FERRY TO HONG KONG is a British thriller set on board a ship sailing around the seas between Hong Kong and Macau. The story benefits from location shooting but is let down by a dominating performance from Orson Welles as the ship's captain; while everybody else takes the story seriously and give appropriately serious performances, Welles is under the misconception that he's shooting a broad comedy and his over the top performance is quite farcical.
The film's main strength lies in the underrated Curt Jurgens who makes for an understated lead. He's an underdog character, a man without a home who looks like a tramp for the most part, and yet his heroism shines through as the story goes on. The tale is rather stodgy with pedestrian direction and a definite lack of suspense, although it picks up with some good stuff at the climax. The interesting supporting cast includes Sylvia Syms as the love interest, Noel Purcell as an engineer, future actor Roy Chiao (of INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM fame) as a pirate and the great and hulking Milton Reid as a really nasty piece of work.
The film's main strength lies in the underrated Curt Jurgens who makes for an understated lead. He's an underdog character, a man without a home who looks like a tramp for the most part, and yet his heroism shines through as the story goes on. The tale is rather stodgy with pedestrian direction and a definite lack of suspense, although it picks up with some good stuff at the climax. The interesting supporting cast includes Sylvia Syms as the love interest, Noel Purcell as an engineer, future actor Roy Chiao (of INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM fame) as a pirate and the great and hulking Milton Reid as a really nasty piece of work.