6/10
No one is who they seem to be
18 April 2015
This was the first time I have seen this European produced 1950 title starring George Sanders, Patricia Roc, Agnes Moorhead and Herbert Marshall.It has a lot of locational shots set in Mallorca, some spoken Spanish and throughout French sub titles apart from the aforementioned actors speaking English. so it was produced for a European audience in all those countries.This desire to be all things to all people makes it lose focus & definition and I therefore only scored it 6/10.The rather convoluted story concerns George Sanders who plays Mike Alexander who trades in drugs, guns, illegal immigrants and other contraband using his yacht "BlackJack".He meets a wartime army pal, Herbert Marshall, who is actually employed as a U.S.narcotics agent using his medical background while under the guise of setting up a tropical medicine & research unit.Agnes Moorhead is well cast playing villainesses, she had plenty of practice in her films.Here she poses as an empty brained millionairess Mrs Burg travelling the world, whereas she is just a crook who is trying to relieve Mike Alexander of his ill gotten booty despite claiming police credentials.Finally we have Pat Roc as innocent Ingrid Dekker who has been befriended by Mrs Burg and who seems to have ambivalent feelings for Mike Alexander.

There is some pleasant flamenco dancing and singing in the style of Manitas de Plata and an unscrupulous captain Nicaresco whose ship the "Chalcis" contains the illegal immigrants who are soon to be sacrificed and cheated by Nicaresco.The artificial love affair between George Sanders & Pat Roc did not convince neither did his vow to wholly renounce crime.I will not divulge the ending or provide a spoiler but the film ends with the question, will Mike Alexander be able to escape Spanish territorial waters by outrunning the shore patrol authorities in his yacht "BlackJack" and therefore be outside Spanish jurisdiction?
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