Intrigue

"Intrigue" focuses on Shanghai's black market (for rice, whiskey, etc...). The film sometimes gets preachy about some criminals getting rich while many people are poor, but mostly it displays conflicts between an interesting group of characters. People interested in China in the 1940s will enjoy it, but a much better film is "The Shanghai Gesture", made in 1941 by Josef von Sternberg, and starring Gene Tierney.

Into a web of Asian intrigue flies, from a `secret airstrip in French Indochina today,' pilot George Raft; at the center of the web waits spider-woman June Havoc. Raft is the sole survivor of four wartime buddies discharged by court-martial; now he runs contraband. But the risks are high and he wants more money; his superior (Marvin Miller) balks so Raft goes over his head to the boss (Havoc). She runs her criminal empire garbed in elaborate ladies'-longs and makes him her partner - and maybe something more.

But another side of him pulls him toward Helena Carter, come from the States to vindicate her dead brother, one of his disgraced buddies. And into the mix, too, comes another old friend (Tom Tully), a roving newspaper man investigating the black market that keeps the city's populace near starvation but that's also Raft's bread and butter. The sloe-eyed orphans which Carter helps to feed start to gnaw away at Raft's sense of his `right to live first cabin.'

A romantic adventure along the lines of Singapore, Saigon and Calcutta, Intrigue could use a good deal more of it. The movie starts strongly and promises twists and turns as intricate as the back alleys of Shanghai. But then it hits a sentimental, sermonizing slump about how the black market devalues the Chinese dollar, thus keeping rice and `canned goods' from the mouths of enfeebled children, and it never quite climbs out again.

Because not much else is going on, it becomes hard to ignore the clichés that keep piling up: Jay C. Flippen as a salt-of-the-earth bartender, Philip Ahn as the trusty native sidekick, Miller and Dan Seymour as Hollywood heavies who fall short of any real menace. Havoc's glamorous presence can't compensate for the thin writing in one of her too few movie roles (she was far more fun with Alan Ladd in Chicago Deadline). His bomber jacket and white aviator's scarf can't quite disguise Raft's thickened midriff or the fact that he's on the shady side of 50 (he commands attention only when he's nattily tailored). The movie should have been slimmed down and barbered up, too; it might just have made the jump from forgettable to passable.

George Raft is about to be thrown out of his hotel room when he steals a shipment from Shanghai black market boss June Havoc and spreads some good Scotch around. He also blackmails Miss Havoc into a partnership. His attention to business is distracted when old buddy Tom Tully shows up and begins to write stories on the Black Market and to clear Raft of the offenses he and others were court-martialed for, as well as Helena Carter for a rescue agency to succor the orphans starving because of the black market, and to find out the truth about her brother, who was also found guilty in the same trial that broke Raft.

Raft is, we are led to believe, innocent of the underlying charges, although he must now, given the structure of this Bogart-like tale of redemption break away from the dark forces that now surround him. Fortunately, he's good with his fists, and the Chinese orphans have no trouble recognizing him as a good guy, so we should too.

Raft certainly dived deeper into the bad-guy millieu than Bogart did during the star phase of his career, but Raft always had the reputation of being hooked into the wise guys. The story isn't as polished, and Raft can't show the inner struggle as well as Bogey. Still, it's a decent example of the sort of noir-influenced story-telling which was so popular at the moment, that it would soon become a drug on the market..... if not quite yet. With Phillip Ahn, Marvin Miller, Jay C. Flippen, Charles Lane, and Michael Ansara.

Just after the end of WW2, there were tons of more or less espionage yarns, taking place in many exotic countries, desert, jungles, not necessarily in America. I admit and confess that I am a bit lost among all those films. This one brings nothing more, but that's a pretty good entertainment, especially if you are a George Raft's fan. He made several other films whith director Edwin Marin: RACE STREET, NOCTURNE, JOHNNY ANGEL.... So, here, you may confound with any of those other films, except maybe RACE STREET, my favorite. I repeat, this film is a good adventure and actioner, no problem, but it will be rapidly forgotten.

Peppered by gunfire, daring pilot, George Raft evades the bullets to undertake his twilight flight. Having made a miraculous landing in swirling mist, it comes to light that the brave, brazen flyer is deeply involved in black market activities.

Not best pleased at being in the cockpit of a crate full of bullet holes, the bold, brash Raft demands a meeting with the boss, the MR BIG of the organization, who turns out to be MISS BIG, June Havoc. With his foot firmly in the door, passions start to ignite and a tacky, showy affair begins, leaving those close to Havoc seriously underwhelmed.

Raft's unseemly dismissal from the armed forces rears its ugly head when the sister of one of his deceased crew (Helena Carter) befriends him, forewarning her with, "I'm a bottle with a label....says poison." Another blast from Raft's past is old buddy, Tom Tully, now a journalist, fervently striving to expose black market corruption and its devastating impact on ordinary people, ravaged by off the scale inflation, meagre diets and the very real threat of starvation.

Take away the unusual setting and you have a formulaic, identikit noir: The cynical loner, complicit with a corrupt lifestyle, the femme fatale, the dutiful girl, the bully boy syndicate and even the title song trundled out during a night club scene. A generous Len Goodman se-ven, for a steadily maintained tempo, decent entertainment value and a couple of surprises. It's an enjoyable movie. Raft clearly enjoyed breaking a chair over Marvin Miller's head, though whether the experience was appreciated in equal measure by Miller...or the chair is open to question.