This was the first film to be made by John Wayne's production company, Batjac. It began shooting with Robert Mitchum playing the American seafarer who leads 180 villagers in an escape from Communist China to Hong Kong. But, after a week, Mitchum and director William A Wellman clashed and Wayne was obliged to fire Mitchum. When Gregory Peck and Humphrey Bogart's demands for high fees were turned down, Wayne himself stepped in as Mitchum's replacement, squeezing the picture in between his honeymoon and The Searchers. It's a typical piece of Yellow Peril propaganda, sluggish and predictable, with Lauren Bacall and Anita Ekberg as cross-country refugees who need Wayne's help in fleeing from their Chinese oppressors.

An American Merchant Marine captain, rescued from a Chinese Communist jail by local villagers, is "shanghaied" into transporting the entire village to Hong Kong on an ancient paddle steamer.