Macao (1952)

Believe me - 1952's "Macao" (a cliched and predictably routine "boy-meets-girl" crime-drama set in China) was the sort of film where you'd swear that all of the main actors had, literally, phoned their performances in. It's true.I found that this was especially so of Macao's 2 super-sexy leads, Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell. I mean - The truth is - These 2 hot lookers just weren't right for this picture, at all. No way, Jose.As I understand it - Part of the answer to all of these "phone-in" performances came down the tyrannical rule on the set by director, Josef Von Sternberg. Apparently he and Mitchum were in constant conflict with one another throughout Macao's entire shooting.*Note* - Be sure to watch the bonus extra on this disc of TCM host, Robert Osborne interviewing Mitchum in 1996. Mitchum was 78 at the time and you would never recognize him, ever. He died the following year.

. . . the men of America enjoyed the next best thing, films from a movie studio called RKO. This outfit was controlled by an odd chap named Howard Hughes, who saved his urine in bottles. When Hughes was not busy paying water bills, he used his background as an aeronautics design pioneer to engineer the better brassiere, most especially to display buxom actress Jane Russell's twin assets. Maidenform based the most distinctive lingerie ad campaign of the 1900s by channeling Ms. Russell's reveries, which all began something like "Once I was a hooker\singer\thief in bawdy MACAO, thanks to my Hughes 767 . . . " So as not to detract from the undergarments on parade, RKO wove "movies" such as MACAO around the thinnest of plots, and cast the stiffest of actors this side of those ancient cigar store wooden Indian carvings (such as Robert Mitchum and William Bendix in MACAO). Fortunately, in today's more enlightened times, we can enjoy our Angels and FURIOUS 7s, 8s, and 9s separately.

After the bad experience Josef von Sternberg had had while shooting "Jet Pilot" for Howard Hughes, things improved a bit with "Macao" (1952). It is an escapist divertimento, with the pleasant combination of Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell, two hot stars who projected the image of professional fun-lovers, although you never knew who had brought the grass, and who had the rolling paper. They had appeared together in the 1951 film noir, "His Kind of Woman" (very enjoyable, highly recommended, with Vincent Price in one of his finest roles ever), set in a sound stage Mexico. "Macao" offered the opportunity to travel again, to another Hollywood sound stage, in one of those "exotic" confections (mind you, probably done with a lot of grass, but not enough cash), and who better than Sternberg, who had made the Marlene Dietrich films and "The Shanghai Gesture" (with Ona Munson as the villain); who better than he to evoke the Portuguese colony of Macao in a Californian sound stage? Mitchum is at home in the story of an American who helps to catch a fellow countryman who administers a casino, sell drugs and is wanted by the law, while la Russell, well, a good friend of boss Hughes as she was, only had to sing, be herself and pass a good time in company of a fine cast that included the great Gloria Grahame (forced by Hughes to play a little part, instead of being in "A Place in the Sun"), William Bendix and Thomas Gomez. When Sternberg had already shot two thirds of the script, Hughes had a tantrum "a lo Leonardo DiCaprio" in "The Aviator", he fired Josef, and Nicholas Ray and a few more acolytes shot additional scenes. Enjoy!

Bob Mitchum and Jane Russell make for a rugged romantic duo in this crime film set in the Far East, directed by Josef Von Sternberg. In this rather light, watered down noir Russell, as a streetwise nightclub singer matches Mitchum with world weary put down after put down.Director Von Sternberg, whose visual style of the 30's was the envy of Hollywood but had fallen on tough times and was nearing the end of his career, occasionally captures the magic that displayed Marlene Dietrich with such allure and mystery in films like Shanghai Express and Morrocco. The problem is that Dietrich and Russell are different animals. Russell has never looked more glamorous but she doesn't move like Dietrich and her singing scenes make her look a bit like Gilda on steroids. Still, there is a chemistry between her and Mitchum that keeps the film entertaining. The supporting cast offers a comically hammy turn by William Bendix and a somewhat strange, semi-comatose performance by Gloria Grahame. Von Sternberg borrows heavily from his last good film, The Shanghai Gesture in many scenes, but Macao's main strength rests squarely on the broad shoulders of its two stars.