Hazard

Casino operator Fred Clark loves compulsive gambler Paulette Goddard. She's run up $16,000 in debt to him, which she has covered with a rubber check. No problem if she marries him. She refuses. He offers her double or nothing on a card cut: either she squares the debt, or marries him. She agrees, loses, and runs off. Clark hires PI Macdonald Carey to track her down.

Under the direction of George Marshall, the first hour of this movie is an agreeable comedy, made funny by eccentrics that inhabit this cinematic world, played by competent comic actors in odd situations: Stanley Clements, Percy Helton, Max Rosenbloom, and so forth. At about the hour mark, however, with the movie two-thirds over, Marshall seems to recall that he's got to get these two to fall in love and eliminate Clark as an impediment to the course of true love, so there's a shift into more standard comedic situations. And while Miss Goddard is fine in comedy, Carey is not.

He was one of those performers who emerged after the Second World War, classically trained and terrified of looking silly, and incapable of taking a pratfall. So he was replaced in the movies by a later model and instead appeared in over 3000 episodes of Day Of Our Lives. It's nothing to be ashamed of, but he probably wondered what had happened. Meanwhile, Miss Goddard made lots of money, married interesting men and was accused of being a communist. To this she replied "Say that again and I'll hit you with my diamond bracelet."

Paramount put Paulette Goddard in this comedy-adventure playing a compulsive gambler on the run for being in debt to gambler Fred Clark. She manages to escape his willingly open arms, only to be pursued by a private eye (MacDonald Carey) across the country This was not the typical Paramount stuff that comedies were made of. Even though it was directed by George Marshall, an ace at this sort of fare. It had a weak script and MacDonald Carey, although a good actor, didn't have the charisma or box-office following of a Cooper, Milland or MacMurray, Paulette's past leading men. So, it was up to Goddard to carry the film. It was made in 1948 and she was till on top. The film went on to have a semi-successful run.

This is not on video and rarely seen on TV.

Paulette Goddard plays a very despicable woman in this film. Ellen Crane clearly has a MAJOR gambling addiction but it isn't just that she cannot stop gambling but she also continually runs out of her gambling debts. When the film begins, she bets a rich guy and loses--and she had agreed to marry him if she lost. But, being a bad egg, she just sneaks away and leaves the guy flat. Then, a guy who is trying to help someone collect on her bad debt loses her because she once again sneaks off instead of facing up to her gambling losses. Because of everything I'd seen in the first portion of the film, I had a hard time continuing with it to the end. After all, it's hard to care one bit about such a selfish and nasty 'lady'. So is it worth hanging on in this one or would I have been better to have just cut my losses and ended the ordeal?

In hindsight, I should have just cut my losses. The scenes between Macdonald Carey and Goddard were pretty tiresome and the idea got very old very quickly. I didn't like her at all and often didn't understand him. A poorly written film that just didn't improve.