DANA ANDREWS IN THE WAR NOIR THRILLER OF 'SEALED CARGO'

Title: SEALED CARGO Stars: Dana Andrews, Claude Rains Year: 1951 Rating: ****

Director Alfred Werker's darkly atmospheric potboiler SEALED CARGO initially plays like a Ghost Ship mystery/thriller as fisherman Dana Andrews (sustaining the harsh determination from WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS) climbs aboard what seems an abandoned larger vessel... 

Where Claude Rains, as an enigmatic sea captain, is met with the kind of cautionary distrust that owns this wartime espionage, ultimately shaping into a heist/caper: but instead of stealing money it's about blowing up the titular contraband... or else...

Claude Rains in SEALED CARGO

Leaving little time for romance between Andrews and Carla Balenda, hitching a ride with Dana to his reluctant chagrin: but it's the camaraderie between Andrews and who seems like a Nazi spy in Danish seaman Philip Dorn that makes CARGO more a buddy flick within the pulpy, tightly-wound mystique... 

Also involving a race-against-time mission that just happens to take place during the Second World War. Replace the murky and haunting, fog-shrouded oceanic/coastal template with dark-lit alleyways and SEALED CARGO is as Film Noir as they come.  Just call it a War Noir — and a damn good one.

Neat title card for Alfred Werker's SEALED CARGO

Dana Andrews as Pat Bannon in SEALED CARGO

An untrusting Dana Andrews with a mysterious Claude Rains in SEALED CARGO

Dana Andrews and Carla Balenda in SEALED CARGO

Philip Dorn and Dana Andrews in SEALED CARGO

The one Dana Andrews picture featuring his brother Steve Forrest (as a Nazi) in SEALED CARGO

Onslow Stevens and Henry Rowland with Carla Balenda in SEALED CARGO

Dana Andrews in SEALED CARGO

Claude Rains in SEALED CARGO

Dana Andrews in SEALED CARGO with Skip Homeier and Carla Balenda

Dana Andrews in SEALED CARGO with Philip Dorn

Dana Andrews in SEALED CARGO with Philip Dorn and Eric Feldary

Dana Andrews in SEALED CARGO with Carla Balenda

Dana Andrews in SEALED CARGO with Claude Rains

Dana Andrews' brother STEVE FORREST in SEALED CARGO

Dana Andrews' brother STEVE FORREST in SEALED CARGO

Dana Andrews and Philp Dorn in SEALED CARGO with Claude Rains and Philip Dorn

Carla Balenda and Dana Andrews in SEALED CARGO

Carla Balenda and Dana Andrews in SEALED CARGO

On loan actor Dana Andrews in SEALED CARGO

From SEALED CARGO

Steve Forrest SEALED CARGO

Dana Andrews in SEALED CARGO with Philip Dorn

Onslow Stevens (from Canyon Passage) with Carla Balenda in SEALED CARGO