Several Americans living in China are held captive in a hotel until the Chinese military finds out which of them is a spy. Hardly an original plot, but there is some good suspense. The leads have absolutely NO CHEMISTRY. I basically watched this to see Ruth Roman. Her part is good, but she doesn't play the downtrodden gutsy dames that made us love her. O'Brien is his typical crabby self. The supporting characters are relegated to speaking extras.

It is worth a watch, but don't go in with high expectations.

Run of the mill prisoner of war film is elevated by the snappiness of the direction from Frank Lloyd, director of the first Mutiny on the Bounty with Clark Gable and Charles Laughton, and the cast.

Set mostly amongst a group of enemy aliens confined to a hotel in the title city Lloyd keeps the viewer engaged by having the action move repeatedly from room to room with occasional scenes elsewhere.

That's fine as far as it goes but the other element that makes the film enjoyable is the competence of the main players. Edmond O'Brien is impassioned as the doctor who becomes the focal point of the story with Whit Bissell and a very young Richard Jaeckel adding fine support as two fellow prisoners. Also standing out and looking very beautiful is Ruth Roman. Never given her due she was a fierce screen presence elevating the often middling material she was handed as she does here.

Nothing special but if you like this type of adventure/war picture an agreeable time passer.

The Communists have taken over, and under the New China, about fifty westerners are detained at the New Waldorf Hotel. Among them is top-billed Ruth Roman, who was friendly to members of the old regime, and is equally so to embers of the new. The story, however, centers on Edmond O'Brien, a doctor who wants to get out.

The story is half P. O. W. Movie, with a strong debt to CASABLANCA; the new ruling elite is as rapacious as Claude Rains' Louis Renault, but lack the warmth and humanity of Conrad Veidt's Heinrich Strasser. None of the characters is much more than a stereotype, varying in mood according to the dictates of the story. On the other hand, Jack Marta's Dutch Angles and diffuse, foggy lighting, gives the movie a fine, depressing film noir feeling, and every aspect of the production under the control of director Frank Lloyd is first rate. It's a pity this was made at the height of Cold War fever and the script played directly into that with a fervor that makes one think the war is very hot indeed.