Jack Palance (Gil Walker), Joan Fontaine (Susan Lane), Corinne Calvet (Nikki), Robert Douglas (Danzer), Marcel Dalio (Goro), Jeff Morrow (Colonel Wier), Richard Shannon (Lieutenant Bill Luzon), Murray Matheson (Franz Kovac), John Doucette (Tirera), John Pickard (Hank Brady), James Anderson (Dullah, Goro's henchman), John Templeton (Luzon's offsider), Peter Coe (Hanrah), Madeleine Holmes (Rosario), John Wengraf (Kalferez), Otto Waldis (spiv who demands money), Jerry Paris (policeman in car), Albert D'Arno, Rene Chatenay, Anthony De Mario (policemen), John George (cart vendor), Eric Alden, Don Dunning (Moroccans), Mark Hanna (corporal at airport), Karin Vengay (Greek girl), Josette Deegan (French girl), Pilar Del Rey (Spanish girl), Rodd Redwing (police orderly).
Director: CHARLES MARQUIS WARREN. Screenplay: Charles Marquis Warren. Film editor: Frank Bracht. Photographed in Color by Technicolor and Natural Vision 3-D by Ray Rennahan. Art director: John B. Goodman and Hal Pereira. Set decorators: Bertram Granger and Sam Comer. Special photographic effects: John P. Fulton. Process photography: Farciot Edouart. Make-up: Wally Westmore. Technicolor color consultant: Richard Mueller. Assistant to the producer: Harry Templeton. Assistant director: Daniel McCauley. Music: Paul Sawtell. Sound recording: Harry Lindgren, Gene Garvin. Producer: Nat Holt.
Copyright 1 November 1953 by Paramount Pictures Corporation. New York opening at the Palace: 24 November 1953. U.S. release: November 1953. U.K. release: 26 December 1953. Australian release: 13 August 1954. Sydney opening at the Victory. 92 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A chartered plane crash-lands in Tangier. But where is the pilot, where's his passenger and, more importantly, what happened to the money he was carrying?
COMMENT: A disappointing 3-D movie on all counts, this "B"-grade pulp adventure in a studio-built Tangiers features acres of talk interspersed with a few mild chases that lazily work up to a feeble, clumsily-handled shoot-out climax.
One of the chief problems, alas, is Joan Fontaine. Her role is not only unconvincing, but superfluous. The film would have been tauter and more suspenseful if her entire role had been eliminated. True, she looks very cool and glamorous, but then the whole movie is beautifully photographed. (It's one of the few 3-D attractions lensed in three-strip Technicolor).
All the same, Jack Palance doesn't look the part of the hero, and Douglas portrays the villain with little of his characteristic zing.
At least Marcel Dalio plays with customary enthusiasm. He is the only one of the leads who seems to benefit from director Warren's constant use of wide-screen close-ups.
Warren's pedestrian direction is compounded by both visual (distinctly tacky sets) and aural impediments, including a Mickey Mouse music score with every minor twist of the ridiculously far- fetched but unfortunately ho-hum plot inevitably heralded by ominous chords.
All told, this picture rates as a thoroughly "B"-class effort. Only at least fifteen or twenty minutes of skillful trimming could salvage some entertainment from Warren's garrulous, dime-novel script which contemporary critics justly described as "pointless", "old- fashioned" and "seedy".
Director: CHARLES MARQUIS WARREN. Screenplay: Charles Marquis Warren. Film editor: Frank Bracht. Photographed in Color by Technicolor and Natural Vision 3-D by Ray Rennahan. Art director: John B. Goodman and Hal Pereira. Set decorators: Bertram Granger and Sam Comer. Special photographic effects: John P. Fulton. Process photography: Farciot Edouart. Make-up: Wally Westmore. Technicolor color consultant: Richard Mueller. Assistant to the producer: Harry Templeton. Assistant director: Daniel McCauley. Music: Paul Sawtell. Sound recording: Harry Lindgren, Gene Garvin. Producer: Nat Holt.
Copyright 1 November 1953 by Paramount Pictures Corporation. New York opening at the Palace: 24 November 1953. U.S. release: November 1953. U.K. release: 26 December 1953. Australian release: 13 August 1954. Sydney opening at the Victory. 92 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: A chartered plane crash-lands in Tangier. But where is the pilot, where's his passenger and, more importantly, what happened to the money he was carrying?
COMMENT: A disappointing 3-D movie on all counts, this "B"-grade pulp adventure in a studio-built Tangiers features acres of talk interspersed with a few mild chases that lazily work up to a feeble, clumsily-handled shoot-out climax.
One of the chief problems, alas, is Joan Fontaine. Her role is not only unconvincing, but superfluous. The film would have been tauter and more suspenseful if her entire role had been eliminated. True, she looks very cool and glamorous, but then the whole movie is beautifully photographed. (It's one of the few 3-D attractions lensed in three-strip Technicolor).
All the same, Jack Palance doesn't look the part of the hero, and Douglas portrays the villain with little of his characteristic zing.
At least Marcel Dalio plays with customary enthusiasm. He is the only one of the leads who seems to benefit from director Warren's constant use of wide-screen close-ups.
Warren's pedestrian direction is compounded by both visual (distinctly tacky sets) and aural impediments, including a Mickey Mouse music score with every minor twist of the ridiculously far- fetched but unfortunately ho-hum plot inevitably heralded by ominous chords.
All told, this picture rates as a thoroughly "B"-class effort. Only at least fifteen or twenty minutes of skillful trimming could salvage some entertainment from Warren's garrulous, dime-novel script which contemporary critics justly described as "pointless", "old- fashioned" and "seedy".