To the Ends of the Earth (1948)

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

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.