was reportedly called in to finish the shoot after Von Sternberg was fired from the production.
The film packs a lot of plot into its eighty minute running time and still finds time to allow Russell to sing a few numbers, notably "You Kill Me" (great name for a torch song) and "One For My Baby" which Sinatra would later make his own. Mitchum and Russell bring their own respective brands of vulnerable machismo and sultry sassiness to their parts as well as the heat in their scenes together. Grahame however seems disinterested in her part but Bendix and Dexter are more convincing as the real protagonists way out east.
An enjoyably entertaining Oriental adventure, what it lacks in budget, it makes up for in style and the charisma of its two undeniably magnetic leads.
