Die Spielhölle von Las Vegas

Substitute Victor Mature for the part that Robert Mitchum normally played in these RKO films of the Fifties and you've got The Las Vegas Story. Wonder what Mitch was doing at this time?

Nothing terribly groundbreaking in this film. Jane Russell and Vincent Price arrive back in Las Vegas where Jane used to be a singer when she was a single gal. Also working there is ex-boyfriend Victor Mature now with the Clark County Sheriff.

When casino owner Robert J. Wilke turns up dead, there's a host of suspects out there. Jane's diamond necklace also is missing which is seen quite reasonably as a motive as Price said it was in the hotel safe.

Things pretty much go as they normally do in these noir films, some good action sequences a nice car chase through an atomic bomb testing site in the end.

What sets The Las Vegas Story apart is the presence of that old music master Hoagy Carmichael. ANY film he either appears in and/or writes some songs for is a cut above average just for that. He and Russell end the film singing his Academy Award nominated song My Resistance Is Low.

So will your's be once exposed to the talents of Hoagy Carmichael.

Sadly, we learn today of the passing of Victor Mature.

And while not receiving critical acclaim, The Las Vegas Story stands in my memory as an all-time favorite.

Victor Mature, when coupled with Jane Russell make the screen absolutely 'sizzle'. And who could ever forget the lovable Hoagy Carmichael?

But few have seen it. And even film historians when discussing Victor Mature's work rarely even mention it. However, I became hopelessly enthralled with this picture in the 50's and in a curious way, it still 'does it' for me today. The Las Vegas Story was and and remains my personal "Casablanca".

I wasn't expecting much here but I must say I was most pleasantly surprised. For me, a film's success is measured by its capacity to keep me interested without going for a break and this one did just that from beginning to end. This isn't great cinema by any stretch of the imagination but it is great fun. I thought both headliners shone in their parts despite other reviewers' finding them wooden. You could feel their heat radiating every time they appeared together. You could see their eyes shooting daggers at each other. There was no denying their passion.

The story isn't the greatest but it's interesting enough and kept the surprises to the end. Quite a bit is thrown into it, drama, romance, murder and more, so it covers quite a few categories. There's some sleaze too, like when the insurance guy leers at Jane Russell's magnificent décolleté. I guess Howard Hughes just couldn't help himself. Yet Ms Russell is such a class act that her physical attributes are just icing on the cake.

There's also some nifty action scenes that I thought played out quite well, especially the desert sequence starting with the helicopter chase scene and ending with the air control tower. The whole thing had the feel of authenticity to it unlike the cgi stuff we're spoon fed today. These were real people working their craft, performing for the audience, and one hopes having fun at it. At least it seemed that way to me.

Jane Russell's performance in "The Las Vegas Story" couldn't really be classified as acting since most of what she does here is react in a series of carefully posed close-ups. Still, when she relaxes a bit at the piano or offers to help an injured pilot, she's much more than just a sultry glamorous-puss--she's actually human. Russell's a former Vegas chanteuse who returns to her old digs after a stint in Palm Springs and a marriage to gambling-addict Vincent Price; she crosses paths again with ex-flame Victor Mature, now a police lieutenant, yet doesn't bat an eyelash when her hubby is eventually jailed on suspicion of murder. Despite the juicy-fruit dialogue and would-be hard-boiled atmospherics, this is a pretty simple and silly story, indeed. Price is the only member of the cast who tries creating a character; Mature goes through the motions unhappily while piano-man Hoagy Carmichael and police captain Jay C. Flippen are ridiculously over-the-top (and speaking of ridiculous, Carmichael's solo number "The Monkey Song" has to seen and heard to be believed!). There's not many females prominently featured besides Jane Russell...but that's acceptable. She'd walk all over them anyway. **1/2 from ****

Tepid love story except for the exciting chase climax. Seems Mature and Russell had a marriage-bound romance in Las Vegas before they were separated by the war. Now Russell's visiting Vegas with her wheeler-dealer husband Price. Meanwhile, Mature has become a lieutenant on the Vegas police force. So what's going to happen when the former lovers meet as they must, especially when a valuable necklace disappears and a casino murder complicate things.

The movie promotes Vegas's strip at a time when the town was emerging as a gambling-vacation center. The following year, 1953, Sinatra would reinvent his career by connecting the Nevada town with glamorous Hollywood entertainers. And the rest, as they say, is history. Anyway, I expect this flick was one of the first to bring the strip to small town America.

And who better to draw in movie audiences than two of Hollywood's most physical specimens, the broad-shouldered Mature and the buxom Russell, though her attributes are downplayed here. At the time, Mature was an established star, while Russell's career was beginning to take off, especially with the following year's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953).

I doubt, however, that this rather bland narrative advanced either career. Coming from Howard Hughes' RKO and his well-known fascination with Vegas, I imagine contract player Russell had little choice. Anyway, the wryly entertaining Hoagy Carmichael injects some atmosphere, along with a slicked up Robert Wilke in a departure from his usual thuggish roles. Too bad, however, that we don't see more of the great Vincent Price who injects both spirit and style into the proceedings. Nonetheless, catch that swooping copter chase that I'm sure thrilled audiences of the time and still does.

All in all, it looks like the movie was built around Hughes's sharp eye for Vegas's emerging glitz. At the same time, the two leads furnish audience come-ons. Too bad the story itself comes across more like a pedestrian after-thought.