Tip on a Dead Jockey (1957)

Tip on a Dead Jockey looks at the plight of a veteran pilot who is suffering from what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder. Lloyd Tredman (Robert Taylor) has decided to drift along in life, hiding away from family and friends in Madrid. His wife (Dorothy Malone) was about to divorce him, at his request, but changes her mind and goes after her man. Taylor is living on the fringes of Madrid society, giving rowdy parties and avoiding work. He is also carrying on a mild flirtation with his neighbor (Gia Scala) wife of his service buddy (Jack Lord). After losing his shirt when a jockey is killed during a race, Taylor is handed an offer by Martin Gabel--a simple matter of flying some currency from one point to another--illegal but not dangerous. He at first refuses then accepts the offer to save Lord from doing it and becoming a criminal. Taylor has to overcome his terror of flying to help his friend. Marcel Dalio provides some comic relief as does Joyce Jameson as a drunken lady who doesn't know how she ended up in Taylor's bed. Nothing goes smoothly, of course. Drugs enter the picture and Taylor has to decide what he will or will not do. The film was originally scheduled to be directed by Orson Welles but he dropped out and Richard Thorpe took over. Not a great film but solid entertainment done professionally by a very good cast.

You would think that from the title of this 1957 film, you'd be seeing racetracks and jockeys in abundance. This is not the case as the film turns out to be a rather routine story of smuggling drugs.Believe it or not, Robert Taylor and his co-star Dorothy Malone sing at the piano.For a couple that has supposedly divorced, they seem very compatible when together with the exception of one scene.Martin Gabel plays the heavy in this film and how ironic it is to see him in one scene with Jack Lord. Go know that fate would play such a trick on both men as they later succumbed to Alzheimer's.The mid to late 1950s was not a good time for Taylor. His young good looks were going and the heavy lines possibly from heavy smoking, which later killed him, were showing. No wonder he switched to television in the 1960s with the highly successful The Detectives.Marcel Dallio attempts to bring some comic relief to the film, especially when he reverses I thank you from the bottom of my heart.These films dealing with people having to confront their fears are usually not the best. This is not an exception to that rule.

Tip On A Dead Jockey is an average action/adventure film that finds Robert Taylor as an Air Force veteran settled in Spain after he thinks he's gotten a divorce from Dorothy Malone. He's a Korean War pilot group commander who ordered too many men to their deaths and is now just sick of flying. He's living in Madrid with house guest Marcel Dalio and his best friends are fellow Korean war pilot Jack Lord and his wife Gia Scala.It turns out his divorce never went through with Malone so she follows him to Europe to see if she can get her man back. At the same time a rather oily Martin Gabel comes along with a proposition if he'll take a certain package from Cairo to Spain he can receive a handsome amount of cash, enough to clear up his mounting debts.Taylor might need that money as a steeplechase race he had some heavy bets on was lost due to a spill that cost the jockey his life. It's only when Scala puts her foot down on Jack Lord making the run that Taylor does with Dalio along for company.Tip On A Dead Jockey is a strangely introspective action film with Taylor just wanting to retire from life and wanting to leave Malone because he feels she's entitled to the man she married, not who he is now. Dorothy Malone was fresh off an Oscar for Written on the Wind and she was at the height of her career. She's miles from the amoral nymphomaniac she got the Oscar for. But she's also far away from the good girl leading ladies she had played for a decade in any number of B films. Malone gives a good account of herself the woman not taking divorce for an answer. Martin Gabel played mostly oily characters in his film career, so just his first appearance on the screen tells you he's up to no good. Hence there's no real suspense in Tip On A Dead Jockey.Though he gets out of the bind Gabel puts him in, it's a strangely action-less conclusion to the film. Probably it's closer than to what most of us would do in the situation.Tip On A Dead Jockey features some earnest performances by the cast, but the film is not on the best 10 list for any involved.And we never do find out what happened to that jockey.

Tip on a Dead Jockey, is a good introspective movie with character studies of people in turmoil. Robert Taylor plays a former fly boy that has lost his nerve, his love and his honor. He moves to Spain to get away, and forget how afraid he is of everything. He has a house guest, many parties, many days at the races and little of anything else. Lloyd Tredman (Taylor) is a very troubled man. He has divorced his wife Phyllis (Dorothy Malone) without any explanation and she goes to Spain to find out why. The reason he says, is because he is all used up, too many times he sent flyers out to certain death, and there is just nothing left for him to give. Martin Gabel offers him $25,000 to fly in and out of Spain and drop a package filled with money, but Lloyd can not go, too afraid, so he gives the job to Jimmy (Jack Lord) his best friend. Lloyd thinks he is love with Paquita (Gia Scala), Jimmy's wife. Gabel tells him this is his chance with her if Jimmy does not return. He leaves, runs away, but is summoned back to console Paquita when Jimmy is 3 days late. Phyllis accuses him of trying to murder Jimmy because of Paquita, and he goes over the edge and slaps her. This scene is worth the whole movie. Dorthy Malone, as the embittered and confused ex-wife is great in this scene, with Taylor at his best as the accused. In the end he flies the plane, after he regains his courage, and finds that Gabel has hidden heroine in the package. He alerts the authorities and they arrest Gable and his helpers. He then goes to Phyliss to mend the marriage. Robert Taylor is always good as the man with the hidden past as in "High Wall", "Rogue Cop", and "Ride Vaquero".