In what I rate as the greatest year in the golden age of movies, 1949, the ever reliable William Castle cranks out what would seem to be a routine B programmer about federal agents getting in the thick of crime (drug smuggling) to weed out some highly execrable outlaws, only this time Castle has a super cast at his disposal which clearly lifts this noir above B status.
To Castle's credit, he extracts very good performances from Duff, Winters, McIntire, Kelley and, especially, Dan Duryea, a con doing time who has sworn revenge against US Treasury agent Duff, but turns out to be more decent than imagined after seeing his wife killed as a consequence of consuming narcotics.
Soaring above the film's lofty acting standards, Duryea posts possibly his career-best show in a rare and surprising role as a seemingly inveterate baddie with a decent streak which ultimately redeems and finds him love and happiness. The revenge he warns Duff about turns out to be the wonderful woman who recognizes his worth in the end.
Winters and McIntire also deliver superb performances, the latter as the cold and calculating master villain. Interesting to note that the following year, 1950, Duryea, Winters and McIntire would re-assemble in one of the greatest Westerns ever, WINCHESTER '73.
As would a very young Anthony (Tony) Curtis, who in JOHNNY gets a small and wordless but crucial part as a baby-faced good for nothing... other than killing.
Cinematography deserves considerable praise throughout, the highlights being the early scenes at a dockyard, the apparent alacrity of all in a restaurant/dancing room, and the hangar at the end.
Chases and other action sequences are crackingly well staged, including the shootouts and, above all, the decisive plane-police car crash.
True, the script does not rise above some predictability, but then it is based on true FBI reports, and you know that good will win over evil. Thank God!
