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Second Chance (1953)

To really enjoy this movie you have to know its place in the RKO filmmaking world. And you'd probably have to see it in 3D as it was originally intended. You won't get too far with the meandering plot that doesn't create tension, or romance, or even curiosity. We are made to simply watch and wait for something to happen.

Of course, something does happen, and in a big way, near the end, something completely separate from the intended plot. And even in 2D you get the drama and the dizzying depth of it all. And you get to watch three very big stars in expensive Technicolor--producer Howard Hughes really laid it all out for this one. Robert Mitchum looks good as both lonely man wooing the girl and as a boxer (briefly). Linda Darnell is the woman every man wants, apparently (especially Hughes, by the way). And Jack Palance is like a piece of wreckage, wired up and angry and with a face to sink a thousand ships.

The setting is interesting, too, all shot on location in Mexico, except some reshooting of the boxing scene (oddly enough, because it looks so authentic). Mitchum and Palance both got into some local fistfighting, and traded blows once during filming. When the movie came out, even though it has hardly any plot (other than surviving the final disaster scene), it was a success. Good thing, because RKO was financially reeling, and would in two years be bought by a rubber company and by the end the of the decade was the first of the Majors (the big 5 Hollywood studios) to completely go under.

So, don't expect much and you'll find lots of little things to enjoy. And maybe they'll get the Technicolor goosed up properly in a re-release someday, complete with 3D effects.

Rather dire star-vehicle for Robert Mitchum and Linda Darnell. Gangster's girl in South America, anxious to turn herself over to the police and release incriminating evidence to Washington officials against her boyfriend, instead finds herself on the run from the mobster's murderous stooge (whom she's also apparently been involved with!). She uses a smitten professional boxer from the States to get the thug off her tail, but he's relentless and they all end up in a crippled cable car suspended perilously over the valley. Muddled script by Oscar Millard and Sydney Boehm, from D.M. Marshman Jr.'s original treatment, makes a particular mess of the relationship between breathless Darnell and good-guy Mitchum (she's such a complete blank anyway, it's confounding why Mitchum would even give her the time of day). The climax is well-directed (if visually unconvincing), there's a colorful wedding celebration with fireworks, and Jack Palance is a menacing heavy. ** from ****

When characters in a film get into a cable car, you know it's only a matter of time before PING! the cable snaps. Strand by strand, of course, for maximum

tension (ha ha). Mitchum the boxer and Darnell the ex-moll on the run take

the fateful cable car up to a little Mexican hilltop town whose inhabitants have created a totally cardboard experience for tourists. The architecture is

"hacienda style" and lady guests can buy pseudo flamenco costumes in the

"vibrant, bustling" street market. Any Mexican not employed in the hotel,

selling peasant tat, or playing unctuous Mariachi music is out in the plaza

waving a balloon and shouting for joy, or performing a sinuous dance of no

particular origin. It reminds me of the many embarrassing ads on British TV

featuring funny Europeans. Then the main cast members climb aboard that

cable car and it becomes a lifeboat movie and you can write the script

yourself. Two cheers, though, for the feisty British middle-aged couple ("My

wife can help - she was a nurse's aide in London during the Blitz!").

Mitchum is brilliant as usual but Darnell is a little clumsy in the love scenes and speaks as though she was dubbing her lines.

The producers could have skipped the first hour, which is just filling time until the tram trip climax. And what a nail-biter that teetering-over-the-abyss is-- very well done in the special effects department. My only regret is the Palance-Mitchum face off, which should have been a bigger doozy than it is, considering it was for the broad-shoulders championship of Hollywood. Then too, both guys remain immaculately dressed the whole 90-minures—not what you'd expect of tough guys south of the border.

The first part, unfortunately, is pretty listless, except when poor Doc Adams, oops!, I mean Milburn Stone gets it in the gut. Looks like the producers knew they were short on substance, so they filled the Technicolor screen with a bunch of local color. Still, there's a lot of rather aimless walking around to and fro. And, oh yes, I almost forgot Mitchum's big boxing match that looks like it was filmed in a bull ring. Good thing he finally decided to use his power-house right, otherwise there might have been no story. And what a topical plot device putting the lovely Darnell across the border to escape a crime commission. Audiences no doubt connected that with the Kefauver Commission, so much in the news at the time.

On the acting front, Mitchum is his usual laid- back self, while, unfortunately, Darnell isn't given much to work with. At the same time, director Mate's non-use of close-ups denies Palance the skull-like menace that would otherwise fill in needed drama. Anyway, don't expect much until a climax that almost makes up for all that earlier dithering around.

