Scandale à Las Vegas

Apart from being another entry in my planned month-long tribute to Vincent Price, this also served as a nod to the recently-departed Jane Russell (as should be the upcoming MACAO from the same year, to be included in my other ongoing retrospective dedicated to Josef von Sternberg). Anyway, this is a minor noir effort: indeed, it is one of the sunnier of its type, in that the narrative unfolds as much by day as it does during the night; besides, for all its intended gloom, there is a healthy vein of humor running through it! It is saved, however, by the RKO production values (the studio, above any other, gave the genre its quintessential look) and the star cast (which also includes Victor Mature, Hoagy Carmichael, Brad Dexter and Jay C. Flippen).

The plot involves Russell's return to the gambling capital of the world after she had spent the war years as a chanteuse there (at a club where Carmichael – who else? – is the typically laidback pianist/observer). In the meantime, she has married wealthy Price but does not know he is close to bankruptcy (before noticing a wire he received reporting the suicide of his Boston colleague)!; another old acquaintance is cop-on-the-beat Mature, bitter at her apparent desertion of him. Needless to say, Russell and Mature ultimately get to rekindle their affair, but the path runs far from smoothly: apart from their own mutual resentment, Price does not look favourably upon his wife's former conquests, while complicating things further is the expensive necklace Price uses as a guarantee in order to try his luck at one of the leading casinos (which is being closely watched by insurance investigator Dexter). Eventually, the new owner of Russell's old haunt is found murdered (after he had denied Price further credit) and the necklace stolen. Of course, Price becomes the key suspect – and Russell accuses Mature of having framed him so as to get back at her! However, it is obvious from the get-go that the real culprit is the wolfish Dexter, and the film climaxes decently with a desert helicopter chase and a shootout in an abandoned hangar. As for Price, he is ready to pay the price {sic} of his own criminal activity back home i.e. embezzlement.

The film is reasonably enjoyable, with most of the expected noir elements intact – including its fair share of hard-boiled dialogue, not to mention having Russell and Carmichael warble a number of songs – but the contrived scripting (by Earl Felton and Harry Essex, who ought to have known better!), cornball attempts at comedy (mainly having to do with Sheriff Flippen betting what Mature's next move will be with respect to both solving the case and sorting out his private life!) and an incongruous sentimental streak (clearly evoking CASABLANCA {1942} in the subplot involving a couple of underage elopers!) prevent the promising mixture from rising to greater heights.

Shady business man and compulsive gambler Vincent Price and luscious wife Jane Russell get off the trans-continental train they're on on their way to LA to do some gambling in Las Vegas. They stay at the Fabulous Hotel where Price convinces the management to extend him $100,000 in credit so he can have money to gamble with. The movie has a somewhat interesting back story about Price and a ruined business partner in Boston. As well there is another back story about Russell and Las Vegas detective Victor Mature, who seem to have met a while ago when she was a singer at a casino where Hoagy Carmichael is the long time pianist and band leader. He (Carmichael) does a great number about a little over half-way through the film that must be seen. As well, Russell is wearing a super expensive diamond bracelet that is the object of an aggressive insurance investigator. For my money, Price, Carmichael, and the vintage Vegas scenes are the only really compelling reasons to watch, except for a decent chase between a helicopter and a Mercury woody across the desert which leads to an interesting fight in an abandoned military base.

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 ****

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.