A limber story of oil for the lamps of Japan -- current enough to refer to the energy crisis -- in which Middlemass, a financier of few principles except ""my dividends right or wrong,"" will sell a concession in the Orient, once he gets his hands on it. Nonetheless Middlemass remains likable and stays alive even if all kinds of Americans are after him -- he's indemnified to a degree by what he knows and they don't and for a time it remains a touchy trap pass situation, laugh is clever and his Middlemass-and-the-tiger finale should surprise you. All things considered, this stays on the superior side of better than all right.