User Reviews

***SPOILERS*** The high flying Walter Piedgon is NYC ace detective Nick Carter who gets himself involved in an elaborate and deadly insurance fraud scheme engineered by US gangster Al Taurez, Joseph Schildkraut,south, way south, of the border in Panama.After having a number of ships's valuable cargoes, which are nothing but a bunch of sandbags, heavily insured Taruez has, from the comfort of his Colon Panama office, through high frequency radio singles set off bombs planted in the ships and have them blown up together with their crew on the high seas!

It's Nick together with his side kick the Bee-Man Bartholomew, Donald Meeks, as well as his Panamanian girlfriend B-girl Delorous (Steffi Duna), who doesn't speak a word of proper English, who eventually solves the case. But not after some half dozen ships are sent to the bottom by Taurez and his hoods. Nick who at first didn't want to take on the case since he was on vacation at the time changed his mind when he spotted, after she had it out with him, pretty Cara Barnes, Florence Riuce, working at the local Morris Shipping Company. In fact it was Cora who was unknowingly used by Taurez in providing him with the information of what ships,and how heavily insured they were, were being sent out to sea. Where he then had his men plant explosives on so that he he could later,with high frequency radio waves, detonate them and collect, with an insider inside the shipping company, the insurance on them!

***SPOILERS*** Nick in finding the contraption that Taurez is using to electronically blow up the targeted ships has it disarmed and tricks Taurez into getting on the one that's next to be blown up.Taurez, with Nick holding a gun on him, realizing that he's cooked if he doesn't get off the ship before midnight the time its set to explode breaks down and admits his crimes not knowing that the ship that he and Nick were on was no longer in danger of exploding! What he also should have realized is that Nick wouldn't have put his own life as well as everyone on board in danger if he knew that in fact would happen!

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.

. . . as the Art of the Deal for Al's corrupt corporate cannibals involves bogus cargo, lackadaisical shipping inspectors, four freighters blown to smithereens with Trojan Horse radio bombs and massive insurance fraud. The 160 sailors ripped apart or drowned are thought of as mere "collateral damage; the cost of doing business." For the House of the Groaning Fat Cat One Per Centers, PHANTOM RAIDERS epitomizes the American Way. The back-stabbing, cut-throat merciless corporate tactics pictured here are sure to inspire the Am-Way crowd of core supporters to doff their mask of civility and become super spreaders plaguing our U.S. Homeland with greed, money lust and a callous disregard for Human Life.

A gangster conspires with the owners of a shipping freight line to collect insurance money by blowing up their own ships. But when they get too greedy and destroy 3 ships in 2 weeks (murdering their entire crews in the process), Scotland Yard tracks down private eye Nick Carter to get to the bottom of it. Insanely, his sometimes-annoying sidekick Batholomew ("the bee man") takes the case for him and then tracks him down in Panama... in fact, Nick's hanging out with a girl named Dolores (who doesn't speak a sensible word of English), in the VERY bar where the villains are operating from! I mean, really... WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

As portrayed by Walter, ehh, Pidgeon, Carter is more interested in chasing women than in stopping criminals or saving lives. What kind of "hero" is this? Until he sets his eyes on a pretty secretary, who almost violently brushes him off while failing to tell him she's engaged. (What is WRONG with some women?) The story is a mix of cleverness, suspense, humor and utter madness, as it seems half the cast is in on the crime, and those who aren't come across as unusually dim. From the start, Carter is suspicious of the bar-owner, who he knew running a racket back in San Francisco, but on getting beat up by Dolores' boyfriend, he wants only to resign the case and leave town... until Bartholomew forges a threatening "Get out of Panama" letter, wraps it around a rock and throws it thru a window at him. Batholomew repeatedly proves FAR more clever and helpful than he was in the previous picture, several times getting Carter out of dangerous or even deadly situations.

The literary character of Nick Carter actually predates Sherlock Holmes, and there were no less than 24 silent NICK CARTER films made from 1908-21. Following an 18-year break, MGM (of all studios) decided to revive the character, but only managed 3 installments, and frankly, I think I can understand why. On the other hand, the radio show with Lon Clark lasted 12 years (1943-55).

