Dick Powell

Signe Hasso

Maylia Fong

Ludwig Donath

Vladimir Sokoloff

Edgar Barrier

John Hoyt

Marcel Journet

Luis van Rooten

Fritz Leiber

Harry J. Anslinger

Vernon Steele

Richard Loo

Lou Krugman

Florence Wix

Ivan Triesault

Harlan Warde

Michael Raffetto

Peter Virgo

Robert Malcolm

Leonardo Scavino

Blue Washington

Henry Kulky

Victor Sen Yung

James B. Leong

Frank Lackteen

Frank Mayo

George J. Lewis

Horace G. Brown

Douglas D. Coppin

Robert Riordan

Bess Flowers

Frank McLure

Nacho Galindo

Julian Rivero

Beal Wong

Tom Coleman

Walter Pietila

Mack Williams

Sally Corner

George Volk

Richard Wang

Nick Volpe

Mahmud Shaikhaly

Fred Godoy

Jackie Barnett

Peter Chong

Otto Han

Eddie Lee

Robert Stevenson

Sidney Buchman

Jay Richard Kennedy

George Duning

Burnett Guffey

William A. Lyon

Thriller

To the Ends of the Earth

Kennedy-Buckman Pictures

Columbia Pictures

United States of America

Utterly polished piece of adult crime drama film making.

To The Ends of the Earth is directed by Robert Stevenson and written by Jay Richard Kennedy. It stars Dick Powell, Signe Hasso, Maylia, Ludwig Donath and Vladimir Sokoloff. Music is by George Duning and cinematography by Burnett Guffey.

Dick Powell stars as Treasury Agent Commissioner Michael Barrows, who after witnessing a terrible incident at sea goes on the trail of a major narcotics ring.
Part docu-noir, part straight out crime drama, Stevenson's film is a pic that demands your full attention. Such are the intricacies of a plot involving a global narcotics operation, and the number of characters involved as Barrows literally country hops, it may even be a picture that improves because of a "needed" second viewing. Not to say that is a requisite, the structure and pace of the piece simply may not be your thing, but I'd like to put it on record that it seems an improver and definitely one to watch and listen to carefully. helps, also, that there is much narration to aid the complexity of the case.

It begins in shocking fashion, with an event that has the ability to take you aback, and with your attention grabbed we are then on a jaunt with Barrows, getting up close and personal with either shifty persons or loyal international people willing to help the intrepid agent. He has dry wit and a cunning knowing, a guy we basically like to be around, with Powell (not for the first time in such a role) splendidly in character. There was a large budget afforded the production, so the near documentary approach doesn't look cheap (helps having Guffey on photography duties), while the MPA eased their "drugs in film" regulations to let the pic breath an air of much needed realism.

With the evils of narcotic smuggling given intelligent filmic substance - we learn much about the manufacture of opium and how it is hidden and retrieved etc - and some very drastic scenes involving murder and suicides, this is mature film making. Not all the cast leave lasting impressions (apart from Powell they were largely unknown at the time), and some of the speech sections are a little clunky, but this is an utterly polished piece of adult crime drama film making. 7.5/10

CinemaSerf

This is one of those rare movies where the imperious narration provided to reassure the American public that Uncle Sam has their back isn't too annoying. It's provided by Dick Powell who's the Treasury Agent "Barrows" in this standard drug smuggling drama. The authorities know that illicit narcotics are arriving, pretty much unhindered, in California and then permeating throughout the country, but they don't really know how. His suspicions are aroused when a mass fatality at sea convinces him that Shanghai is the place he needs to be. That's where he meets the enigmatic "Ann" (Signe Hasso) of whom he is not at all sure. Quickly he picks up the scent and after travels across the globe, believes himself to finally be on the trail of the ingenious gang. It's based on a real-life investigation and actually delivers quite convincingly as it depicts just how complex and lucrative these clandestine operations were.  Powell could always be relied upon to come up with the goods in set-piece affairs like this and here he's helped along by a few studio regulars to create a sense of peril as the denouement builds. Boats are always a good place to base a thriller with their claustrophobic infrastructure and loads of metal for the bullets to bounce off, and though this is easily half an hour longer than anyone needs it to be, it's written and directly tautly enough once it's underway to help each citizen sleep more easily in their beds.

English