Joe Miller (Ben Lyon) is an investigative reporter and the waterfront is his beat. He is convinced that Eli Kirk (Ernest Torrence) is smuggling in illegal Chinese immigrants (though sometimes they end up drowned!) However, Joe cannot get a lead on Eli and his editor is on his case. Then Joe discovers Eli's lovely daughter Julie (Claudette Colbert) and thinks he can get the information he needs through her. Love gets in the way of his plan...
An enjoyable film, Eli Kirk is a fascinating character who thinks nothing of throwing his human cargo overboard to their deaths if the Coast Guard are approaching. The romance between Joe and Julie flows very naturally, Claudette Colbert really steals the movie though. Any scenes she is in are dominated by her presence. All the mains have some moral ambiguities to some degree which adds some needed layers to what is, on the main, a standard tale of smuggling.
