Konterr Brilliant and touching

Sabah Hensley This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

TheLittleSongbird My main reason for seeing Second Chance was Jack Palance, a great actor (apart from the odd out-of-kilter-hammy performance, and mostly in films that are not very good in the first place) who particularly excelled in villain roles. Second Chance has its fair share of faults and is not a great film, but has enough to make worth a look.Palance's performance is also one of the best things about the film. Some understandably feel that he overdid it here but that was most likely to do that Palance was trying (and succeeded) to make much of a role that didn't have very much to it. It is a marvellously creepy performance that is filled with intensity, particularly frightening in the climax. Linda Darnell has perhaps the most dramatic role of the three leads and does a good job with it, she is quite affecting and holds her own against Palance and Robert Mitchum, who is as charismatic as ever.Another plus is the Mexican scenery, which is absolutely splendid, and is aided by striking photography and colours that are both gritty and vibrant. The film's highlight is the last third, with a crackling climax with the cable car, filled with terror and suspense that one wishes was present earlier in the film. There is also a colourful and fun if also rather overlong fiesta scene and the boxing match has a riveting intensity, its behind-the-scenes story being just as fascinating, the pursuit of Darnell by Palance is also done pretty well.For all Second Chance's good things, it could also have been much better. The story is what brings it down, while it comes to life in the last third, two thirds of the film apart from is not as compelling and rather routine, its loose ends due to having ideas not explained enough make some of it confusing especially in the first part. It also tries to be too many elements, and while none of them are done terribly they've all been done better and better, the first part 's storytelling could have been clearer and the 'dream-like romance' that dominates the middle act suffers from dull pacing and lacking chemistry, Palance and Darnell's chemistry is pretty good and not very involving, pretty mechanical actually, with her and Mitchum.Second Chance's script has some intelligent moments but generally is the kind that gets the job done but with not enough excitement, and the same can be said for the direction. Pacing also could have been much tighter, dragging in particularly the middle act.Overall, routine film but has a great climax, and Palance and the scenery also make it worth a look. 6/10 Bethany Cox

st-shot The magic Mitchum and Russell and Mitchum and Greer found in South of the border noirs isn't in the cards for Linda Darnell in this tired pulp. There is hardly any juice in it to go around. Darnell is on the run from a mob kingpins goon (Jack Palance) who displays his cruel handiwork on someone else who crossed the chief earlier in the film. Mitchum is an up and coming boxer (at 32) who takes up with her and comes to her defense.Darnell was entering the downside of her career and in Second Chance she looks tired and swollen though she can outrun and escape Palance easily. Her scenes with Mitchum lack spark and tension with Mitch showing little enthusiasm himself. The highly anticipated evenly matched climactic battle between Mitchum and Palance never turns into much of a slug fest since the arena is a precarious mountain gondola whose cables are about to give away.Released in 3-D, which may account for the abysmal high wire theatrics and other heavy handed point blank compositions to go along with the lackluster action and dormant chemistry between the leads Second Chance doesn't deserve one at all.

RanchoTuVu One might expect more from a film from the early 50's with both Robert Mitchum and Jack Palance instead of this travelogue like tepid suspenser. Set somewhere in Latin America (probably Peru because people are buying tickets to Lima), Mitchum is a prize fighter who's doing the South American circuit. His "A" level of talent and fame is a bit high for this particular movie which is definitely in the "B" range, and that doesn't necessarily make it one of those forgotten masterpieces. It even manages to practically waste another standout actor, Jack Palance, who plays a hit man in love with runaway Linda Darnell. As with any questionable outcome, the possibilities were there to make something memorable, but they apparently were allowed to slip by, notwithstanding the interesting locations. The cable car finale, instead of being the film's exciting climax, is basically its worst part, with the best stuff coming in bits and pieces with Darnall and Palance sharing the scenes.

bmacv The long climax of this film occurs in a stranded cable car high over the mountains of a fictional Latin American vacationers' paradise; without benefit of the 3-D process in which the movie was originally shot, it seems fairly routine, even for its day. Beyond that, the film can be considered "noir" only by the most generous definition. It's basically a south-of-the-border romantic adventure between prizefighter Robert Mitchum and bad-girl-gone-good Linda Darnell, with Jack Palance as (of course) the heavy. Not a total waste of time if you find it on TV and have not much else to do, but definitely nothing to go out of your way for (and I've seen out-of-print videos going for $70!).