Flynn finds himself in a noirish melo-drama of the sort Humphrey Bogart had been making a meal of for a decade, although this story requires more physical heroics than a typical Bogart picture, which makes Flynn a good replacement. He had become as good an actor as any of them by now. Here he plays a guy who had achieved prominence and respect during the war as a PT Boat commander, ("I had the respect of my men!"), only to become a faceless desk jockey when he went back to his old job. He abandoned that for what he hoped would be a lucrative life as a deep-sea diver doing salvage operations and getting rich off of what he could retrieve from the ocean floor, which, under maritime law, was his if he could pull it up to the surface. He wants adventure and money and doesn't care what anybody else thinks about it.
He has an unreliable partner, (played by jut-jawed Richard Webb, a Scott Pelley look and sound alike who was alter TV's "Captain Midnight"), he barely tolerates, (he drinks too much, as Flynn did in real life but he's sober here). Webb has found a deal that will make him rich but he doesn't want to share it with Flynn. Then Webb gets murdered. ("When a man's partner is killed, he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him.") The police suspect Flynn, an old flame of Webb's widow, (Ruth Roman). Meanwhile Flynn is followed around by a mysterious detective played by Paul Picerni, (later Elliott Ness's second banana on "The Untouchables"). In a Bogart picture, he would have been played by Peter Lorre. He eventually winds up in the apartment of a rich guy, (Raymond Burr), who is even more avaricious than he is. It seems that Flynn's PT boat was sunk during WWII while ferrying Philippine refugees, one of whom was carrying a box with a diamond-crusted cross form a local church. Burr wants the box and says he is willing to share it with the dubious Flynn. Both Percini, who was working for Burr and Roman, who has a piece of the action as a widow are there, too and they all go off in the titular boat to try to locate Flynn's old command, nobody trusting anybody.
Flynn does find the box, which contains a plaster cross, to the disgust of Burr and Percini, who throw it to the deck, and it shatters, revealing the diamond-studded cross, (The Falcon!). Flynn and Roman wind up with it, with Roman telling him it belongs to the church and she'll love him whether he's rich or not. Flynn angrily rejects this proposal. Later he finds the cross has bene stolen by a Filipino kid he's bene working with and the whole thing winds up at the church, surrounded by religious symbols of piety and humility, and then in the catacombs below, where the bad guys catch up and Flynn winds up duking it out with Burr, with fists this time, not swords as in 'The Adventures of Don Juan'. Same result. Flynn is finally, reluctantly, persuaded to part with the cross and go off to amore mundane life with Ruth Roman, which doesn't sound too bad.
It's well scripted, acted and directed with a good pace and atmospheric locations, (all in California). It's fun to see Flynn in a modern action story after all the swashbucklers and westerns. His portrayal of the embittered adventurer is strong all the way. And he looks his age, which is right for the character. It's a fine show and consistently entertaining, despite the narrative that this and other films of this period were symptomatic of Flynn's physical and professional decline. Oh, and his character is named 'Mason', which makes his scenes with Burr ironic in a way that would have meant nothing to 1952 audiences.
He has an unreliable partner, (played by jut-jawed Richard Webb, a Scott Pelley look and sound alike who was alter TV's "Captain Midnight"), he barely tolerates, (he drinks too much, as Flynn did in real life but he's sober here). Webb has found a deal that will make him rich but he doesn't want to share it with Flynn. Then Webb gets murdered. ("When a man's partner is killed, he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him.") The police suspect Flynn, an old flame of Webb's widow, (Ruth Roman). Meanwhile Flynn is followed around by a mysterious detective played by Paul Picerni, (later Elliott Ness's second banana on "The Untouchables"). In a Bogart picture, he would have been played by Peter Lorre. He eventually winds up in the apartment of a rich guy, (Raymond Burr), who is even more avaricious than he is. It seems that Flynn's PT boat was sunk during WWII while ferrying Philippine refugees, one of whom was carrying a box with a diamond-crusted cross form a local church. Burr wants the box and says he is willing to share it with the dubious Flynn. Both Percini, who was working for Burr and Roman, who has a piece of the action as a widow are there, too and they all go off in the titular boat to try to locate Flynn's old command, nobody trusting anybody.
Flynn does find the box, which contains a plaster cross, to the disgust of Burr and Percini, who throw it to the deck, and it shatters, revealing the diamond-studded cross, (The Falcon!). Flynn and Roman wind up with it, with Roman telling him it belongs to the church and she'll love him whether he's rich or not. Flynn angrily rejects this proposal. Later he finds the cross has bene stolen by a Filipino kid he's bene working with and the whole thing winds up at the church, surrounded by religious symbols of piety and humility, and then in the catacombs below, where the bad guys catch up and Flynn winds up duking it out with Burr, with fists this time, not swords as in 'The Adventures of Don Juan'. Same result. Flynn is finally, reluctantly, persuaded to part with the cross and go off to amore mundane life with Ruth Roman, which doesn't sound too bad.
It's well scripted, acted and directed with a good pace and atmospheric locations, (all in California). It's fun to see Flynn in a modern action story after all the swashbucklers and westerns. His portrayal of the embittered adventurer is strong all the way. And he looks his age, which is right for the character. It's a fine show and consistently entertaining, despite the narrative that this and other films of this period were symptomatic of Flynn's physical and professional decline. Oh, and his character is named 'Mason', which makes his scenes with Burr ironic in a way that would have meant nothing to 1952 audiences.