World for Ransom (1954) User Reviews

Rather enjoyable Atomic Age thriller

[chris_gaskin123 · 7/10 · 7 June 2005]

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.

early Robert Aldrich

[blanche-2 · 5/10 · 13 June 2013]

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.

Sets The Stage For Kiss Me Deadly(1955)

[eibon09 · 6/10 · 24 March 2000]

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).

Singapore Sling.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 7/10 · 6 August 2014]

Despite having seen him mentioned in a number of posts on IMDb's Film Noir board,I have somehow never got round to seeing a title by director Robert Aldrich.Taking a look at Film Noir movies released in 1954 recently,I was happy to spot a near-forgotten Aldrich film,which led to me excitingly getting ready to see the world being held for ransom.

The plot:

Singapore-

Heading to a bar, Mike Callahan is gripped by Singapore leading racketeering gangster Johnny Chan.Planning to control the entire rubber industry in the city by keeping his stock hidden in a near by jungle,Chan reveals that he suspects Callahan is up to some dirty tricks,due to Callahan's friend Julian March and psychotic thug Guzik having recently taken over the location.Explaining to Chan that he has not seen his friend for ages,Callahan gets Chan to give him some time to find out what his friend has gotten involved in.

Hoping to find info by meeting Marchs wife (and his former sweetheart) Frennessey March Callahan is shocked to find that Julian has completely disappeared from sight.As Callahan starts to search round the city for Julian,Julian sets his sights on kidnapping one of the world's leading nuclear scientist.

View on the film:

Filmed for 10 days, (with Aldrich taking the odd day off so that he could film some adverts in order to pay for post-production!) on a $90,000 budget and using most of the cast and sets from the TV series China Smith/Captain China,director Robert Aldrich gives the movie a tremendous Asia atmosphere,thanks to Aldrich using stark lights which transform the TV set into a boiling hot Singapore.Along with the heated atmosphere,Aldrich and cinematographer Joseph F. Biroc expertly use mirror shot angles to show the non-ruthless Film Noir world which Callahan desires to be in.

Whilst the screenplay did sadly suffer some cuts from the ratings board, (which included an important lesbian subplot)Lindsay Hardy and Hugo Butler (who was uncredited,due to being blacklisted) is still able to include some sly satirical nods to the Allied occupation of the far East during WWII,and also show themselves to be rather ahead of their time,by keeping away from featuring clichés associated with titles set in Asia at the time.Along with the satirical shots,the writers also create an excellent Film Noir world where Callahan soon discovers that friendships can turn into dusts in mere seconds.

Looking round the smoke filled streets of Singapore, Dan Duryea gives a strong performance as Callahan,with Duryea showing Callahan's war scars to run deep in his murky relationship with Julian.Being Julian and Callahan's object of affection,the very pretty Marian Carr gives a wonderfully icy performance as femme fatale Frennessey March,whilst Patric Knowles gives an extremely charming,brash performance as Julian,with Knowles showing Julian to slowly lose his sanity,as he prepares to hold the world for ransom.

A hampered attempt to get a little edgy, pushing the Asian themes just after Korea

[secondtake · 20 July 2011]

World for Ransom (1954)

This movie is a Robert Aldrich strain. It's not quite raw enough or exotic enough to rise above its low budget, but it's not for lack of trying. One problem is several so-so actors. But the great asset is the one actor who's pushing his limits, not as a film noir lead, but as a guy lost in the shuffle around him and a little at a loss. Dan Duryea. If you don't know him, this isn't the best place to get a sense of his unique, slightly languid, nice boy, sarcastic style. He's wonderful in his own way. And he's the core of the movie.

We are in Singapore. There is an impossibly convoluted plot about hydrogen bomb secrets and a group of thugs out to steal either the secrets or the bomb itself. The chief bad guy is a little improbable, the great character actor Gene Lockhart (the judge in the classic "Miracle on 34th Street"). He's just not bad enough, or interesting enough. One of the good guys is another character actor, the peculiar and wonderful Nigel Bruce (who you might remember in Hitchcock's "Suspicion" with Cary Grant).. The lead female (Marian Carr) isn't quite a femme fatale or a steamy love interest. She's blonde, of course, and good, overall, but she isn't given much to do.

It doesn't mean much to us to know this but this is basically an extension of a television series along the same lines (same sets, same characters) starring Duryea. It has better production values, I hear (probably due to Aldrich) but it's still hampered by its formulaic television roots, for sure.

Oddly for Aldrich the camera-work is often very stable. Everything looks good, great sets and light, but it's static. And the plot keeps barreling along, adding new minor characters from the administration toward the end (just when we've had enough minor characters). There is drama, and the whole affair is slightly raw and slightly exotic. And there are steamy smokey nights and impersonations and cheesy nightclub acts and of course, the bomb, looming every so subtly.

So it's not half bad, Duryea making the most of his role. Could have been great, but a lot of little pieces are not falling into place.

A minor Noir movie from the young director Aldrich!!!

