To the Ends of the Earth (1948)

Based on the files of the United States Department of Treasury. Commissioner Michael Barrows is an American Government Agent. On board a Coast Gaurd boat off the California coast he chases ... See full summary »

Director:

Robert Stevenson

Writers:

Jay Richard Kennedy (original story), Jay Richard Kennedy (screenplay),

Stars:

Dick Powell, Signe Hasso, Maylia

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Dick Powell	...	Commissioner Michael Barrows
Signe Hasso	...	Ann Grant
Maylia	...	Shu Pan Wu
Ludwig Donath	...	Nicholas Sokim
Vladimir Sokoloff	...	Commissioner Lum Chi Chow
Edgar Barrier	...	Grieg
John Hoyt	...	George C. Shannon
Marcel Journet	...	Commissioner Lariesier
Luis Van Rooten	...	Commissioner Alberto Berado
Fritz Leiber	...	Binda Sha

Storyline

Based on the files of the United States Department of Treasury. Commissioner Michael Barrows is an American Government Agent. On board a Coast Gaurd boat off the California coast he chases a ship. The Captain of the ship, the Kira Maru, panics and ruthlessly sends 100 Chinese slaves to a watery death. Barrows recovers a live preserver that tells him the ship is out of Shanghai. He travels there to track down the ship's captain and discovers that these deaths point to a huge drug smuggling operation. In Shanghai, while searching for the captain of the Kira Maru, he becomes suspicious of a women, Ann Grant, believing she's Jean Hawks the narcotics ringleader. He follows the narcotics trail "to the ends of the Earth" taking him from Shanghai to Cairo, Beirut and Havana to stop the drugs and the jean Hawks ring at the US border.

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Plot Keywords:

shanghai | ship | narcotics | drugs | government agent | 

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Genres:

Crime | Film-Noir | Thriller

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 February 1948 (USA)

Also Known As:

Opium

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kennedy-Buckman Pictures, Columbia Pictures Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

109 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on May 23, 1949 with Dick Powell and Signe Hasso reprising their film roles.

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Connections

Featured in Grass (1999)

User Reviews

Outstanding... but don't leave the room.

I thoroughly enjoyed this picture and I had been looking for it for a long time. It's not often a motion picture can mesh all components into a first class entertainment production. This one is so completely absorbing from start to finish that I wished it wouldn't end. It was 110 minutes well spent.

It is remarkable to note the metamorphosis in Dick Powells' career, from an effeminate tenor in "42nd Street" in the early '30's to a tough-talking, gravel-voiced film noir star, beginning in the mid '40's with "Murder, My Sweet", and "Cornered", culminating in this near-masterpiece.

Can't find fault anywhere here. The story moves along at breakneck speed, and, as mentioned in my summary, if you get up to get a snack you will lose the thread of the story, so intricate and complex is the plot. If this were a book I would say I couldn't put it down.

Whatever happened to good film-making? Movies get worse and worse, but thank God for TCM. This picture is a little outdated, but just go with it and take into consideration that it was made 60 years ago. Truly, they don't make 'em like this anymore.