What a waste of my time!!!

From my favorite movies..

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

I've always fond of Ray Milland, he had a capability to fulfill his characters with lots of charisma sporting a macho attitude, but maintaining his smooth touch of class act and charming the screen in a debonair way few others could do. He reminds me of a mix between Alan Ladd, John Wayne and Roger Moore."Lisbon" was his second directed film, which he also produced and acted as the leading star, filmed entirely in the beautiful sunny Portugal in the days of the old regime, back in the mid 50's.Milland plays the role of Captain Robert John Evans, a good-hearted north american smuggler and owner of a fast boat called "Orca", that established his operations in Lisbon smuggling expensive perfumes from North Africa. When a cynical Greek gangster, Aristides Mavros (Claude Rains) offers him a large sum of money to help the millionaire husband of Sylvia Merrill (Maureen O'Hara), held captive in communist China, to evade, Evans is brought to a web of espionage, intrigue and to a femme that may be... fatale !!Directed with panache by Milland and colorfully photographed by cameraman Jack A. Marta (shot in Trucolor and Naturama), "Lisbon", like the title may suggest, is the real star of this film, one of the last good ones produced by Republic Pictures (in association with the portuguese Tobis Studios where the interiors were shot).It's impossible to not be amazed of the beautiful scenery and locations, captured with inspired esthetics by the filmmakers, of "Lisboa Antiga" (Ancient Lisbon), which is also the title of the Fado song that so well represented the heart and soul of the Portuguese people in a time when heritage and patriotism were valued, with Fado singer Anita Guerreiro offering a haunting rendition of it in the scene at the restaurant in Alfama, one of the oldest districts of Lisbon, where Milland and O'Hara's characters first met.Like a tourist guide, but filmed with passion for the city and its surrounding municipalities, Milland shows the world some of the principal Lisbon's secular monuments such as Castelo de São Jorge (Saint George's Castle); Torre de Belém (Tower of Saint Vincent) and Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (Hieronymites Monastery) and also the Rio Tejo (Tagus River), the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula.Milland also used the beautiful and mystical town of Sintra, today World Heritage Site, to shoot a few scenes showing the Seteais Palace, today a 5 stars Hotel, which overlooks the Pena National Palace, a Romanticist castle and one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal.Milland and Maureen O'Hara look genuine fascinated with the surroundings and the local folks and that's visible on camera, they even break characters in the scene with the fruits' vendor.Well, the magnitude of scenery apart and concentrating now on the (side) plot, "Lisbon" is, obviously, reminiscent of the Humphrey Bogart's classics such as "Casablanca" ('42) or "To Have and Have Not" ('44), but more vague & derivative with an upbeat feeling and less intricated in its plot & not so maudlin melodrama, elevated by the optimistic view of the luminous capital of Portugal.All the main cast performs well with Milland (even that if he started showing some signs of aging around that time), joyfully commanding the screen as the desirable leading star in his pet project; Maureen O'Hara, playing the villain for the first time and having a blast doing it and the great Claude Rains (Captain Louis Renault from "Casablanca") stealing all his scenes with the malevolence and cynicism that his character required (and having the best quotable lines in the whole film).Yvonne Furneaux as the naive "secretary"; Francis Lederer as the jealous henchman and Edward Chapman as the arrogant butler, all Rains' employees, offer good supporting turns completing the main cast.In short, "Lisbon" is an enjoyable adventure / film noir / crime film that don't take itself too seriously, to watch with a nostalgic feeling to it, evoking a wonderful Era for filmmaking and presenting a splendorous view of Lisbon, my own hometown, and Sintra, the town where i live for more than 40 years and rewatching this Ray Milland film, produced 20 years before i was even born, reminds me that unfortunately, things didn't changed for the better...

Copyright by 1956 by Republic Puictures Corp. New York opening at the Mayfair: 29 August 1956. U.S. release: 17 August 1956. U.K. release through British Lion: 14 January 1957. Australian release through 20th Century-Fox: 18 July 1957. Sydney opening at the Plaza (ran two weeks). 8,139 feet. 90 minutes.SYNOPSIS: A smuggler, headquartered in Lisbon, attempts to get his hands on a $25 million fortune.NOTES: Milland's second film as a director, following A Man Alone.COMMENT: As Republic movies have a considerable cult following, I racked my brains as to which film I should review next for IMDb. I came up with Lisbon, mostly out of sheer perversity. I like the movie, but most Republic fans do not, as their interest usually lapses for the studio's products after 1950. What Lisbon has to recommend it are its players, its locations and its music score. Maureen O'Hara has a rare unsympathetic role, Milland is his usual suave self, while Yvone Furneaux plays the real heroine with considerable charm. But it's villain Claude Rains who has all the best lines: "Burn two of her dresses!" he screams to his servant. "She kicked me-hard!" replies the eager flunkey. "Indeed? Then burn just one of her dresses." With material like this, the hardworking Rains easily steals the movie's acting honors from Francis Lederer's maniacal killer and Percy "Aloma of the South Seas" Marmont (who makes but a brief appearance near the end). But it's the real Portuguese locations that lift Lisbon into the must-see class. Milland's direction is lively and he uses his backgrounds with considerable skill. In fact, the Naturama screen (it's actually Franscope in disguise) is so cleverly utilized and tightly framed that Lisbon cannot be squeezed at all happily into a standard TV image (which is another reason of course why the usual roster of Republic admirers don't like it).Nelson Riddle's haunting music score, including his top-of-the-chart "Lisbon Antigua", is an unexpected bonus.

