World for Ransom

For some reason, the actors in this film, particularly Dan Duryea, found it necessary to speak as if they were in an amphitheater in "World for Ransom," a 1954 film directed by Robert Aldrich.

If I had to describe this film in one word, I'd say "loud."

Mike Callahan (Dan Duryea) is a good friend of Julian Marsh (Patric Knowles), and is also in love with Julian's wife Frennessy (Marian Carr), who met Julian while boyfriend Mike was away in the service.

Julian is up to something no good, and Mike promises Frennessy that he'll get him out of it and bring him home. Frennessy admits that she's unhappy with Julian, but that she won't be able to leave him and go off with Mike while he's in trouble.

Turns out Julian has involved himself with a man named Alex Pederas (Gene Lockhart), a bad guy, and is part of the kidnapping of a nuclear scientist, one of the three men in the world who know how to detonate the H bomb. They're planning on making some big money. Julian has made a mistake in driving a route where he is well known, and he's been photographed by a street photographer. So there's a panic to get the photo and the negative to cover his mistake.

Others on the board have said this is a template for "Kiss Me, Deadly" and that it also is reminiscent of "The Third Man." I see similar plot elements but that's about it. Comparing this to either film is a stretch.

A good start for Aldrich, who was still in his early career and uncredited for this film. I think he did the best he could given the material.

I taped World For Ransom when BBC2 screened it during the early hours recently. This is the time when they usually show these sort of movies and I found this one quite good.

Set in Singapore, a group of people plot to kidnap a nuclear scientist who is one of only three people in the whole world who knows how to detonate the H-Bomb. We get to see plenty of people being killed, especially during the final scenes. There is also blackmail, double crossing and punch-ups.

The cast includes Dan Duryea, Patric Knowles (How Green Was My Valley, The Wolf Man), Gene Lockhart (Lost In Space star June's dad) and Nigel Bruce (Dr Watson from the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies) in his last movie.

World For Ransom is quite good and is worth checking out.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

Dan Duryea is surprisingly good in this film as something of a stranded wreck of the war making his own way as a kind of combined adventurer and private eye. His best friend is Patrick Knowles, whom he is used to bring out of troubles. Patrick is married to a night club singer, who used to be Dan Duryea's girl before he got lost in Shanghai, and she had to make a living on her own and met the even more risky adventurer Patrick Knowles. Here now he has got mixed up with some international high level crooks who have kidnapped one of the world's leading atomic physicists with the secret of the hydrogen bomb, whom they want to sell to the highest bidder, either the west or the communists. Patrick Knowles finds himself caught up in a cut-de-sac with them with no way out, but Dan Duryea still tries to bring him out. He could have succeeded.

It's an early Robert Aldrich film and definitely a promising prelude to."Kiss Me Deadly", also dealing with smuggling atomic secrets bringing no good to anyone involved, while the lasting credit of this film is the very atmospheric settings in Singapore. It's a noir indeed, but the.perennial thing about all these dark noirs is that they were all made in style. There may be any atrocities and cruelties and terrible crimes going on and being carried through, but there was a dominating style about them all that raised them above any rude and tacky baseness. You must object against the murder of an innocent here, it will sure upset you, and there are other casualties as well, but the style is already Aldrich and subtle enough, pointed out by some very poignant shots.

World For Ransom(1954) is an odd item from filmography of Robert Aldrich as it is not as well known as some of his other movies. This is an overlooked movie that would provide a sketch for Kiss Me Deadly(1955). Dan Duryea gives a very good performance as well as Patric Knowles and Marian Carr. The plot of the film recalls The Third Man(1949) because its also about a friend of the protagonist who may be villainous and the woman who torn between her husband and her friend. It is well paced and filled with action and intrigue. World For Ransom(1954) is an exciting movie by a man who would later do terrific films like Kiss Me Deadly(1955) and The Dirty Dozen(1967).

This film is a bit lower on the production level scale than the James Bond films which were about to follow. Actually two or three levels; but this is Dan Duryea's best film. He gives a really good performance in this one.

The movie has elements of several "commie" films of the late 40s and early 50s during the Joe McCarthy and lovable Roy Cohn period. However, the British have everything well in hand here since the setting is Singapore.

The triangle among Duryea, Knowles and Marian Carr is vaguely interesting as well. Knowles and Carr are shallow and a perfect match for each other. The plot revolves around the kidnapping of a nuclear scientist in Singapore. Duryea and Knowles are working the opposite sides of the street on this one. You can probably figure out how it ends, but it is worth viewing.