To the Ends of the Earth

The relatively relaxed movie censorship in the postwar years enabled Columbia to produce To the Ends of the Earth, a film which dealt with the previously taboo subject of drug smuggling. T-man Dick Powell is sent to several foreign locales to track down an Opium ring. The villains are subversives ...more

To the Ends of the Earth is more important for the fact that it was made rather than for what it is, which is a well-made and involving, if not distinguished, police thriller. But Columbia was forced to mount an extensive, persuasive and ultimately effective campaign to get the Production Code to relax its rules against even mentioning drug smuggling in a motion picture, let alone having the subject be the basis for an entire movie. This eventually helped to open the gates for more "forceful" ...more