Excellent but underrated film

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Ray Milland was not a great director, as this effort shows. This colour film shows much of Lisbon and the surrounding area in the mid-1950s, which is welcome. There are several excellent performances. Claude Rains is magnificent as usual as a devious and urbane crook, Francis (originally Franz) Lederer is superb as his henchman and assassin, underplaying and thereby increasing the menace of his character (which in the script cannot have amounted to much). Yvonne Furneaux is a charming ingenue who tries very hard indeed to be convincing about throwing herself into the arms of an aged Ray Milland and telling him she loves him. Maureen O'Hara flashes her usual Irish fire, but she also has to tell Milland she loves him, and two beautiful gals throwing themselves at Milland in competition is really too much to take, since he looks like he needs a month's rest in a sanatorium rather than a heady romance. Milland always had great 'watchability' and he still retains some in this film. This film has a very weak script and absolutely atrocious cinematography by Jack Marta, who seems only to use about two lights in his interiors. A friend who worked with Ray Milland once told me that Milland was the meanest man with money he had ever known, and he would always try to share taxis with poor actors and then pretend he had forgotten his money and make them pay. (That is why everyone tried to avoid sharing cabs with Milland.) Perhaps Milland, who co-produced this venture, was too mean to pay Marta to have proper lights! The interior shadows and lighting are simply unimaginably awful.There is an equally atrocious score by Nelson Riddle. Somebody should have taken a whip and beaten Milland back into his box. He had no business producing and directing. There is a fine authentic song performed by Anita Guerreiro in this film, who gives us a few moments of real music. Milland obviously loved Portugal, and we can be grateful for his enthusiasm in showing some of it to us as it was then. If only the film had come up to a higher standard, we would be able to say on our postcards: 'Having a wonderful viewing, wish you were here!'

I also saw this movie and it's an excellent spy movie. I saw this movie because my Mom Anita Guerreiro plays the singer at the restaurant that Ray Milland and Maureen O'Hara's character's are having dinner. I also knew Hummberto Madeira who played Tio Rabio Ray Milland's ship mate. If you are a fan of spy movies you have to see this one. It is great. This movie was shot on location in Portugal and that was great to be able to see beautiful Lisbon in the good old days. Portugal is a beautiful country and it has been shown in several movie thru out the years.Pepita

Lisbon is the local for this adventure romance, starring Ray Milland and Maureen O'Hara. It is beautifully photographed on location and the story is rousing and the intrigue suspenseful. Claude Rains, is the thief who Sullivan hires to get back her elderly husband, a millionaire, who has been kidnapped by the Chinese. Rains, is of course, suave, devious, and wonderful as the man of many tastes, including beautiful young women. He has always been good in such a part, as he was in Notorious, as the Nazi spy. Ray Milland is dashing, elegant and just nice to look at. His part as the smuggler gives him a chance to use a little comedy, especially when pursued by a beautiful young woman who Raines employs as a "secretary." She is enamored of Milland and she tries to help him escape the hands of Sarafin, who works for Raines and wants to kill Milland to keep the girl for himself. Maureen seduces Milland, but he rejects her advances after she tells him she wants her husband back "dead." He returns the husband alive, and Raines is picked up by the police for the smuggling that Milland was doing all along. Nice twists all around. Milland is still so wonderful to look at and listen to, it is not surprising that all the women are in love with him. For those who thought that Yvonne Furneaux had a hard time throwing herself into the arms of Milland, you have to remember that she is living with Claude Rains as his mistress. Therefore Milland would not look older to her. He directs this film with just enough pace to make it interesting, and the O'Hara character is smooth and crafty. Beautiful to look at scenery only adds to the pictures appeal.

Elegant is the only word to describe this wonderful example of 1950s film-making at its best. Art direction is usually one of those obscure technical credits nobody ever bothers about, but in this case the entire movie is a feast for the eyes thanks to clever art direction using subtle shades of blue and brown to reflect the beautiful natural locations in Portugal. Almost every frame is a painting in its own right and the movie is worth watching just for its sumptuous looks alone.Against this delightful visual backdrop, a complex double/triple-cross crime story is allowed to unfold at a leisurely pace as the viewer is gradually let in on the intricacies of the plot. Characters and motives also develop with the story and by its conclusion little is what it first seemed. Claude Rains, Maureen O'Hara and Ray Milland (who was also director and associate producer) are each excellent in their roles. Claude Rains in particular as a raffishly handsome crime boss with impeccable breeding is both lovable and chilling. Ray Milland has all the women falling at his feet, and not without reason. Maureen O'Hara is alternately tough and romantic as we see her character gradually revealed.Movie buffs might even see some tongue in cheek allusions to the plot of Casablanca, particularly in the final scene, as this cleverly crafted story unfolds. There's certainly something to please everyone. I'm a person who rarely enjoys movies made in the 1950s because of the stifling social values of the era, but for me Lisbon has been a revelation of the artistic heights which could be achieved in that era when the movie makers stopped trying to preach political and social values and just did what they were good at.