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.

"Intrigue" is a film that is easier to understand if you are aware of the history of China. The story is set in Shanghai in 1947....as the country was embroiled in a civil war between the government and Mao's communists. As a result, poverty and hunger were rampant...and according to the movie, scumbag opportunists were hoarding the food and selling it at astronomical prices.

Brad Dunham (George Raft) is an ex-US Army Air Corps pilot. He apparently was dishonorably discharged and instead of returning home, he's stayed in China. Now, he has a chance to become a big-wig in the black market...but his newspaper friend (Tom Tully) is disgusted and confronts Brad. What's next? See the film.

While George Raft's emotional and acting range in his films is limited, here he's pretty good and I attribute most of this to the script. Well written and never dull...this one surprised me in a pleasant way.

Though not the greatest film by a long shot, the earnestness in bringing to the foreground the nasty underbelly of the black market in post-war Asia is a major redeeming value of "Intrigue." That innocent people starved while criminals prospered is a fact, and still occurs, unfortunately.

The story is told through the plot line of an American ex-military pilot in Shanghai. Brad Dunham (George Raft) along with three other flyers during World War II were court martialed and kicked out, accused of black market activity. The unjust shame has taken its toll, and Brad's three friends have died, including one by suicide. Brad himself now hangs out in Shanghai and has adapted to his infamy by turning to trade of which he was accused - smuggling. Meanwhile, his journalist pal Marc Andrews (Tom Tully) and the sister (Helena Carter) of one of the dead pilots are seeking to find the truth.

Andrews' bigger story, of course, is the depth of damage done by the black market in China. Little does he know that Brad has joined forces with the dishy boss (June Havoc) of the main smuggling ring. Meanwhile Brad becomes exposed to that dark side by visiting children at an orphanage and seeing the homeless, starving people in the streets. Brad's better side does not have to fight very hard to gain the upper hand, but the challenge is to make right out his wrongs.

The direction is rarely inspired. Though there are a few nice bits of dialogue, the writing has an unfortunate trend toward the precious. Raft's relationship with either woman is not all that interesting. (There seems more reality in his male relationships and his interaction with the children.) It would have been a big improvement had the music in general been more honest to the setting. And yes, there is some stereotype in the Chinese-ness, but it is not the insulting subservience we see so much of in the Hollywood of the day. Plus we are briefly blessed by the presence of Peter Chong as a courageous editor.

Tully has the most passionate role as the voice of justice and social responsibility, and he's very good. It's a rather idealized picture of a journalist, but that's what people really want to see, not some boozing sellout. Raft, too, when free from the film noir elements, is earnest in the real theme of the picture. It's those film noir elements that seem to stiffen him and make the action implausible.

Still, the main subject of the film gives it human importance.

Post war Kuomintang China was not a great place as Intrigue shows us. The black market was operating in full force. What is not shown and what Hollywood in 1947 would not show is how slowly but surely Mao Tse-Tung's Chinese Communists were gaining the upper hand. What is not shown is that villainess June Havoc surely could not have operated the way she did without the connivance of Chiang Kai-Shek's government.

Intrigue casts George Raft in this independent film released through United Artists as a cashiered pilot who falls in with June Havoc and her black market enterprise. Appealing to the better angels of his nature is Helena Carter who is the sister of a dead pilot friend of Raft's also cashiered. Carter works for a relief organization so she sees the very human side of suffering, especially from the youngest victims.

What Havoc is dealing with is food and medicine. She's the main reason for watching Intrigue. I saw this film decades ago and it's her portrayal that sticks in your mind.

Raft is his usual tight lipped self. Intrigue for some reason has become lost over the years. If it ever gets broadcast it's worth a look especially for June Havoc.

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.