Action Of The Tiger (1957)

A mercenary sea captain (Van Johnson) will do anything for money so when a beautiful adventuress (Martine Carol)  pays him a heap of money to infiltrate a communist country and help smuggle her brother (Gustavo Rojo) out, he goes but getting out proves far more difficult than he had anticipated. Based on the novel by James Willard and directed by Terence Young (WAIT UNTIL DARK). This standard action film is modestly entertaining albeit not particularly inventive. Van Johnson seems an unusual choice for the cynical macho sea captain but the movie was produced by Johnson's production company which explains it. This was the first American film (outside of a cameo in AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS) for the French film star Martine Carol but a career in English language films was not in the cards for her. Further down the cast list is a young Sean Connery as Johnson's hard drinking first mate and five years later, he would work with director Young again in DR. NO. Although it takes place in Greece and Albania, the movie was shot in Spain with Desmond Dickinson doing the cinematography. I saw the European cut which features a topless Martine Carol which would never have been shown in U.S. cinemas in 1957. With Herbert Lom, Helen Haye, Yvonne Romain, Jose Nieto and Anthony Dawson.