World for Ransom is an unofficial extension of the popular 1950s TV series
China Smith. Most of the
Smith personnel, including star
Dan Duryea, director
Robert Aldrich and cinematographer
Joseph Biroc, are on hand for this inexpensive but well-mounted melodrama. Duryea plays a mercenary adventurer who gets mixed up in a scheme by foreign spies (who wear baggy suits and speak with Slavic accents) to kidnap a nuclear scientist. Actually it isn't the whole world that's held for ransom--only the city of Singapore, which the spies threaten with nuclear annihilation. World for Ransom star Dan Duryea is solidly supported by old pros
Gene Lockhart,
Patric Knowles,
Reginald Denny and
Nigel Bruce. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide