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!
Review of World for Ransom
