Review of Macao (1952) by Miguel S — 18 Aug 2010

Shamelessly derived from "Casablanca" - and a decent job of it. Right down to Mitchum's winning money off a crooked game in an exotic casino to fund a fast ticket out of town.

OK, it's loaded dice, not a rigged roulette wheel - it's a ticket for Mitchum, not his dame - it's a ship, not a plane - and it's Hong Kong's mid-Century gambling pit, not Morocco's. Big diff.

And there's a local lawman winking at the law, a casino-owner with a shady past - and plenty of other cinematic intellectual borrowing as well.

The plot/dialogue is a little too fluffy for true-noir (though there's some sharp/smart enough talk sprinkled about), still it's an entertaining 85 minutes - and a bit of a surprise that classic-noir fans have left this film this fairly unnoticed.

Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell ain't no Bogey and Bacall, but framed by this seedy Occidental den-of-sin filled with players playing both sides of the law, the duo is entertaining enough to watch. Mitchum always made for a good noir-gumshoe and there's just (barely) enough snooping here for him to hang his Fedora on.

Here, Russell was still well under Howard Hughes' thumb/eye, so the camera's obsessively driven to showcase her figure/endowment from every angle. As the smoky saloon songster, she belts out a couple o' forgettable numbers. Delivery-wise, Russell's interesting; at the mere turn of a word, she flips back-and-forth from hard-bit and hard-hearted to the little girl still dreaming of her Prince Charming, thereby proving a degree of acting ability. The rest of the cast plays fairly flat.

Save some establishing shots, this is all set-piece work, and it shows.

RECOMMENDATION: Not top-tier classic-noir, but still, really, fans of such should spin it up.