Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Instantly sinister, Joseph Schildkraut gives a knife throwing lesson to some underlings. Schildkraut is delightfully wicked as a shady character who manages a night club—and also runs a ship-wrecking insurance scam.Walter Pidgeon makes his second appearance as detective Nick Carter, once again exuding self-confidence; he is again joined by Donald Meek as would-be detective Bartholomew, better known as the Bee Man. Together they gradually unravel the ship-wrecking plot with the help of the usual supporting characters—including John Carroll as a shipping magnate's son, and Florence Rice, who is quite good as the requisite beautiful young woman mixed up in the case.The setting is Panama, and while the first half of the picture moves rather slowly, it features plenty of MGM-style Panama atmosphere. Eventually the plot starts to move along and builds nicely to a truly exciting climax on board ship.Nat Pendleton is amusing as a dumb henchman who is told to "Take a walk around the block" any time there is real dirty work to be done. Meek is entertaining as always, and Pidgeon handles both the detective work and the smart-alecky dialog adeptly. Schildkraut as the villain, however, has the juiciest role.The plot is nothing special but it does include a nifty surprise or two; overall, there's not much to this picture but it's plenty easy to watch.

The other two entries in the Nick Carter detective series focused on spies or Fifth Columnists; this one is about an evil insurance scam whereby cargo ships, with their crews, are blown up. Llewelyn's of London, the insurer of the ships, hires Carter to investigate. Joseph Schildkraut as the suave but vicious gangster leader behind the bombings easily outshines the rather uninspiring performance of Walter Pidgeon as Nick Carter. The most striking scene in the whole movie is the brief scene showing the crew of the cargo ship amiably chatting with one another moments before their ship is blown up. An incredible scene. As with the other two entries in the series, this one has an excellent supporting cast with Florence Rice, John Carroll, Nat Pendleton, Cecil Kellaway, and Schildkraut. Donald Meek is on hand as Carter's sidekick, the wacky Mr. Bartholomew. It's a matter of taste whether one finds the Bartholomew character annoying or welcome comedic relief. Either way, he certainly is a memorable character. I think this is the best of the Nick Carter movies and certainly worth a watch, but the series itself is not as good or entertaining as many another B detective series.

Walter Pidgeon is back in the second of three Nick Carter films he made for MGM's B picture unit until he started getting leads in A films, a lot of them with Greer Garson. He's called in as a consultant by none less than Scotland Yard after one of their operatives is murdered and on US territory.Said territory being the Panama Canal Zone where several British ships have gone down without warning. Being wartime a U-Boat is suspected, but they can't find hint of one operating in the area.Not much suspense in this film since we know right away it's Joseph Schildkraut who is playing one of his best and most epicene villains, something Schildkraut did with aplomb. He's a former union organizer in America and he and Pidgeon have history. Of course he doesn't believe that Nick Carter is just in the Panama Canal Zone for a vacation. I never heard of it being a vacation place when we did lease it from Panama.As usual Donald Meek is more annoying than entertaining as the 'bee man' who inflicted himself on Pidgeon in the first Carter film. But Schildkraut lifts this one a notch with his performance.

If you're a fan of the old private dick movies from the 30s & 40s then I'll bet you a wooden nickel that you're gonna like this one. It has plenty of cliche's, but remember, when this film was new a lot of the plot devices were not quite so hackneyed. The use of lighting and shadow is nicely done noir, all in glorious black & white of course. Walter Pidgeon is fine as Nick Carter. This is apparently his second time playing the streetsmart, wry humored, skirt chasing gumshoe. The rest of the cast is just fine too. It's not Bogart, Astor, Greenstreet, & Lorre; but it was released a year before that film, against which all in this genre are inevitably compared to. I really liked Nat Pendleton as tough guy "Gunboat". To sum it up, I love the corny humor and tidy endings of the films from this era. That old timey slang really cracks me up too. Say you birds, give dis picture show an even break and don't take it too seriously... I wouldn't kid ya, I'm on da level here.