[elo-equipamentos · 7/10 · 29 May 2019]

Unknown early work from Robert Aldrich, who took borrowed from so many Noir genre the private detective for a change, the plot is quite insane, a weird kidnapping of a famous nuclear scientist specialized on H-bomb, then Duryea starts searching for some clues, his former partner who have some ghost to hide, a connection with a powerful business man self-titled as investor should be a hint, the army were in charge to find out the hideout of the gang, but Dan Duryea comes first, the valuable casting as Gene Lockhart, Patrick Knowles, Nigel Bruce, Marian Carr and Douglas Drumbrille weren't able to bring the picture on high path, due so weak storyline, nevertheless has their moments, Duryea endorses that he hadn't any propensity to be a hero, more suitable for a crook's role, that was underlined many years before on those classy Noir!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2019 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7

Simply Dreadful

[ilprofessore-1 · 3/10 · 15 April 2021]

Despite first-rate lighting and camera composition from Joe Biroc and an unusual score by Frank De Vol, this B&W 1954 thriller cannot overcome an endlessly talky incomprehensible script with a convulted plot about an atomic scientist kidnapped in Singapore. As the private-eye adventurer trying to figure this all out, the usually flawless Dan Duryea has been directed by the then fledgling director Robert Aldrich to shout his dialogue at the top of his lungs. Marian Carr as the chanteuse is neither mysterious nor sexy. Just wooden. Some of Hollywood's best character actors, among them Gene Lockhart, Douglas Dumbrille, Reginald Denny, Arthur Shields, Nigel Bruce and Key Luke are wasted in cliché one-dimensional roles, the sort usually played by second-string low-budgets actors. Aldrich, of course, went on to better things. Good for him!

Nigel Bruce's Swansong

[loloandpete · 6/10 · 26 April 2021]

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.

A convoluted mess of a movie.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 26 December 2015]

Too many characters, too many nonsensical plot-twists and an ugly view of post-war political intrigue, this seems forced and too perplexing to enjoy. Certainly a predecessor to the many cold war adventures of the 60's, this one isn't among the list of the classics of that genre. Surrounding lead Dan Duryea are some great character performers, but frankly there are way too many of them which made me lose interest after I recognized them.

Steamy, foggy photography takes the Shanghai setting to mysterious places and if its attractive to look at, its forced at best. Surrounding the kidnapping of a nuclear scientist, this has good intentions but never really gets off the ground. There's of course a seductive femme fatal, Asian girls who speak very Americanized English and enough seedy characters to fill a dozen film noir. Duryea looks much aged and his anti-hero is a bit sleazy. Standing out is veteran villain Douglas Dumbrille and even Dr. Watson himself, Nigel Bruce, in his last film. Among the Asian actors is veteran Keye Luke. Gene Lockhart is typecast as his typical amoral businessman on the the side of the bad guys.

As an early work of director Robert Aldrich, this shows his potential as a filmmaker but lacks in what made him so great later on: complex intrigue and mystery with a touch of the new wave. This lacks even the status of being an interesting failure.

Capable Programmer

[boblipton · 6/10 · 26 June 2021]

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.

Don't pay it.

[st-shot · 4/10 · 9 April 2021]

In between his television series China Smith and The new Adventures of China Smith about a shady gumshoe in Singapore Dan Duryea took time out with China director Robert Aldrich to make this crime drama about a shady gumshoe in Singapore. Unlike the show and a word from its sponsor Ransom is darker with a lot more on the line but overall a convoluted mess with most of the cast in a state of deep torpor, sweating profusely.

The atomic age is upon us and a scientist with rare knowledge is kidnapped and used as a bargaining chip for a big payday by a well bred confident villain (Gene Lockhart). A former army pal (Patric Knowles) of Mike Callahan (Duryea) is a key player in the caper as well as the husband of the woman he loves. Confused and conflicted Callahan spends most of his time making his way through the tawdry labyrinth of backwater Singapore a step ahead of authorities and one behind the culprits.

Duryea is fine as the dissipated Callahan even if a little slow on the draw while the rest of the cast of competent supporting members ( Nigel Bruce, Patric Knowles, Reginald Denny, Douglas Dumbrille) go through the motions while Marian Carr fumbles playing a second rate Dietrich.

Joe Biroc's camera work does offer some striking compositions of Singapore back alleys but much of it is pedestrian as well as the picture meanders to its unsatisfying conclusion on a topic that Aldrich would revisit with acclaim a year later in Kiss Me, Deadly.

Dirty business in old Singapore by night

[clanciai · 8/10 · 8 April 2021]

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

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 10 March 2024]

When acclaimed nuclear physicist "O'Connor" (Arthur Shields) is kidnapped in Singapore it falls to opportunist investigator "Callahan" (Dan Duryea) to try to find him before an auction ensues that will see the poor man fought over by the West and those nasty commies behind the iron curtain. Meantime, he's also amidst a bit of a love triangle with singer "Frennessey" (Marion Carr) who is married to the underwhelming "Julian" (Patric Knowles) and looking for a bit of adventure. Thereafter this all rather standard cold war drama that, for me at any rate, is really only memorable as the last on screen appearance of the avuncular Nigel Bruce - still wearing the plumed hat as the Governor. Gene Lockhart is quite effective as the double-dealing "Pederas" but the rest of the competent cast only do as much as they can with the rather pedestrian script and Robert Aldrich really seems content to run within the predictable tramlines of the B-movie before a predictable conclusion. This is quite a disappointing film.

Pay The Two Dollars

[writers_reign · 5/10 · 16 October 2007]

It may be just as well that Robert Aldrich is uncredited as director here because it would add little to his CV in terms of lustre. It's a ho-hum caper movie in an exotic-on-paper location, in this case a Singapore that makes no mention of Raffles hotel and was possibly inspired by and remains a poor-man's Macao, which was shot by Joe Von Sternberg around the same time. The slightly bizarre cast - Dan Duryea, Patrick Holt, Gene Hersholt, Reginald Denny, Arthur Shields, Nigel Bruce - contrive to seem as if they're acting in different films and the 'topical' theme of Atomic power now seems terribly dated. Just about watchable as a Late, Late Show offering but that's about the best you can give it, unless, of course, you're a Strother Martin completist for he turns up yet again in an uncredited 'bit'.