Crosswinds

"Crosswinds" is a very enjoyable adventure and mystery set in the South Pacific around what then was colonial New Guinea. It was under Australian administration following WW II. Filmed in color, with sea and maritime scenes shot on the coast of Florida, this film has a small cast but some popular leads and supporting actors of the day. It doesn't take long to realize how the title fits the story perfectly.

This is a fine mixture of intrigue, mystery, jungle action, romance and light comedy. When Steve Singleton sails his primo schooner into a New Guinea port looking for freight hauling or other business, he has no idea that he would become mixed up in a gold-theft plot with more double-crossing characters than one could shake a stick at. John Payne's Singleton soon learns that he can trust no one.

The intrigue involves plot twists, arrests, double-crosses, a missing plane with a huge gold shipment aboard, a dead pilot, hostile natives, rescue of the female lead as hostage, some jungle fighting, and romance. The latter develops with Katherine Shelley, played by Rhonda Fleming. She works for the company that transports regular shipments of gold in the region. Nick Brandon, played by Robert Lowery, is the company pilot. He had served in the war with Singleton and had double-crossed him once before.

Forrest Tucker is Jumbo Johnson, an American who knows his way around the area. He has plotted a gold hist with Brandon. But first he pulls a double-cross on Singleton that gets him jailed and his beautiful schooner put on the auction block to pay his fine. Naturally, Jumbo winds up with the boat. Things go awry in the gold theft plan, and that leads to most of the action and rest of the story. After Brandon ditches his plane in an inland lake - with plans for them to recover the gold later, he is killed by natives. Shelley had flown with him that day and was captured by the tribe.

Two Englishmen appear on the scene, having mysteriously lost the skipper of the small motor-powered craft they are on. The two are known con-men by the authorities, but not yet of anyone else. Alan Mowbray and John Abbott are hilarious in their parts as Sir Cecil Daubrey and Algernon Mousey Sykes. They are the way that Singleton is able to get transport to find his boat and eventually become part of the gold discovery plans. But after they see Brandon's body float by in a canoe with a spear in his back, they first have to rescue Shelley.

The fun ramps up with double-crosses among double-crossers, another encounter with the natives to escape the area, and sailing back to civilization. But who will make it to the end, what will happen to the gold, and what will the future be for these characters? It's a very fun film to watch.

Here are some favorite lines from this film.

Katherine Shelley, "I heard the music, so I put two and two together and said to myself... mmm, you're cooking pancakes." Steve Singleton, "You don't make sense, but you've got a pretty good sniffer."

Katherine, "See, you are running away." Steve, "From what?" Katherine, " From the world."

Sir Cedric Daubrey, "Well, let's go somewhere where the ears of the cockroaches are not so large."

Steve Singleton, "The first sign of a double-cross from you two cockroaches and I'll pin faces with Johnson against you."

Sir Cecil Daubrey, " Whereas Mousey and I were two against one, we are now distinctly in the minority. I don't think you have to doubt our love and affection."

Algernon 'Mousey' Sykes, "I never had the benefit of anyone at Oxford, but we think alike." Sir Cecil Daubrey, "That, I question. Let's say that objectively we are working toward the same end."

Sir Cecil Daubrey, "I do rather pride myself on employing a certain integrity in my skullduggery."

Sir Cecil Daubrey, "Cheating the government isn't stealing. It's a national pastime."

Singleton, "Unless a man wants to live on dried fish and coconuts, he has to run away form the world between jobs."

Jumbo Johnson, "Your partners?" Singleton, "Sure. Two of the scummiest waterfront rats that ever put a knife in a man's back You'd like 'em, Jumbo. They're just your type."

Jumbo, "Singleton, before we bring up these last two bars, I'd like to make you a proposition." Singleton, "It'll be crooked, but I'm listening."

Singleton, He wants to make a deal with me to freeze out you and Sykes." Sir Daubrey, "Understandable. Did you?" Singleton, "Well, I told him I'd like a little time to think it over. You see, I've had other offers." Daubrey, "Mousey?" Singleton, "Surprised?" Daubrey, "Not at all. I was about to make you an offer myself." Singleton, "I was rather hoping you would."