"Lisbon" (1956) was directed by Ray Milland. In theory, the stars are Milland, as Capt. Robert John Evans, Maureen O'Hara as wealthy Sylvia Merrill, Claude Rains as rich gangster Aristides Mavros, and Yvonne Furneaux as Maria Maddalena Masanet, a young woman who is "secretary" to Mavros. In fact, the real star of the movie is the beautiful city of Lisbon. The plot involves Rains as a successful Greek criminal, and Milland as a smuggler. They are both "gentlemen thieves," but Milland is an honest thief, and Rains is a very dishonest thief.Maureen O'Hara is the wife of a wealthy man being held captive somewhere. (Somehow, the U.S. State Department is involved as well, although it what never clear to me what they were doing in the movie.)The plot reminded me of "To Have and Have Not," except that Milland isn't Bogart, and O'Hara isn't Bacall. (Actually, I should say Furneaux isn't Bacall. It's complicated.) The best part of the film is the few minutes when Milland and O'Hara spend time in a fado club. The beautiful young fadista is the brilliant Anita Guerreiro. Now, 60 years later, Guerreiro is still singing fado in Lisbon. We heard here sing the fado in a club in April, 2017!We saw this film on (gasp) VHS. It would probably work better in a theater, but it's unlikely that anyone will ever show it, except maybe in a retrospective of one of the leads. If you have VHS capability, watch it that way. Just don't expect to see a thrilling melodrama. Expect to see the city of Lisbon, and that's a city worth seeing.To summarize, if you want to see boats and bad guys, watch "To Have and Have Not." If you want to see Lisbon and hear Guerreiro, watch "Lisbon."P.S. Dumbest line in the show, spoken by by Milland when O'Hara asks him about the fado Lisboa Antiga. "It's home sweet home for Brazilians." It's not.Smartest line in the show, spoken by Yvonne Furneaux, when she tells Milland that he's going to be killed, and he ignores her. "Imbecile!"

This obscure adventure romance from Republic may be thin on story but is, at least, distinguished by its lovely Technicolor photography shot on location in the title city and the pedigree of its Hollywood veteran cast, Ray Milland (who also directed), Maureen O'Hara and Claude Rains. The film is further blessed with a light, engaging Nelson Riddle song, "Lisbon Antigua," which plays throughout the proceedings. The Riddle song was a radio hit at the time, and is still pretty easily recognized.The story involves Milland as a smooth operating smuggler (his operations are always kept vague) hired by suave well bred scoundrel Rains to pick up a "package" from an American just arrived in the city (O'Hara) which will involve her kidnapped wealthy husband. The story is neither here nor there, really. The combination of visual pleasures, Riddle's musical score and a capable cast of veterans may be enough for some viewers to want to spend an hour and a half of their time with this fairly inconsequential enterprise.Rains is always fun to watch with his velvet voice, as a suave sophisticate who is also moral corruption incarnate. He seems to be almost playing his part in his sleep this go round but a Claude Rains asleep is still a great deal more entertaining than many other actors awake.At one point in the film Rains delicately makes reference to O'Hara of how lovely she looks and how even more lovely she would look should something unforeseen "happen" to her millionaire husband, with he, Rains, receiving a small portion of her inherited good fortune. O'Hara is shocked and outraged by the suggestion, calling him a monster. Rains, realizing his faux pas, quickly regroups, saying that "in my own clumsy fashion" he was merely attempting to pay her a small compliment for not yielding to an idea to which a less scrupulous woman might succumb.As Rains hints at the implications of a murder he could arrange, a small smile constantly dances across his lips. His expression could almost be that of a wine connoisseur discussing a rare vintage very much to his liking. It's a small, almost throwaway moment in the film, but it's a pleasure to watch the effortless aplomb that Rains brings to the scene.