JohnHowardReid SYNOPSIS: WW2 navy man returns to Singapore to take up his old occupation of pearl smuggling. However, it turns out that the wife he thought killed in a Japanese air raid is still alive, though suffering from amnesia — and now married to someone else!NOTES: Re-made as "Istanbul" (1957) with Errol Flynn and Cornell Borchers.COMMENT: This silly story is — incredibly — mostly the work of Seton I. Miller (The Dawn Patrol, Bullets or Ballots, Marked Woman,The Sea Hawk, The Black Swan, Ministry of Fear, Two Years Before the Mast). It manages to combine a melodramatic tale of pearl smuggling with an equally incredible tale of re-marriage and amnesia. The way the writers stretch moral values and all sense of what is believable to bring about the anticipated happy ending, is a miracle of pre- liberal censorship.Director John Brahm handles this tosh quite seriously, as if it were Graham Greene at his moodily moralistic best. The players certainly way out-class their shoddy material. Ava Gardner, exquisitely gowned and beautifully photographed, moves with customary grace through the attractive sets; whilst Porter Hall supplies a delightful impersonation of a tourist/plumber, and the ubiquitous Philip Ahn makes a surprise appearance as a barman!Other technical credits are equally first-rate. But what a pity such a pleasing music score is squandered on this sorry concoction of story and character clichés!Still, we're probably being a bit hard on Singapore. Any film with Ava is certainly well worth seeing. If you're not too critical, this one will doubtless give good entertainment.

mark.waltz A sudden World War II bombing interrupts the engagement plans of pearl smuggler Fred MacMurray and the beautiful Ava Gardner, whom MacMurray assumes is dead. Five years later, the war is over, and MacMurray returns to Singapore on another smuggling scheme, and finds Gardner, alive, but not well, now married to a wealthy plantation owner who adores her and can't quite let her go. MacMurray gets deeper into danger with nefarious men (lead by portly Thomas Gomez) desperate to get the hands on the pearls they believe MacMurray took five years before, and as Gardner begins to recall her past, she becomes involved in a devious plot to bring MacMurray down.Every single archetype of "Casablanca" is there from the brooding anti-hero to the unavailable heroine he loves to the noble husband, and even to the smarmy villains. Richard Haydn's noble Deputy Commissioner is a duplicate of Claude Rains, and there is even a Peter Lorre like creep named Pepe (Lorre's character name in "All Through the Night", another Bogart adventure). This film was definitely manipulated to create sentiment, not only for the torn-apart lovers but the noble husband (Roland Culver) as well. Porter Hall and Spring Byington are tossed in a lame attempt for comic relief. In the film's relatively short running time, you can count all of the parallels, and when you get to the airport-set finale, try not to gag by the ridiculousness of that.

dbdumonteil Ava Gardner is such a pleasure to look at, even a B movie in which she plays makes my time worthwhile .Actually,Fred McMurray has got pearls and a gem .The screenplay is far-fetched -with an improbable outcome- and includes smuggling,war (no battles or camp of prisoners though),and even amnesia -but the viewer is not taken in by it a single minute ;there is of course the usual flashback ,which can be found in almost all the films noirs of the era.Compared to "the killers" ,Gardner's precedent movie ,it's obvious Brahm is no match for Siodmak.A couple of tourists -the kind of people we often see in the hotels- provides the comic relief.If you do not ask too much ,it's pretty entertaining and well acted.

jxm4687 Director John Brahm manages to hold this poor-man's "Casablanca" together. The picture moves at a good clip and Brahm makes the studio-set Singapore visually interesting. There's help too from stars Fred MacMurray and Ava Gardner as lovers whose lives are complicated by World War II and Gardner's amnesia when MacMurray, who thought her dead, finds her again in postwar Singapore, married to a wealthy planter. MacMurray and Gardner are really a goofy romantic team, but MacMurray has his appealing casual charm, and Gardner's vague, unfocused acting works well in some of her amnesiac scenes (plus she was at her most beautiful in the late 1940's). Supporting turns by pros like Richard Haydn and Spring Byington are also a plus. Overall, contrived and derivative, but it looks like a classic compared to the depressing Errol Flynn 1957 remake, "Istanbul."