Diagonaldi Very well executed

BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

SpecialsTarget Disturbing yet enthralling

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

writers_reign There's an outside chance that if I had not watched the new release Allied the day before the BBC screened this entry from 1950 the similarities to Casablance may have escaped me, but after watching Steven Knight's blatant rip-off of the Mike Curtiz classic it was difficult not to make the connection: We're in the desert, there's a casino involved, a singing piano player, a reunion between a married woman and the man she had an affair with a few years earlier; there are no letters that will ensure safe passage but there IS a diamond necklace that everyone is after, need I go on. For me, the major selling point was the Hoagy Carmichael song My Resistance Is Low, which I knew came from this movie, which I had never seen, so it was a bonus when Hoagy and Russell laid another great Carmichael number, I Get Along Without You Very Well on us. As it turned out the film itself wasn't too hard to take with, apart from the three leads - Victure Mature, Jane Russell, Vincent Price had nice turns from the likes of Will George and Brad Dexter. I'm guessing that at the time the producers figured My Resistance Is Low was going nowhere so they threw it away at the very end, even so this is well worth a look.

MARIO GAUCI Apart from being another entry in my planned month-long tribute to Vincent Price, this also served as a nod to the recently-departed Jane Russell (as should be the upcoming MACAO from the same year, to be included in my other ongoing retrospective dedicated to Josef von Sternberg). Anyway, this is a minor noir effort: indeed, it is one of the sunnier of its type, in that the narrative unfolds as much by day as it does during the night; besides, for all its intended gloom, there is a healthy vein of humor running through it! It is saved, however, by the RKO production values (the studio, above any other, gave the genre its quintessential look) and the star cast (which also includes Victor Mature, Hoagy Carmichael, Brad Dexter and Jay C. Flippen).The plot involves Russell's return to the gambling capital of the world after she had spent the war years as a chanteuse there (at a club where Carmichael – who else? – is the typically laidback pianist/observer). In the meantime, she has married wealthy Price but does not know he is close to bankruptcy (before noticing a wire he received reporting the suicide of his Boston colleague)!; another old acquaintance is cop-on-the-beat Mature, bitter at her apparent desertion of him. Needless to say, Russell and Mature ultimately get to rekindle their affair, but the path runs far from smoothly: apart from their own mutual resentment, Price does not look favourably upon his wife's former conquests, while complicating things further is the expensive necklace Price uses as a guarantee in order to try his luck at one of the leading casinos (which is being closely watched by insurance investigator Dexter). Eventually, the new owner of Russell's old haunt is found murdered (after he had denied Price further credit) and the necklace stolen. Of course, Price becomes the key suspect – and Russell accuses Mature of having framed him so as to get back at her! However, it is obvious from the get-go that the real culprit is the wolfish Dexter, and the film climaxes decently with a desert helicopter chase and a shootout in an abandoned hangar. As for Price, he is ready to pay the price {sic} of his own criminal activity back home i.e. embezzlement.The film is reasonably enjoyable, with most of the expected noir elements intact – including its fair share of hard-boiled dialogue, not to mention having Russell and Carmichael warble a number of songs – but the contrived scripting (by Earl Felton and Harry Essex, who ought to have known better!), cornball attempts at comedy (mainly having to do with Sheriff Flippen betting what Mature's next move will be with respect to both solving the case and sorting out his private life!) and an incongruous sentimental streak (clearly evoking CASABLANCA {1942} in the subplot involving a couple of underage elopers!) prevent the promising mixture from rising to greater heights.

samhill5215 I wasn't expecting much here but I must say I was most pleasantly surprised. For me, a film's success is measured by its capacity to keep me interested without going for a break and this one did just that from beginning to end. This isn't great cinema by any stretch of the imagination but it is great fun. I thought both headliners shone in their parts despite other reviewers' finding them wooden. You could feel their heat radiating every time they appeared together. You could see their eyes shooting daggers at each other. There was no denying their passion.The story isn't the greatest but it's interesting enough and kept the surprises to the end. Quite a bit is thrown into it, drama, romance, murder and more, so it covers quite a few categories. There's some sleaze too, like when the insurance guy leers at Jane Russell's magnificent décolleté. I guess Howard Hughes just couldn't help himself. Yet Ms Russell is such a class act that her physical attributes are just icing on the cake.There's also some nifty action scenes that I thought played out quite well, especially the desert sequence starting with the helicopter chase scene and ending with the air control tower. The whole thing had the feel of authenticity to it unlike the cgi stuff we're spoon fed today. These were real people working their craft, performing for the audience, and one hopes having fun at it. At least it seemed that way to me.

moviemorton Saw this movie om Jane Russell's 85th Birthday (Thanks TCM!) I was impressed by her great performance - I think the first I've seen in a dramatic role. Victor Mature was excellent, too, even if he was playing to type. Hoagy was good, also, but nothing can touch his performance in "Best Days of Our Lives." J.C. Flippen also good in what would become a stereotypical role providing comic relief but not a fop in the style of "Barnie Fife". Am curious about the scene shot in an abandoned Air Force base. Logic dictates this is Nellis AFB but I doubt it was abandoned in 1952. Does anybody know where this location shoot took place?