timothymcclenaghan

This isn't the only Casablanca knock-off ever made. Republic Pictures was known for its cowboy movies (Autry, Rogers, et al) but once and awhile ventured into better pictures, especially those of John Wayne. I'm not saying this was a good movie, just that it came from a source with little experiernce of making a good movie.

I've seen several movies with Vera Ralston in the cast. I think a mention should be made of her dancing in this one. After Sonja Henie introduced dancing into women's figure skaing, every other skater took dancing lessons. Ralston was perhaps one of them.

I don't think a double was used for Ralston's dancing. If you watch it carefully (I did 3 times), watch her turns. She turns like a skater, not a dancer. Dancers don't usually pull their forearms in to turn or tuck their forearms to the chest, as Ralston did in this dance.

This isn't really a review, but rather an answer to the question of identifying the poison. The question is mentioned in several reviews as well as various forums on the Internet. Well, the answer is in the film's dialogue. In the scene where the lead character goes to question the widow of the man who committed suicide, the suicide's brother is in the apartment, Upon leaving, the brother discusses the "stolen iridium" which was part of what was mentioned in the document notarized by the lead character, who obviously became a witness to a crime.. So the poison in the plot is the element iridium, but which for the purposes of the plot, more specifically had to be radioisotope iridium-192--a radioactive substance which can cause radiation poisoning.

I haven't seen every Denzel Washington film, but in every one of his films I have seen, Washington has dirty fingernails. Does the man not own a nail file or nail brush? I can't believe neither the cinematographer nor the director doesn't comment on this when filming takes place. Pay careful attention when a close-up of his hands is done and you'll see. And don't give me any bunk about them using hand models for close-ups.

Putting that side, this movie absolutely crawls to an ending. The pace is so, so slow. Was the director trying to make a long movie? Was he paid by the foot of the film? The extraneous scenes did nothing to develop the plot. I fault the script writers for that.

This entire story could have effectively been done in an hour. Picking up the pace of the dialog and dropping the non-essential scenes would have made a much better film.