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Post by pimpinainteasy on Jan 10, 2019 4:19:38 GMT
i confess. i watched the movie because it had two tremendously attractive babes - jane russell and gloria grahame. also the 6.7 rating on IMDB suggested that the movie was pretty good. i was wrong. the film is a piece of crap. most of it was clearly shot in a studio with a few outdoor scenes of macau thrown in. the sets are nothing to write home about. the same can be said about the action scenes. there are a few chase scenes with a lot of shadows (once again almost certainly shot in a studio and not the real macau) and thats it. we do not even get a good look around macao.
the plot is nothing interesting. a few americans arrive on a ship in macao - a detective, a drifter and a singer. there is a case of mistaken identity with a fugitive night club owner in macau thinking that mitchum is a detective who has arrived to arrest him. there was very little suspense, the actors sleepwalk through their roles. everything about the film was lackluster, except for the two female leads.
JANE RUSSELL might be a tremendously beautiful woman but she does not have the screen presence of the absolutely regal GLORIA GRAHAME. RUSSELL does feature in a fight scene with MITCHUM which might have been inserted as an afterthought to show off a bit of leg in an entertaining scene where she rips open a pillow with an electric table fan. MITCHUM's introduction scene is also pretty funny with him saving RUSSELL from a goofy dancing square guy. the ending was absurd. this was a waste of 80 minutes. some scenes were apparently directed by NICHOLAS RAY after the other director got fired.
(3/10)
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Post by mikef6 on Jan 10, 2019 5:02:02 GMT
Macao is a somewhat routine crime thriller but far from “a piece of crap.” This film had a troubled production. It came from RKO a year after Howard Hughes took control of the studio. Hughes hired Sternberg for the prestige factor but Sternberg ran his set like a tin pot dictator which turned the entire cast against him. Although Sternberg was credited as sole director, he was fired toward the end of the shoot and Nicholas Ray was brought in to finish and do re-shoots. It is still a matter controversary which parts belong to Sternberg and which to Ray. But is spite of all the backstage squabbling, the finished product is satisfying even for a routine script because of the lead cast of Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell and because of the deep supporting cast of William Bendix, Brad Dexter, Gloria Grahame (“The Bad and the Beautiful” the picture that won Grahame a Best Supporting Actress Oscar had been released earlier the same year), Thomas Gomez and Philip Ahn who was not only credited but has an actual by-God Asian ancestry. Bendix, Russell, Mitchum 
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Post by politicidal on Jan 10, 2019 6:06:25 GMT
I saw it once on TCM years ago. I reckon it didn’t leave much of an impression on me since I barely remember the plot. If people have to check out a movie starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell, see His Kind of Woman instead.
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Post by timshelboy on Jan 10, 2019 6:34:48 GMT
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Post by wmcclain on Jan 10, 2019 12:54:05 GMT
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Post by london777 on Jan 12, 2019 3:04:56 GMT
I am with pimpin on this one. Even as a thirteen year old I turned up my nose at it. I was expecting a blend of "Out of the Past" and "White Heat". Not quite. 3/10 is a bit harsh, though. It is worth at least 4/10. I recently watched another film featuring Macao (along with Hong Kong): The Scavengers (1959), a tired Noir directed by John Cromwell. It was his last US effort and he was obviously burnt out. It does "star" Carol Ohmart, whom I think pimpin would like. No better than "Macao" (also 4/10), but its minimal budget gives it more excuse.  |
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Post by teleadm on Jan 12, 2019 16:37:56 GMT
I was lookin' up who wrote the story, Robert Creighton Williams, he wrote stories for B-Westerns, at leats 35 of them, this was his first outside his comfort zone.
I've heard this story before: We have a great story, now let's looks in the Atlas and place it somewhere!
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Post by london777 on Jan 12, 2019 17:46:52 GMT
I've heard this story before: We have a great story, now let's look in the atlas and place it somewhere! Has there ever been a non-Swedish film set in Sweden? I guess not. Too expensive a location. |
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Post by teleadm on Jan 12, 2019 17:56:45 GMT
I've heard this story before: We have a great story, now let's look in the atlas and place it somewhere! Has there ever been a non-Swedish film set in Sweden? I guess not. Too expensive a location. 1962  |
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Post by london777 on Jan 12, 2019 19:08:57 GMT
Has there ever been a non-Swedish film set in Sweden? I guess not. Too expensive a location. 1962 Thanks. Looks half-decent. But I meant shot on location in Sweden. How much of this was? |
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Post by teleadm on Jan 12, 2019 21:20:19 GMT
The Counterfiet Traitor 1962 Thanks. Looks half-decent. But I meant shot on location in Sweden. How much of this was? 2011 Do you have some kind of rash against us who lives up here in the cold countries? Just because our ancestors raped and plundered your country 1000 years ago. |
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Von Sternberg, famous for fetishising Evelyn Brent in feathers (UNDERWORLD) and furs (THE LAST COMMAND) and Dietrich as a gorilla (BLONDE VENUS) and swathed in smoke from a steam train as the "notorious white flower of China" (SHANGHAI EXPRESS), here clads his leading ladies in metallic costumes:
