Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Absolutely the worst movie.

For having a relatively low budget, the film's style and overall art direction are immensely impressive.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

What a movie great story and stars dependable quality writing just sit enjoy and don't analysise

Starting off a review by admitting having no idea who the director of the film you're about to write a review of is certainly far from ideal. Yet it hardly matters if Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas are the actors. The film was adapted by Daniel Mainwaring (under a pen name) from his novel Build my Gallows High (also written under a pen name).A retired private eye runs a gas station in a small town, where he leads a quiet life under the phoney name of Jeff Bailey. He spends his leisure time fishing and whit a young girl he wants to marry. Unexpectedly, he receives the visit of and old friend who told him that Whit Sterling, a boss in the mob, wants to see him. Bailey is forced to explain to his soon-to-be-wife his shady past in a very long flashback: he was hired by Sterling to look for his lover, Kathie Moffet, who had run away with a considerable sum of money, 40.000 dollars, managed to find her in Acapulco but as he fell in love with her, they decided to flee from Sterling and go to live in San Francisco. However, the woman fled again leaving him alone after the dearth of the former Bailey¡s mate in business, who had discovered his whereabouts. When the flash-back finishes Bailey is drawn back to Sterling and starts to suspect that he longs to take revenge on him over what happened.Thus the two plotlines are merged into one. Bailey, back to his usual business, is pulled back into a world he knows as well as the back of his hand. As in any good Noir picture, there are twists and turns where they are needed, sometimes in the shape of a gun coming out of a raincoat pocket, sometimes it's just betraying and stabbing in the back. All that would account to almost nothing if the movie hadn't had Robert Mitchum in in. Hi is Noir. His height lends him the ability to scan a murder scene as if he were a owl up on a tree branch; his eyes are the eyes of a marble statue.

..says ex Private investigator Robert Mitchum (Jeff) to bad-news girl Jane Greer (Kathie). He is discovered at the beginning of the film in his new hideout by henchman Paul Valentine (Joe) who works for badass Kirk Douglas (Whit) whose character is obviously named after movie legend Whit Bissell. Mitchum has changed his name and has a girlfriend Virginia Huston (Ann) who is unaware of his past which is about to catch up with him. We know that Mitch would much rather lie low and skin up a few doobies but things don't pan out that way for him.It was interesting to read that in one scene when Douglas offers Mitchum a cigarette, Mitchum's relaxed response is "smoking" as he already has a ciggie on the go. I remembered that scene as I found it amusing. The reality was that Mitchum just wandered into the scene with an already lit cigarette and ad-libbed his response when Douglas delivered his line. Ha ha. He is one cool customer! It's a great cast with no misfires and I see why it has its reputation as one of the film noir classics. It's missing a seedy bar torch song - otherwise all elements that you'd expect from this genre are there.

Surviving "the curse of 2016 " I expected Spartacus to be wheeled out for a screening on Kirk Douglas. Caught by surprise,I instead spotted a Film Noir where Douglas teamed up with Jacques Tourneur. Impressed by the earthy atmosphere Tourneur gave the raw post-WWII Noir Berlin Express,I decided to look back to the past.The plot:Planning to go for a picnic with a local girl,gas station owner Jeff is pulled back to his past,after businessman Whit orders a meeting. On the drive down to Whit,Jeff remembers his dealings in the past with him: Suspecting his girlfriend Kathie of taking his cash,Whit hires private detective Jeff to track her down. Tracking her down,Jeff and Kathie fall in love for each other,which leads Jeff to lying so that she can get away from Whit. Opening Whit's door,Jeff finds that his past has caught up,when he is met by the sight of Kathie.View on the film:Cutting a fine glass figure, Kirk Douglas gives an excellent performance as Whit.Aware that he does not have to shout out a Noir shadow, Douglas gives Whit a slippery charm,wrapped in sharp suits that keeps Whit's ruthlessness just under the surface. Being the 4th choice for the role, (talk about an ego boost!) Robert "Big Bob" Mitchum shows the studio landed on a winner with his blistering performance as Jeff. Rolling out of the oil and into the arms of Kathie,Mitchum drills into the torn romantic Noir loner,as Jeff's no-nonsense Noir dialogue is paired by Mitchum of Jeff being unable to turn from siren Femme Fatale Kathie. Making Jeff wait for her arrival, elegant Jane Greer gives an alluring performance as Femme Fatale Kathie,whose air of doomed romantic Noir doubt Greer brilliantly uses to tie the Noir loners back into the past.Bringing his own novel into the present,the screenplay by Daniel Mainwaring emphasises the different Noir tracks of Jeff and Whit sharply,from Whit being surrounded in a lifestyle where he believes he can get anything he wants,to the rugged,folk tale wilderness that Jeff sees on the present horizon. Cleverly linking the two devise Noir loners with the Femme Fatale flame of Kathie, Mainwaring wonderfully uses Kathie's glow to take Jeff and Whit's focus off the Noir pit they are sinking into. Bringing out Greer's full beauty under the sun,director Jacques Tourneur & cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca expertly crack light into the Noir shadows to give the title a rustic romantic atmosphere that burns into the Noir past. Grasping Jeff's desperation to become entangled with Kathie, Tourneur layers the screen in brisk low- lighting that exposes all of Jeff's doomed hopes in the present,and throws them back to the past.