Most IMDb critics claim that this is unlike any other Cary Grant role, but to my eye and ear, his performance was remarkably reminiscent of "Notorious." Agent Devlin was more romantic, to be sure, but Dr. Ferguson is also a cool, calm, rational, and duty-bound man in a political maelstrom: he's a surgeon, vacationing in a banana republic whose tumor-stricken president shanghais him. The result is a trenchant dramatic character-- which Grant does very well.
The screenplay is solid; the direction, camera work, editing, etc.-- competent. But any critic would be remiss not to mention other notable performances. Ramon Novarro and Gilbert Roland always add to a film, of course, but I'd single out two other performers:
The Spanish composer Vicente Gomez graces only one scene, in a café, but he plays a soulful guitar solo that I wanted much, much more of.
And then there's Jose Ferrer. He steals nearly all his scenes as a Latin American dictator with a brain tumor, especially the scene where he watches Grant's amateur surgical team drill into a fake human skull, rehearsing for the brain surgery awaiting the dictator himself tomorrow. When the rehearsal is done, Ferrer is sweating visibly and fumbling with a cigarette. He makes it easy for you to project yourself into that makeshift O.R. with the student surgical team-- you with a brain tumor and a captive surgeon who makes no effort to hide his antipathy.
Of course, Grant has no trouble holding his own in every scene, including that one. "Tell them never to use that instrument on the brain again," he says to his translator. "It might suck a piece right out of the brain." Ferrer hears, of course, and through his sweat he asks, "How did it go?" Grant drops the stitched-up skull in a garbage pail and says, "Oh, it went quite well. But you died."
The screenplay is solid; the direction, camera work, editing, etc.-- competent. But any critic would be remiss not to mention other notable performances. Ramon Novarro and Gilbert Roland always add to a film, of course, but I'd single out two other performers:
The Spanish composer Vicente Gomez graces only one scene, in a café, but he plays a soulful guitar solo that I wanted much, much more of.
And then there's Jose Ferrer. He steals nearly all his scenes as a Latin American dictator with a brain tumor, especially the scene where he watches Grant's amateur surgical team drill into a fake human skull, rehearsing for the brain surgery awaiting the dictator himself tomorrow. When the rehearsal is done, Ferrer is sweating visibly and fumbling with a cigarette. He makes it easy for you to project yourself into that makeshift O.R. with the student surgical team-- you with a brain tumor and a captive surgeon who makes no effort to hide his antipathy.
Of course, Grant has no trouble holding his own in every scene, including that one. "Tell them never to use that instrument on the brain again," he says to his translator. "It might suck a piece right out of the brain." Ferrer hears, of course, and through his sweat he asks, "How did it go?" Grant drops the stitched-up skull in a garbage pail and says, "Oh, it went quite well. But you died."