646f9e108c Following the end of World War II, Whit Corbett, an American Intelligence officer joins the French Foreign Legion, in Indo-China, to find a former high Nazi official who is to be brought to trial for his war crimes. Lili Maubert,a nightclub singer with whom he is to work, is also an allied agent, and takes time to sing two songs. After World War II, ex-soldiers trickle into French Saigon to join the Foreign Legion, among them American Whit Corbett and German Carl Reicher. Is Reicher really SS war criminal Martin Bruner, and is Corbett after him? Art dealer Van Ratten and nightclub chanteuse Lili Maubert are also more than they seem. Action scenes include anti-guerilla jungle warfare. One of a number of post ww2 noir dealing with escaped Nazi war criminals. Notorious, The Stranger and Cornered would be several of the more well known. In this one, Dick Powell is an army intelligence agent on his way to French Indo-China. He is on the trail of a high-ranking SS officer. The trail leads Powell to the French Foreign Legion camp in Saigon. (The French used large numbers of ex-German soldiers in their war with the Viet-Cong.) Powell&#39;s main problem is that there are no known photos of the man he wants. He joins the Legion himself in order to try and identify the swine. Said swine, Stephen McNally, is very careful about his identity and bumps off everyone he thinks is a danger. Helping Powell out on his case is French Secret Service agent, Marta Toren. Toren posesa singer in a cabaret frequented by off duty Legion members. Also in the mix is Vincent Pricean antique dealer who supplements his income with a little gun running for the Viet-Cong. McNally, who picked Saigon and the Legion thinking it would be the least likely spot to be recognized finds the opposite true. One of his ex-staff officers from Dachau concentration camp happens to be in the same unit. While out on patrol the men become involved in a fire-fight with the Viet-Cong and McNally applies a few rounds to the man&#39;s back. Problem solved. Not quite it seems. Old Vincent has tumbled to McNally&#39;s identity and figures a bit of blackmail is in order. He knows McNally has a large cache of jewels and gold taken from his camp victims. Price wants most of it. McNally agreeslongPrice can supply him with a passport and some American dollars so he can leave the country. Both of course plan to double cross the other when the deal is completed. Powell finally figures out what is going on and arrives justMcNally has bumped off Price. A blazing gun battle and a well staged round of fist-a-cuffs ensue before McNally is captured. McNally gets the rope and Powell gets Toren. McNallythe vicious Nazi on the run and Pricethe blackmailing snake in the grass are very good here. Powell and Toren both turn in merely adequate performances. Rest of the cast includes Edgar Barrier, Richard Loo, Philip Ahn and James Millican. <br/><br/>The director was Robert Florey. His work included MEET BOSTON BLACKIE, DANGEROUSLY THEY LIVE, THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS, DANGER SIGNAL and the very under-rated THE FACE BEHIND THE MASK. Screenplay was by Robert Buckner who did, DEPORTED, A PRIZE OF GOLD. <br/><br/>Toren, who died at age 31, managed to work DEPORTED, MYSTERY SUBMARINE, SPY HUNT, ILLEGAL ENTRY, ONE WAY STREET, Paris ASSIGNMENT and SIROCCO into her 4 year Hollywood career. The d of p was Maury Gertsman who worked on BLONDE ALIBI, INSIDE JOB, SINGAPORE, ONE WAY STREET, THE GLASS WEB and JOHNNY STOOL PIGEON. The film follows undercover agent Dick Powell (Whit)he tracks down fictitious Nazi Martin Brunnerportrayed by Stephen McNally (Reicher) in the French Foreign Legion in Indo-China. I assume that McNally&#39;s character is based on real life high ranking Nazi Alois Brunner and the story is a fictionalized interpretation of where real life Brunner may have gone. Incidentally, the real Brunner never got caught. Can Dick Powell track down and capture McNally, or does this story foretell the actual truth of how Brunner may have evaded his searchers? <br/><br/>The film begins in a documentary style with clips from the Nazi war trials before it turns its attention to the plight of one particular high-ranking Nazi who has evaded capture. We follow the leads that place him in Indo-China, and that&#39;s where we meet our cast, all of whom give good performances. My favourites are McNally and Carol Thurston, who plays devious Vincent Price&#39;s (Van Ratten) servant girl, Li-Ho-Kay. Oh yeah, she&#39;s handy with a knife.<br/><br/>The film seems to tie itself up rather too neatly but it is an interesting journey - there is suitable tension throughout the filmwellintrigueto what will happen. We are taken into the world of the Vietnamese freedom fighters, who,a separate issue, win a victory in the end, a few years later.
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