World for Ransom

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Total Count: N/A

44%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 54

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Movie Info

World for Ransom is an unofficial extension of the popular 1950s TV series China Smith. Most of the Smith personnel, including star Dan Duryea, director Robert Aldrich and cinematographer Joseph Biroc, are on hand for this inexpensive but well-mounted melodrama. Duryea plays a mercenary adventurer who gets mixed up in a scheme by foreign spies (who wear baggy suits and speak with Slavic accents) to kidnap a nuclear scientist. Actually it isn't the whole world that's held for ransom--only the city of Singapore, which the spies threaten with nuclear annihilation. World for Ransom star Dan Duryea is solidly supported by old pros Gene Lockhart, Patric Knowles, Reginald Denny and Nigel Bruce.

Rating:

NR
Genre:

Action & Adventure, Classics, Drama, Mystery & Suspense
Directed By:

Robert Aldrich
Written By:

Lindsay Hardy
In Theaters:

Jan 31, 1954 wide
On Disc/Streaming:

Jan 20, 2015
Runtime:

82 minutes
Studio:

Allied Artists

Watch it now

Netflix

Cast

Dan Duryea
as Mike Callahan

Patric Knowles
as Julian March

Gene Lockhart
as Alexis Pederas

Reginald Denny
as Maj. Bone

Nigel Bruce
as Gov. Coutts

Marian Carr
as Frennessey March

Douglass Dumbrille
as Inspector McCollum

Keye Luke
as Wong

Clarence Lung
as Chan

Lou Nova
as Guzik

Arthur Shields
as Sean O'Connor

Carmen D'Antonio
as Dancer

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Critic Reviews for World for Ransom

All Critics (3)

Nervy burlesque of Hustonian exotic thrillers

Jan 11, 2011 | Full Review…

Fernando F. Croce
CinePassion
Fascinating early Aldrich, visually creative.

Aug 9, 2007 | Full Review…

Michael E. Grost
Classic Film and Television
A marvelously understated film noir that parodies all those big-budget spy/adventure films.

Mar 16, 2004 | Rating: B+ | Full Review…

Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

View All Critic Reviews (3)

Audience Reviews for World for Ransom

Mar 12, 2013

Dan Duryea usually excels in his roles, but in "World for Ransom," he doesn't seem to know what to do. His performance is wildly uneven, but that stems mostly from the fact that "World for Ransom" was basically made from the scraps of "China Smith," a television series also starring Duryea. It just doesn't seem like a whole lot of effort was put into the film's creation, and that's why it comes off as an uninspired, shallow piece of work. That being said, I found myself strangely enjoying a handful of its sequences, most of which came near its end, and even though Duryea's performance is a mixed bag, there's more good to it than bad. Overall, "World for Ransom" is forgettable because of its lack of ambition and creativity, but it does have some redeeming qualities.

Stephen E Super Reviewer