Kalkutta

"Calcutta" was one of Alan Ladd's most successful movies of the 1940s (even out-grossing "The Blue Dahlia") and is a fun combination of film noir and adventure. Alan Ladd and Gail Russell made a beautiful couple, and I was sorry that they made only two co-starring vehicles together.

Some critics resented the fact that Gail Russell was the villainness of the story, but I have to disagree. It added irony at the end, and debunked the type-casting limitations so many stars of that period had to suffer through. She was a real beauty! As well, the supporting cast is excellent, in particular Broadway's Edith King. Without a doubt, this is a typical Alan Ladd "star vehicle" of the period -- to be enjoyed for what it is (a fun "Terry and the Pirates" type vehicle), and not to be over-analyzed.

It's the stars that make this film watchable: Alan Ladd and Gail Russell.

The story is OK but these days with all the brilliant crime/mystery movies and series on TV and cable, "Calcutta" comes across as pretty lightweight.

A couple of pilots, Neale Gordon and Pedro Blake played by Alan Ladd and William Bendix, who fly cargo over the mountains between Burma and India just after WW2, investigate the murder of fellow pilot Bill Cunningham.

Neale Gordon is suspicious of the motives of women young and old, but falls for his dead friend's fiancé, Virginia Moore (Gail Russell), while keeping his former romantic interest, Marina Tanev (June Duprez), on hold. After a lot of punching and some surprising slapping around of Miss Moore, things get sorted out.

The film was set in a fairly convincing backlot Calcutta, but it could have been set just about anywhere. The strongest influence on the film seems to be "The Maltese Falcon", especially the ending. In fact, Edith King as Jewellery dealer Mrs King is somewhat of a Sydney Greenstreet character.

I must admit I am still an Alan Ladd fan dating from many a Saturday matinée back in the 1950s. He had a quiet confidence that projected strength, and although this film is a bit blah, he carries the picture. Apparently he was one of the genuine nice guys and loyal; more than a couple of people always got work on his films, but he was also a tragic figure - gone too early aged 50.

But there is an even more tragic star in this film, Gail Russell, who died aged only 36. This was fairly early in her career and critics at the time thought she was miscast. However that sense of hesitancy and innocence was fine for the role even though her performance was pieced together from short takes; she was so nervous she could hardly get her lines out. In a recent biography by Steven Glenn Ochoa, "Fallen Star", he tells how she had a nervous habit of ringing her hands, which directors tried to stop, but it's obvious in one of her early scenes in the film. Ladd was very good with her on set but not everyone was like that in her career.

It's these two charismatic stars and their unique screen presence that still makes "Calcutta" worth a look.

When William Bendix plays a man named Pedro, you know there's a problem.

It's post-war. Neale (Alan Ladd) and Pedro (the aforementioned Bendix) have taken the opportunity to fly cargo from Chungking to Calcutta, and the reverse. They have to go over the Himalayas. The money is good.

Sadly, they learn that their friend Bill, who was about to be married, has been murdered in Calcutta. They are determined to find out who did it.

Neale visits his fiance (Gail Russell) and wonders how it is that she is wearing an $8,000 necklace. The two spar, and she throws him out. Neale then learns that Bill had a lot of money in the bank. Could he have been involved in smuggling?

I saw a video of this where the sound was very fuzzy. For me Gail Russell threw this film way off kilter. Consider that Calcutta was made in 1945 and not released until 1947. That means that it was made one year after Russell's debut in "The Uninvited."

This is a different woman. Her alcoholism is already affecting her. She is a nervous wreck and soft spoken, demonstrating not much of a character or personality. Also, as one of the stars of the film, she's hardly in the movie. I do not think originally it was intended to be that way.

There is a big performance by Edith King, who may know something about what happened to Bill, and probably does run a brothel. June Duprez is on hand as a beautiful club singer who has an on-again, off-again relationship with Neale.

I love Alan Ladd - handsome, tough, a strong presence in films, and I enjoy watching him no matter the movie. William Bendix is always wonderful.

However, there's not much of a story and as far as Calcutta - I maybe saw one Indian. Hollywood's idea of a foreign country was to put white people in white suits and leave it at that. Also, given what was going on in India at the time, it's never mentioned in the film.

One bit of trivia - in Calcutta, as in Saigon, the plane Ladd is flying loses its right engine. As a result, cargo has to be dumped from the plane to lighten the load. Identical situation. And always the right engine.

Neale Gordon (Alan Ladd), Pedro Blake (William Bendix), and Bill Cunningham are fellow pilots flying the mountain route between Chungking and Calcutta. Bill is newly engaged to Virginia Moore (Gail Russell) and gets murdered. His friends start digging.

This has a bit of exoticism. It has Alan Ladd. It has some noirish elements. Virginia should be played like the damsel in distress or even a femme fatale, but Gail Russell can only play her like a neighbor's wife. I also don't like her description of the relationship with Bill which cuts it down at the knees. For the exotic element, they are using too many Chinese people. It's supposed to be Calcutta after all. There is some good turns and Alan Ladd is playing up the noir. Mainly, I would like Gail to change her performance.

Calcutta is far from Alan Ladd's finest hour on the silver screen (nor director John Farrow's, for that matter). His trademark contempt for women and his android-like affect prove unappealing and tedious when not undercut by plausible psychology or fleshed-out co-stars. Here he has nothing but a murky Asian hodgepodge of noir cliches to wade through, the inevitable William Bendix at his side (and, this time, on his side). Trying to solve the murder of a fellow trunk-line pilot working the route from India to China, he drifts from hotel to casino to airfield encountering a rogues' gallery of grotesques. Edith King, as a stogie-puffing Baby Jane Hudson, promises more than she delivers; Gail Russell, the black widow of the piece, is kind of like Mary Astor to three parts water. This is one film from the noir cycle whose obscurity gives little cause for regret.