Directed by Josef von Sternberg • 1952 • United States
Starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, William Bendix

Jane Russell and Robert Mitchum are drawn into a noirish web of danger in this sultry adventure directed by master visual stylist Josef von Sternberg (with contributions from an uncredited Nicholas Ray). Nick Cochran (Mitchum) rescues Julie Benson (Russell) from the unwanted advances of another passenger during the forty-five-mile voyage from Hong Kong to Macao, a Portuguese colonial enclave beyond the reach of both Chinese and British law that has served as a home for gamblers, smugglers, and crime lords for centuries. There, gangster Vincent Halloran (Brad Dexter) hires Benson to sing in his club. Halloran knows the Hong Kong police have sent someone to apprehend him—and he believes Cochran to be the man. But in Macao, where everyone has a secret, nothing is as it first appears.