Robert J. Maxwell This is pretty good. Dick Powell is a high-level agent of the Bureau of Narcotics who tracks down opium from Shanghai to to Egypt to Cuba to New York. It's a tangled but believable tale in which he uncovers an intricate network of opium from its extraction from poppies through it refinement, shipping, and delivery in New York. It doesn't look as exotic as it sounds because except for some shots aboard a liner at sea, we only see locations through the lens of the second unit.Dick Powell is in his hard-boiled mode here. He gets conked on the head twice. He gets conked on the head in every hard-boiled movie he's ever made. In "Murder, My Sweet," when he is conked on the head, his narration gives us Raymond Chandler's prose: "a dark pool opened up at my feet and I fell in," and we see a dark pool opening at his feet. Then we see him fall in. Here, during his two conks, there are only dissolves. They lack poetry.It makes a hero out of Harry Anslinger, head of the narcotics bureau, and almost turns him into President-for-Life of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover. Well, there has to be a hero at the top, but the fact is that Anslinger was, as one critic called him, "a notorious bonehead" who put marijuana in the same class as heroin. It was all hard narcotics to Anslinger, part of a widespread plot to sap our will to fight.It's a fascinating tale, really, given the Hollywood treatment. It opens with the murder of a hundred or so Chinese slaves being deep sixed on a heavy chain, like the slaves of yore, so it gets your attention and keeps it all the way through. Of course, this being Hollywood, we have to live with Vladimir Sokolov as a Chinese guy, trying to speak English with a Chinese accent while disguising his native Russian phones.

AsHimself Every time I looked to see how much time was left I'd say - dammit. Wish it could have gone on longer. Not sure why this one isn't more well known. Opens in that semi-documentary style, but after that it turns into a top-notch film. Story is complex enough without being confusing, entire cast is good. As much as I enjoyed Powell's been-there-done-that kinda attitude in "Murder, My Sweet", I like him better here, where it's more subtle, plus I like how his character is able to show a little more genuine surprise as the story unfolds. Hate reviews that give away stuff, and I don't mean just give away the important stuff, I mean give away anything. Totally stubborn about that, more than anyone I know. Sorry, not gonna say anything about this plot except that the title sums it up well enough. Much better than most 40s-50s international intrigue BS like "Beat the Devil" or "Rope of Sand". If you can slog through that crap you need to watch this. Most everything I watch these days are old crime thrillers, and as much as I enjoy them, a lot don't hold up well over time. This is an exception, no question. I hardly ever write reviews here - honestly, I don't even know if I've even done one, that's how much I care about putting them down. Felt compelled to in this case.

bmacv The idea of drug trafficking and addiction as social threats didn't emerge until the post-war years – when marijuana and heroin no longer confined themselves to urban blacks and jazz musicians. Though the subject would seem a natural for film noir, the cycle as a whole ignored it, except for odd references (Jules Amthor drugging Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet, for example). But in the late 1940s, two films took on the phenomenon directly: Port of New York and To The Ends of the Earth. Both films show the stridency that would soon come to be characteristic of the Red Scare films of the early 1950s. Port of New York, however, effectively explored its noirish milieu, while To The Ends of the Earth harks back to the international espionage pictures of wartime and the pre-war years.Treasury agent Dick Powell witnesses the mass death of Asian `slaves,' jettisoned overboard in chains from a Japanese freighter off the coast of San Francisco. Soon, in relentless pursuit of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, he circles the globe from Shanghai to Egypt to Cuba and finally to New York. His travels curiously intertwine with those of an American widow (Signe Hasso) and her young Chinese ward (Maylia). He uncovers a ruthless (`fanatical' is the preferred adjective) worldwide conspiracy to grow, distribute and sell opium, ultimately refined into heroin. The case doesn't crack until his ocean liner begins entry into New York harbor.It's a good-bad movie. One of the burdens the noir cycle occasionally had to shoulder was paying homage to various principalities and duchies of the U.S. Government, generally J. Edgar Hoover's Federal Bureau of Investigation (as in Call Northside 777) or the Treasury Department (as in T-Men). Here, it's the Narcotics Bureau headed by Harry Anslinger, who graces the movie with his presence in three cameos. The requisite tone of reverence is anathema to noir, and Powell's voice-over narration drones on and on, a powerful opiate in itself.But the nuts and bolts of the drug trade operated by a global cartel retain surprising interest, and the movie's pace picks up as it progresses, right up to a fairly shocking twist at the end. Many of its attitudes and assumptions show their age, but To The Ends of the Earth ultimately delivers its product.

KEITH-LANCASTER This film is great from start to finish as it outlines the ingenious methods used by the drug traders. Some harrowing scenes as the Chinese slaves (being smuggled to pick poppies) are disposed of. A freighter of doubtful origin is spotted off the U.S. coastline. The coastguard investigates and as it draws near, the captain of the coast guard cutter is witness to a most appalling scene. The slaves beingsmuggled are underneath a large tarp on the deck of the freighter. The captain of the ship, realising the consequences of his human cargo, decides to remove the evidence. The slaves are shackled to the anchor chain which is now released into the ocean. The fate of the slaves is sealed and the proof of the illegal cargo is removed. The matter is reported and from then until the end of the film, it is non stop action and intrigue. Dick Powell is the narcotics agent assigned to the task of tracking down the drug growers and dealers. It is a very involved film with lots of surprises (do not blink). A great twist at the end.