What happens
Treasury narcotics agent Michael Barrows investigates a Japanese freighter that he watches push a hundred chained men overboard off the California coast. Back in Shanghai, he traces the captain of the ship, Shannon, and a rickshaw company owner, Nicholas Sokeem, while Anne Grant, a young widow, becomes part of the trail. The Lux Radio Theatre production stars Dick Powell and Signe Hasso, and is adapted from the 1949 Columbia Pictures film of the same title. Barrows works with Mr. Lum and the Shanghai police, comparing clues about the source of raw opium. The broadcast follows his investigation as it moves from China toward Egypt and Lebanon.
Pacific coast, Shanghai, and Egypt, 1940s
Characters: Michael Barrows, Anne Grant, Shupan, Harry Hart, Commissioner Anslinger, Mr. Lum, Nicholas Sokeem, Mr. Greig
Listen for: Barrows's suspicions about Anne Grant and her Chinese companion Shupan, and the clue of the handwriting on Sokeem's letter
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.