ridiculous rating

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The Bribe (1949) A loaded cast and crew make this an interesting draw (only the director Robert Leonard is little known to me, though he has two Best Director nominations). But really: Ava Gardner in a dramatic noir, with Robert Taylor the male lead (including a very noir voiceover to start). Throw in Charles Laughton and Vincent Price in smaller roles, and Joseph Ruttenberg doing cinematography and Miklos Rozsa the music. And it starts great, in a lonely room in Central America, rain pouring down the windows at night. And then the flashbacks begin. Maybe all this makes me a sucker. I expected a lot even with the clichés pouring on. But we have a formula noir here with all the elements exaggerated and none of them missed-the woman is even a nightclub singer, and wait for the drug in the drink later on. If you are willing to enjoy the form rather than the specifics of the movie, you have your film. It's almost great, and might someday be considered a classic simply because it makes so clear the elements of that form (the noir-alienated male, femme fatale, flashbacks, dramatic lighting, crime and treachery, short clipped phrases). It's so good at all this, it became the model for the comic send-up, "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid." But in a way this isn't fair, because the movie does work on its own, despite its lack of originality. It grows and gets better as you go, and the consistency of the production and the solidity of the plot make it worth seeing. Gardner is not great in the way some leading noir females are, but she has her sculptural poise and is still young as an actress. Taylor has sort of the same problem of not quite rising to the needs of the role, but he is fine. The fact that the two of them are not "amazing" is one of the holdbacks of the film-lots of noirs have formula plots but have such great acting it doesn't matter a bit. So Laughton, then, rising to the occasion, is really amazing. I've heard his performance called campy, but I don't think so, not for the genre. It's subtle, and if he's a character, he's not a caricature. Price, also good, has a someone limited role. Until the end. The final ten minutes is a film wonder. If you can't watch the whole thing for some reason, you can still be thrilled by the ending. The drama, the lighting, the photography, the pace and editing, it's all unparalleled.

Pretty much a quintessential noir complete with incomprehensible plot and decidedly kinky cast. Robert Taylor is a government man sent to the tropical isle of Carlotta (actually the MGM back-lot) to bust up a black market airplane ring. The gang of thieves is led by Vincent Price, who, along with sweaty henchman Charles Laughton, gives Taylor a real run for his money. Caught up in the mix is shell-shocked ex-pat John Hodiak and his sultry Catina singer wife (played by the unbelievable Ava Gardner). Robert Z. Leonard directed and moves this along nicely. Taylor is great and the site of Laughton & Price sharing the screen is something to marvel at. Drenched in prop-sweat, they're like two over-glazed hams! The wildly inappropriate Miklos Rosza score only adds to the delirium.

Spoiler Warning end mentioned! **A compilation summary in my words of highlights & best thats revealed in the reviews & story summaries: Usual glossy high MGM production values. Federal agent Rigby (Taylor), in Central America island to trace stolen airplane engines, falls for the gorgeous wife of his chief suspect. Wife, sultry singer (Gardner) tries to tempt this federal agent from the straight-and-narrow. Taylor seams uncomfortable playing law man who almost sacrifices all for sultry singer Gardner. All in all the love scenes are sincere, probably due to Taylor and Gardner having an affair at the time of the filming, although Taylor was married to Barbara Stanwyck. The final shot-out between Taylor and villain Vincent Price during a carnival, is stylish, interesting, has the elements of death and joy which are effectively juxtaposed and it is both exciting & visually marvelous. The last sequence is worthy of sticking with the movie until it's end. **In pursuit of the stolen aircraft engines on a Central American island, federal undercover agent Rigby (Taylor) meets his chief suspect Hintten (Hodiak) and suspects wife Elizabeth (Gardner), who's a sultry café singer; and is watched by Bealer (Laughton), a "pie-shaped man" with sore feet. Rigby (Taylor) knows he's on the right track when Bealer (Laughton) offers him money to leave fictional island of Carlotta. When Rigby (Taylor) and Elizabeth (Gardner) are drawn to each other, the gang realizes there's more than one kind of bribe. Everybody sweats. Laughton is fabulous as the slovenly loser whose feet hurt, and Price is excellent, as the head villain. singer; and is being watched by Bealer (Laughton), the "pie-shaped man" with sore feet. Rigby (Taylor) finds he is on right track when Bealer (Laughton) offers him money to leave the fictional island of Carlotta. When Rigby (Taylor) & Elizabeth (Gardner) draw close to each other, the gang realizes there are more than kinds of bribes than money. All sweat in the tropical heat. Laughton is fabulous movie stealer as the slovenly loser whose feet are always hurting, and Price is also excellent, as the head villain.

The sultry, steamy tropics rather than the rain soaked American city streets are interestingly substituted here as MGM decides to oneupmanship RKO at their own game of Film-Noir.It works, sort of, as the layers of a horizontal Hell are draped across most of the scenes and give it that eerie, sticky, web of entrapment expression. It is quite impressive high-contrast work that has a veneer of a fatalistic frame of impending encroachment. The second person narration is used, although first person would have worked better, because this has an awkward feel and distracts from the proceedings. The actors are all in top form and the ending is one of the most unusual displays of how to use black and white photography to aggrandize the presentation of brightly lit darkness.