Macao (1952 film)

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Macao
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJosef von Sternberg
Nicholas Ray
Screenplay byStanley Rubin
Bernard C. Schoenfeld
Robert Mitchum
Story byRobert Creighton Williams
Produced byHoward Hughes
Samuel Bischoff
Alex Gottlieb
StarringRobert Mitchum
Jane Russell
William Bendix
Gloria Grahame
CinematographyHarry J. Wild
Edited bySamuel E. Beetley
Robert Golden
Music byAnthony Collins
Jule Styne
Production
company
Distributed byRKO Radio Pictures
Release dates
  • April 30, 1952 (1952-04-30) (New York)[1]
  • May 2, 1952 (1952-05-02) (Los Angeles)[2]
Running time
81 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1.1 million (U.S. rentals)[3]

Macao is a 1952 American adventure film noir directed by Josef von Sternberg and Nicholas Ray and starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, William Bendix and Gloria Grahame.

Plot

The body of New York City police lieutenant Danial Lombardy is discovered in the waters near Hong Kong. Three strangers arrive on the same ship at the nearby port of Macao: Nick Cochran, a cynical but honest veteran, Julie Benton, a sultry nightclub singer and Lawrence Trumble, a jovial traveling salesman who deals in coconut oil, silk stockings, cigars and contraband.

Corrupt police lieutenant Sebastian notifies casino owner and underworld boss Vincent Halloran about the new arrivals. Halloran has been notified about an undercover New York policeman trying to lure him into international waters so that he can be arrested by British police for the murder of Lombardy. Sebastian informs Halloran that Nick is the cop. Halloran hires Julie as a singer, partly to learn what she knows about Nick. He tries to bribe Nick to leave Macao, but Nick is interested in Julie better and refuses.

Trumble offers Nick a lucrative commission to help him sell a stolen diamond necklace, which he accepts so that he can start a new life with Julie. However, when Nick shows Halloran a diamond from the necklace, Halloran recognizes it as part of the same cache that he had sent to Hong Kong only a week earlier to be sold. Now certain of Nick's identity, he lays a trap for Nick, who is knocked unconscious and taken prisoner.

Nick is guarded by two thugs and Halloran's girlfriend and head croupier Margie. Worried that Halloran is planning to dump her for Julie, Margie helps Nick escape so that Julie will accompany him out of town. The thugs discover that Nick is missing and Halloran's murderous henchman Itzumi leads them in pursuit of Nick down to the waterfront. Trumble appears and tries to help Nick, but the thugs mistake him for Nick and kill him. Before dying, Trumble confesses to Nick that he manipulated him in an attempt to entrap Halloran and informs him that a police boat is situated just offshore to capture Halloran if he can be lured beyond territorial waters.

Nick learns that Halloran has invited Julie on a trip to Hong Kong to retrieve his expensive necklace. Nick lurks by the dock and kills Itzumi. Taking his place at the helm of Halloran's boat, Nick steers Halloran toward the waiting police. After a violent fistfight with Halloran that leaves him unconscious in the water, Nick hands him to the British authorities.

Cast

Production

Russell and Mitchum

Macao was the second feature that Josef von Sternberg directed to fulfill a two-picture contract with RKO Radio Pictures, following Jet Pilot (filmed in 1950, released in 1957). Shooting began in September 1950 and the film was released in April 1952.[4]: 162, 166–167 

Sternberg's notorious directing style greatly irritated Jane Russell and Gloria Grahame, and it was reported that arguments were common on the set.[4]: 167 

During the final stages of filming, director Nicholas Ray was enlisted for retakes on a critical fistfight scene between Robert Mitchum and Brad Dexter, as Sternberg's direction of the scene was deemed unsatisfactory by producer Alex Gottlieb. Although uncredited, Ray's contribution to the film was recognized by Sternberg.[4]: 168 [5]: 53  Sternberg, who "despised the script and the close control" by the studio, disowned responsibility for the production.[4]: 111 

Music

In the film, Jane Russell sings the Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen ballad "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)" and the Jule Styne and Leo Robin song "You Kill Me".[5]: 52 

Reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther wrote:

"Macao" is a flimflam and no more—a flimflam designed for but one purpose and that is to mesh the two stars. The story itself is pedestrian—a routine and standardized account of a guy getting caught in the middle of a cops-and-robbers thing. And except for some well-placed direction by .Josef von Sternberg in a couple of scenes, especially in a "chase" among nets and rowboats, the job is conventional in style. The show is between Miss Russell and Mr. Mitchum as they brazenly parade their irresistible persons back and forth across the screen and in various haphazard poses designed to reveal their charms. It is remarkable how often Miss Russell, in an assortment of low-cut sweaters and gowns, is directed to lean toward the camera—quite by accident, of course—and how often and casually Mr. Mitchum is surprised with his manly chest bared. For those who delight in such glimpses, "Macao" is generous to a fault. Certainly the principal performers do not reveal much more.[1]

Critic Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times wrote:

Josef Von Sternberg, developer of Dietrich, directed this latest romantic adventure with Glamour Girl Jane. He has seen to it that she was photographed flatteringly, but with none of the soft focus, gauzy richness of texture that transfigured the Marlene of the 30s, and he has thrown in a few of the atmospherics shadows that were his trade-mark. The only other indication that the film wasn't supervised by any of a half-hundred other directors is in the players' speech. It ls so low you can barely hear lt. For all this unwonted gentility, however, "Macao" is just another of those make-believe tough melodramas in which the boy and girl conceal beneath their bored exteriors and bandied insults, the truth, which is that they really care."[2]

The film recorded a loss of $700,000.[6]

References

  1. Crowther, Bosley (May 1, 1952). "The Screen: Two New Films in Premieres Here". The New York Times. p. 34.
  2. Scheuer, Philip K. (May 3, 1952). "Flynn Finds Drama on Ocean Floor". Los Angeles Times. p. 12.
  3. "Top Grossers of 1952". Variety. 189 (5): 61. January 7, 1953.
  4. Baxter, John (1971). The Cinema of Josef von Sternberg. New York: A.S Barnes & Company. ISBN 9780498079917. LCCN 70-159812.
  5. Sarris, Andrew (1966). The Films of Josef von Sternberg. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc. LCCN 66-22482.
  6. Jewell, Richard B. (2016). Slow Fade to Black: The Decline of RKO Radio Pictures. Oakland, California: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520289673.