World for Ransom

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.

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.

"World for Ransom" is set in Singapore. A gang of crooks have just kidnapped a top nuclear scientist and have done so to auction him off to the highest bidder. Because one of the crooks is a good friend with Mike (Dan Duryea), authorities think he, too, might be involved. But Mike is a standup guy and it takes most of the film to prove he's no communist.

This film is a nice example of Dan Duryea's work as a non-supporting actor or villain...both things he was mostly known for doing. Here he's tough and well cast and the film is never dull. Believable? Perhaps not so much...but it is well worth seeing and is a nice example of Cold War cinema.

Soldier of fortune Dan Duryea finds himself helping out Singapore governor Douglas Dumbrille in tracking down nuclear scientist Arthur Shields -- apparently he knows how to build a working H-bomb and always carries the pieces with him, perhaps as a party trick -- while trying to persuade chanteuse Mariann Carr to leave husband Patric Knowles.

Director Robert Aldrich apparently shot this noirish programmer in 11 days as either a film version of Duryea's "China Smith" TV show, or perhaps an attempt to change his movie image. Duryea had been around for more than a decade, a highly capable actor who seemed most notable playing weak-kneed psychopaths. Perhaps it was his resemblance to Richard Widmark, who made his movie debut playing that sort of character, and who surmounted the typecasting, that held Duryea back. Who needed another Widmark, except as a threat to keep Widmark's price down? There's little doubt that Duryea was a capable performer; sity movies and hundreds of TV apperances demonstrated that. He died in 1968, aged 61.

This is an odd little film that is probably most notable for being the last screen appearance of the avuncular, endearing British character actor, Nigel Bruce. In truth, he doesn't have a great deal to do despite his fifth billing. He plays the British governor of Singapore and has a short scene abut 30 minutes in followed by a lengthier one about 15 minutes later. His role is a sedentary one, sitting behind a desk and instructing millitary types before confronting the chief villain of the piece Gene Lockhart (Miracle on 34th Street/Carousel). He is more than competent but it isn't a role he can shine in. Sadly, too, it was released after his death. The genre is Crime/Film Noir and the plot concerns a shady gang kidnapping a scientist (Arthur Shields; The Quiet Man/The Corn Is Green/National Velvet), who has the knowledge to put a hydrogen bomb together, and ransoming him to the British and her allies or failing that, the communists! It does, sometimes betray its low budget and often looks more like a televsion episode than a feature film. The script is also clunky, at times. The lead is Dan Duryea, unkown to me, but he had a prolific stage career and a long screen resume. He is likeable but is caught acting on a number of occasions and tends to over project his dialogue. He is a Rick Blainesque anti-hero and is caught between a sultry, morally dubious young woman (Marian Carr) and her criminal husband (Patric Knowles; The Adventures of Robin Hood/The Wolfman/ Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman). The action is a bit ho hum until Duryea, in the company of a British Major (Reginald Denny; Rebecca/Sherlock Holmes &The Voice of Terror/Cat Ballou) goes to rescue the scientist at the gang's hideout. A slightly above average effort, then and aside from all the character actors mentioned above there are also roles for Keye Luke (Charlie Chan series of films/Kung Fu/Gremlins) and ex heavyweight prizefighter Lou Nova. Spotting the well known faces is perhaps the chief pleasure in this film. Strother Martin and Patrick Allen also pop up in bit parts.