UnowPriceless
hyped garbage
Gutsycurene
Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.
Mathilde the Guild
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
Helio
Near the beginning of the film there is a god awful scene of six Lucille Balls dancing out of sync shrilly singing "La la la, La la la" in high pitched voices reminiscent of a Three Stooges background music. If you can get past that the rest of the movie will seem brilliant. You might want to consider fast forwarding through that or turning off the sound. I can't get that shrill "singing" out of my head.I liked it that they didn't have subtitles for the Spanish used in the movie. I didn't always catch what was said but it made it more interesting.
Man99204
No actress played "Cheap Broad" better than Claire Trevor. She is the high point in this film. In this film she is a high class dame pretending to be a "cheap Broad", and she manages to do with with little to no help from the script. Fred MacMurray plays a character who is both a romantic lead, and an apparent bad guy. His character is radically different from the character he played on "my Three Sons".Raymond Burr plays a very convincing villain. His character is also very different from the character he played on "Perry Mason".The weak point in this film is "Mexico", or at least Hollywood's concept of Mexico in 1950. The location shots are actually filmed in the Greater Los Angeles area - in areas which look nothing at all like Baja California.This film also is very contrary in its portrayal of Latino characters - especially Latinas. Many of the characters are not people but rather cartoon-ish characters.
writers_reign
This is the kind of movie fading Hollywood stars used to come to England to make in the fifties and dire as they mostly were those British movies were light years ahead of this piece of cheese. All hands - director Seiter, writer Freeman and cast Trevor, MacMurray and Burr - had done much better stuff and all must have been equally desperate for any gig at all to take this on. To call it rickety is like calling the bridge at San Luis Rey a solid construction: The first ten minutes are squandered setting up Claire Trevor as an undercover Fed which is then negated by having Fred MacMurray appear out of left field with no back story and coming on like a hood. Everyone concerned seems to be playing in a different movie and chemistry between Trevor and MacMurray is minimal to non-existent. This should have gone straight to video - in Pluto.
zsenorsock
Very odd, unusual film that mixes noir with Lucy Ricardo and "It Happened One Night".Claire Trevor plays LA Policewoman Madeleine Haley who is sent to Mexico to see what information she can get about Pete Ritchie (Raymond Burr) and his drug smuggling ring. Word has it that Ritchie has an eye for the ladies. However in a scene that smacks of Lucy Ricardo, working as a showgirl Haley tries desperately to flirt and get Ritchie's attention but he completely ignores her. It's PURE Lucy.In trying to play up to one of Ritchie's boys, Haley then gets involved with a rival hood, Johnny Mackelin (Fred MacMurray who seems to be in the midst of transitioning from the tough guy of "Double Indemnity" to "The Shaggy Dog") who steals Ritchie's drugs and lams it for the border, taking Haley with him. The film then turns into a comedy noir version of "It Happened One Night" as the two share a hotel room together (Trevor at 40 and with a history of playing saloon girls and the like unbelievable as the virginal Haley, wary of Mackelin trying to take her virtue!), traveling by plane and automobile.MacMurray is actually pretty good as he balances between noir and comedy, while Burr is excellent as the very serious heavy. As a curiosity, Roy Roberts plays Gumbin, Haley's boss. Years later he would frequently play the judge on Burr's "Perry Mason". Trevor sad to say is the weak point here. She's too old for the role and its just not the type of part ("Stagecoach", "The High and Mighty", "Key Largo") she excels at.Still, an odd little diversion that does have its little surprises (and one of the worst showgirl numbers this side of "Showgirls"!)