Picture this scene, it's a rainy Saturday afternoon in England, circa 1962, the televised horse racing on BBC has been cancelled and a voice-over informs us that "We are unable to bring you the scheduled programme, instead the film ... will be shown". It would usually be REBECCA, HIGH NOON or SECOND CHANCE. I got to love these three movies, which I would always associate with bad weather at Doncaster. SECOND CHANCE was the only movie in which screen tough guy Robert Mitchum played a prizefighter, and he really looked the part. Mitchum had experience as a boxer, official and unofficial. In November, 1951, he was on location filming ONE MINUTE TO ZERO and was involved in a brawl with the heavyweight boxer Bernie Reynolds, who fought Rocky Marciano and Joe Baksi. Mitchum proved he was a tough guy off the screen as Reynolds was taken to hospital while Mitchum walked away without a scratch.

The boxing match in SECOND CHANCE was filmed at the Plaza de Toros Bullring in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and was beset with problems, mainly due to the heat. Mitchum's screen opponent was Abel Fernandez, who had recently retired from the ring due to a near fatality. This was his film debut, which coincidentally had the story of an American boxer barnstorming the South American circuit trying to regain his nerve after a ring fatality in New York. Unfortunately for Mitchum, Fernandez occasionally forgot he was in a movie fight and not a pro fight, he knocked out Mitchum three times during the arduous all-day shoot in the boiling sun. Mitchum eventually flattens his movie opponent, and then goes over to his corner and enquires, "You okay, Rivera?" - no trash talking or histrionics back then in the fight game. Opponents showed respect. Fernandez later appeared in THE HARDER THEY FALL, but got type-cast playing Indians in television westerns before landing a leading role in the TV hit "The Untouchables".

The bad guy in SECOND CHANCE is another ex-boxer Jack Palance, who also fought Joe Baksi. Method actor Palance got carried away in his fight scene with Mitchum aboard the cable car, but Mitchum retaliated and Palance vomited after taking a right hand in the stomach. Palance frightened the life out of me when I was a child, the menacing voice, sinister grin, almost plastic facial features and intense air of menace about him are well served in this 3-D action thriller. Every time Palance makes an entrance, "Bad Man" music plays, as if we couldn't work out that he is a psychopath, hissing and virtually spitting evil every time he's in a scene with Linda Darnell. For someone so athletic, Palance never seems to be able to catch up with the fleeing Darnell, who is wearing very high heels on cobblestones. Palance is hindered in his chase by the local peasants, who conveniently always seem to get in his way, as he knocks their wares over. Palance confesses to Darnell that he's always had the hot's for her, and would be willing to forget about silencing her if she goes away with him (but wouldn't Spilato then send another hit-man to get them both?)

The climax aboard a stationary cable car thousands of feet in the air is very exciting, but recently came back to haunt me while on holiday in Matlock, Derbyshire. The wife and I were sitting hundreds of feet in the air in a cable car, which had come to a deliberate halt so the tourists could enjoy the marvellous view, when I suddenly thought of what happened to the cable car in SECOND CHANCE. I immediately had a panic attack which would have made Woody Allen look brave, unlike the plucky English couple in the cable car, who look like they have wandered into this movie from the set of THE LADY VANISHES. I love the way health and safety hadn't yet been invented in 1950's films. Mr. Woburn, a harmless middle-aged pipe smoking genial gent, scampers up the steps of the disabled cable, and climbs on top of it - 70,000 feet up - to survey the severity of the situation. He doesn't even blink at the possibility of losing his balance, and he still has his pipe in his mouth. When Linda Darnell collapses, Mrs. Woburn immediately takes over and asks the conductor for the First Aid kit, which seems to consists of just one item, the smelling salts, which she coincidentally needed.

Look closely at the fiesta dance sequence. Everybody seems to have overdosed on Happy Pills, except for just one extra, the 18 year old George Chakiris. He is observing a very sensual display of illicit dancing, with an expression that reads, "I could do that - if only the producers had given me a second chance!" Still toiling in bit parts in Hollywood musicals, it would be another decade before George got his chance to shine, in WEST SIDE STORY.

The best part of the movie is the Linda Darnell-Jack Palance chase sequence, up and down the cobbled streets of a Mexican village. Bizarrely, Palance appears to be moving in quick motion, while Darnell and all around her are walking in normal motion. You'll think twice about getting in a cable car after seeing this enjoyable 1950's flick, the only thing I didn't like was the dismal pastel Technicolor used.