tim777ca

The movie's film noir style is absolutely fabulous, but its plot got me completely confused. Why is McDormand arrested for murdering her boss? Any evidence indicates that she was at the scene of the crime? Since she didn't do it, why does she commit suicide before the trial?

I have the same question for Thornton's character. Any evidence shows that he was there when the con man who had cheated on him was murdered? And how is the UFO stuff related to the plot?

Why this mystery film is made before having those things cleared is really a mystery.

The tycoon/studio head who discovered Jane Russell had to be a nut. Although a big size, she's not glamorous, doesn't have any sex appeal, nor can she act, or even react to Bob Hope's line. There's only one facial expression of hers throughout the picture, which is impatient with whatever Bob does. It's amazing that they brought her back to do SON OF PALEFACE with Bob again.

THE PALEFACE is simply too childish to be funny, so is every film touched by Frank Tashlin, one of the writers of this movie and later became the director of its sequel. It's hard to imagine anyone over ten-years-old would enjoy his tired kiddie gags.

Norman McLeod is one of the many comedy directors who relies heavily on competent writers and fine actors, otherwise he couldn't invent any joke by himself. It's understandable that most of the better Bob Hope movies are those ROAD pictures he made with Bing Crosby, where the directors would just sit back and let them improvise their scenes on the set.

Several unrelated crime cases are piled up to make a propaganda for FBI, with agent Stewart's domestic life unevenly blended in between them. The straight-forward narrative has little action, no suspense, and no excitement. When the last episode is well built up toward a climax, the director just ends it abruptly, much to the audience's disappointment. Fortunately, it has wonderful James Stewart and underrated Vera Miles in the cast, so it wouldn't be dull to the core.

Mervyn LeRoy was a respected director at the time, who had made some commercially successful movies like LITTLE CAESAR (1930), WATERLOO BRIDGE (1940), and RANDOM HARVEST (1942). He's the kind of director that could get lucky when assigned a good script, otherwise his ability is very doubtful. According to character actor Arthur Hill, who worked with him in MOMENT TO MOMENT (1965), "He knew a lot about the cosmetics of acting. He'd counsel you not to move your lips too much, and he was absolutely right. But when it came to understanding what went on inside an actor, he didn't pretend to have an idea. 'Okay, let's have a good scene now with lots of energy,' he'd say to us. After a while we realized that's what he said before every scene."