To the Ends of the Earth (film)

Infobox Film
name = To the Ends of the Earth


image_size = 250
caption = Lobby Card
director = Robert Stevenson
producer = Sidney Buchman
writer = Sidney Buchman Jay Richard Kennedy
narrator =
starring = Dick Powell Signe Hasso
music = George Duning
cinematography = Burnett Guffey
editing = William A. Lyon
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = February 27, 1948
runtime = 109 minutes
country = United States
language = English
budget =
gross =
website =
amg_id = 1:113976
imdb_id = 0040887

"To the Ends of the Earth" (1948) is a American crime film noir directed by Robert Stevenson and written by Sidney Buchman and Jay Richard Kennedy. The drama features Dick Powell, Signe Hasso, and others. [imdb title|id=0040887|title=To the Ends of the Earth.]

Plot

Based on the files of the United States Department of Treasury, agent Michael Barrows (Powell) follows a narcotics trail "to the ends of the Earth." The road takes him from Shanghai to Cairo, from Beirut and Havana, in order to stop a drug smuggling operation.

Cast

* Dick Powell as Commissioner Michael Barrows
* Signe Hasso as Ann Grant
* Maylia as Shu Pan Wu
* Ludwig Donath as Nicholas Sokim
* Vladimir Sokoloff as Commissioner Lum Chi Chow
* Edgar Barrier as Grieg
* John Hoyt as Bennett
* Marcel Journet as Commissioner Lariesier
* Luis Van Rooten as Alberto Berado
* Fritz Leiber as Binda Sha

Critical reception

When first released "The New York Times" gave the film a mixed review, and wrote, "To the Ends of the Earth," for all the journalistic austerity of its introductory sequences inside the narcotics division of the Treasury Department and at the United Nations council table in Lake Success, is predominantly a cops-and-robbers tale that relies too heavily on physical violence to make its impress. Unfortunately, this heightens the synthetic flavor of the picture and accounts in large measure for the attitudinized nature of the story's development that lessens its over-all dramatic impact...The author of all this, Mr. Kennedy, has concocted a highly involved and complicated screen play that sparkles and sputters as far as dramatic effectiveness goes, and thereby imposes an average look upon a picture which, with a little more resourcefulness, might easily have been distinctive." [ [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=9803EFDE173BE33BBC4B52DFB4668383659EDE&oref=slogin "The New York Times"] . Film review, February 13, 1948. Last accessed: February: February 18, 2008.]

The staff at "TV Guide" liked the film and wrote, "An engrossing, globetrotting semi-documentary on the evils of narcotics pushers, specifically those who try smuggling opium onto U.S. shores...The chief factor in the film's success as an adventure picture is the realistic documentary approach." [ [http://www.tvguide.com/movies/ends-earth/review/120747 "TV Guide"] . Film review, 2008.]

References

External links

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