Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

World for Ransom Blu-ray Movie Review

You probably won't want to pay.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 28, 2015

Like a lot of directors who started to attract notice in the 1950s and 1960s, Robert Aldrich got some of his first experience in television, and one of his earlier credits was the little remembered series China Smith, an extremely low budget affair starring Dan Duryea as a kind of washed up mercenary in the Far East. China Smith evidently lasted only two seasons, with those two years actually being separated by a year or so. Some sources state it aired on NBC, but it decidedly has the look and feel of an early syndicated effort, one slapped together for as little money as possible that was then sold to stations around the country to help fill up what were in the early 1950s still rather haphazard schedules by the major broadcast networks. Rather oddly considering its unabashed lo-fi ambience, someone somewhere thought China Smith was an appropriate foundation for a big screen adaptation, and World for Ransom was born, with Aldrich credited as producer but somewhat strangely not credited for directing. World for Ransom is, like its small screen progenitor, a decidedly low rent and somewhat haphazard outing that offers Duryea as adventurer Mike Callahan, a supposed ne’er-do-well who plies a kind of detective trade in the seedy environs of Singapore. World for Ransom desperately wants to be a film noir, replete with a perhaps duplicitous blonde femme fatale, but it never musters much in the way of intrigue or suspense, despite the fact that it, like Aldrich’s later and much better remembered Kiss Me Deadly, trafficks in Cold War hysteria and the burgeoning fear of the deadly H-Bomb.

Though obviously tangential to the somewhat overheated plot, World for Ransom offers at least two unusual character names (it’s notable that Duryea’s character in the film has a different moniker than in the television series). The woman getting Mike wrapped up in the mystery of a kidnapped nuclear scientist (is there any other kind in films of this ilk?) is named Frennessey (Marian Carr), a patently bizarre name that perhaps is meant to evoke the exotic allure of Frenesi, the Latin tinged Alberto Dominguez tune that became a major hit for Artie Shaw in the 1940s (“frenesi” is Portuguese and Spanish for frenzy). Even weirder than that is the surname of one of the film’s prime villains, a machinating black marketeer named Alexis Pederas (Gene Lockhart). It doesn’t take much imagination to add a “t” to Alexis’ last name to come up with a somewhat less melodic referent than is the case with Frennessey’s appellation. Also on hand is a British intelligence operative named Major Bone (Reginald Denny), whose surname can provide its own multiplicity of referents.

In fact there are two Major Bones, at least if one considers the duplicitous husband of Frennessey, a disgraced former British soldier named Julian March (ersatz Erroll Flynn Patric Knowles). March impersonates Bone early in the film in order to dupe visiting nuclear scientist Sean O’Connor (Arthur Shields) into going with him, at which point he kidnaps the poor quantum mechanic (sorry), delivering him to Pederas, who starts issuing ultimata to various governments that O’Connor, who holds the secret to the H-Bomb not inside a glowing briefcase but his own battered head, will be sold to the highest bidder.

There’s a history between Mike, March and Frennessey which is alluded to in the film, though in one of the most interesting if ultimately bowdlerized elements, Frennessey turns out to—well, not be all that interested in men. Though evidently an actual lesbian subtext was jettisoned from the film, note how Frennessey’s first entrance as a nightclub chanteuse has her costumed as a man in a tux, a la Marlene Dietrich, and also note to whom she sings (hint: it’s not a man). Though she supposedly had a romantic entanglement with Mike before entering a marriage of convenience with March, the film’s denouement includes a rather interesting dismissal of a “traditional” romantic clinch, though per its early fifties’ vintage, pretty much everything else is left to the imagination or at least to be inferred between some already fairly blurry lines.

Douglas Dumbrille, who seemed fated to play character parts in films set in exotic (and nefarious) ports (check him out in the fun 1940 Frances Farmer-Jon Hall opus South of Pago Pago), has a good turn here as a good guy, another operative who puts in with Mike to get to the bottom of Pederas’ shenanigans. Though Aldrich was obviously hamstrung by a miniscule budget, he is able to at least passably create a little ambience courtesy of dim lighting and lots of industrial fog.

The film has some decent enough elements, but there’s never really much energy to the proceedings. Lockhart very rarely even makes eye contact with the other actors, as if to suggest he’s slightly embarrassed to be seen in such a lo-fi effort. Duryea attacks his role with an almost comically hyperbolic performance, something that is distinctly at odds with the noir feeling Aldrich was obviously trying desperately to engender.

World for Ransom Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

World for Ransom is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. This is one of those "glass half full, glass half empty" situations where those who like the film will probably be willing to overlook some inconsistencies, while those who already aren't that impressed with the goings on may well focus on some issues while not appreciating what looks at least decent. It appears that at least some of this transfer was sourced from a dupe element, or at the very least one that is not consistently clear or with the same black levels, contrast and overall sharpness. A lot of World for Ransom looks quite good, with deep, convincing blacks and nicely articulated gray scale helping to promote a noir ambience (see screenshots 1 and 5, among several included in this review). But there are other sections of the film which are noticeably rougher looking, with a "dupey" appearance that includes much more raggedy detail, more heavily pronounced grain and undercooked contrast (see screenshots 6, 16 and 17). If one can get past the kind of lurching quality between various segments, there's certainly nothing here that's horrible, but it's also obvious that there's room for improvement, something that will probably never happen given this film's lack of renown. As with virtually all Olive releases, "what they got is what you see", i.e., there have been no restorative efforts, but also no intrusive digital tweaking. Aside from the varying quality issues, generally speaking the elements have an expected amount of age related wear and tear, with typical flecks, specks, scratches and minus density dotting the proceedings.

World for Ransom Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

World for Ransom features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono mix that has a few more pops and cracks, especially in the first half or so of the film, than is typically the case with these Olive catalog titles. There's a fair amount of low level but still audible distortion in the early going, something that especially afflicts the score cues by Frank De Vol. Things improve quite a bit as the film goes along, and dialogue emerges largely unscathed in any case. This is a listenable if not optimal track.

World for Ransom Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements included on this Blu-ray disc.

World for Ransom Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Robert Aldrich fans may well want to check out World for Ransom, for the director's patented brand of machismo is on hand in a somewhat nascent form here. Duryea simply doesn't have the brutish charisma necessary for his role, leaving most of the fireworks to the supporting cast, some of whom are curiously tamped down throughout the proceedings. A miniscule budget means that large swaths of the film play out in dimly lit environments with a minimum of even set dressings adorning the "festivities." An odd duck, to be sure, but one that might be passingly interesting as a curio to those interested in its director. Technical merits are iffy but not overly problematic.