Joseph Schildkraut plays Al Taurez, gangster, bar owner, knife-thrower, and one of the most ruthless, cold-blooded murderous villains I've ever seen in any movie. I've also seen him in THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK, MR. MOTO TAKES A VACATION and THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER.

Nat Pendleton is "Gunboat Jacklin", Suarez' bodyguard, who's kept in the dark about his boss's illegal activities, and incessantly annoyed whenever anyone looks at "his" girl (but, does Dolores KNOW she's "his" girl?). I enjoyed him as the ambulance driver in the DR. KILDARE series, but in here, he takes thick-headed to a whole new level. (Pendleton was artist Don Heck's original model for "Happy Hogan" in the IRON MAN comic-book series in late 1963. Every time I see him in one of his films, I always wind up saying, "It's Happy Hogan!")

Cecil Kellaway is "Franklin Morris", the manager of the shipping company, who's horrified at what his business partners have talked him into, and eventually winds up with a knife in his back for it. (I'll always remember him for THE MUMMY'S HAND.)

Matthew Boulton is "John Ramsell, Sr.", the owner of the line, who tries to keep his son from taking command of a ship he knows will be blown up. A regular in the BULLDOG DRUMMOND series, I've also seen him in THE INVISIBLE MAN RETURNS, TARZAN'S NEW YORK ADVENTURE, COUNTER-ESPIONAGE, RANDOM HARVEST and THE WOMAN IN GREEN (as Inspector Gregson).

Alec Craig is "Randy MacMillan", an employee of the line who (as far as I can remember) knows nothing about the monstrous scheme. I've also seen him in THE LONE WOLF SPY HUNT, A DATE WITH THE FALCON, TO BE OR NOT TO BE, THE LOVES OF EDGAR ALLAN POE, RANDOM HARVEST, THE SPIDER WOMAN, and THE HOUSE OF FEAR (1945).

A real surprise was Dwight Frye as "Eddie Anders", who's paid to murder Carter in his bed, but is caught, interrogated and nearly knifed in the back by his employer. He's SO cool, takes SO much effort to talk, and emotes SO much tension with almost no words at all, it really shows what a fantastic actor he was, far more than just a "raving madman" that he was often typecast as. It's really a shame he didn't have a bigger career, and that he passed away far too soon.

The climax of this film is BY FAR the best part. Nick & Bartholomew manage to corral the main villain on board the latest ship scheduled for destruction-- with only a half-hour to go before it happens. The suspense builds and builds, as Taurez REFUSES to admit his guilt. The resolution was brilliant. I only wish Carter had been more on the ball for the rest of the picture.

My Philly Channel 3 copy of this is so fuzzy, no doubt at some point I'll happily get all 3 of Pidgeon's NICK CARTER films on DVD at some point. If nothing else, it'll be nice to be able to hear the dialogue a lot clearer than it was on this 80s broadcast. (I can but hope. You never know what you're gonna find on DVD when it comes to old "B" movies. Or, ehh, any other kind, for that matter.)

The second of the three "Nick Carter" movies all starring Walter Pidgeon, also features Donald Meek (again as the Bee Man), who is not only a little more subdued than usual, but plays a vital role in the fast-paced plot. This one was written by Jonathan Latimer who was soon to work closely with John Farrow on many of his films including The Big Clock, Beyond Glory, Night Has a Thousand Eyes, Alias Nick Beal, Copper Canyon, Botany Bay, Submarine Command, Plunder of the Sun, Back from Eternity, etc. Support players including smooth-talking, neatly attired Joseph Schildkraut as the villains' villain, Nat Pendleton as his brain-dead offsider, Steffi Duna as a language twister, John Carroll as the heroic guy, and Florence Rice as a Clayton's heroine. (She's the heroine you have when you're not having a heroine). True, this vast assembly – and I haven't listed even half the actors with important support roles including Alec Craig, Matthew Boulton, Cecil Kellaway, Charles Coleman, Holmes Herbert – do divert our attention from Walter Pidgeon's Nick Carter, but I, for one, am not complaining.