L'île au complot

Robert Taylor is an FBI man looking into a racket south of the border of black marketeers stealing and selling war surplus material, in this case airplane motors.

The story takes him to Central America where he meets up with a debonair sportsman, Vincent Price, a rather seedy character with sore and sweaty feet, Charles Laughton and a husband and wife John Hodiak and Ava Gardner stranded in the tropics.

They're all suspects, but Taylor is quite ready to forget his job with Ava Gardner around. He wouldn't be the first guy to think with his hormones where she's concerned. That's what I'm talking about when I say more than one kind of bribe.

The story is pretty slow moving though. Taylor seems to have the evidence he needs or where to get it. But the plot does drag on. The film seems to rely on the attractiveness of the leads to keep the audience interested.

There are two good scenes, one where Taylor almost becomes a shark's lunch and the climax where the chief villain meets a pyrotechnical end.

If you like the cast involved, The Bribe is probably time well spent.

This is a fasinating example of film noir elements grafted on to an ordenary crime thriller, there is also romance between Robert Taylor and Ava Gardner, but thats a weaker part of the story. Taylor is to wooden in his role as a federal agent, Robert Mitchum would have been more suitable for this kind of film. But there are som nice noir caracters in the supporting roles, and director Robert Z Leonard contrasts effectivly the down at the heel feeling, with the surface glitter of the big town criminals who move trough it, giving the film a glossy look that at the same time is filled with an atmosphere of moral corruption. Ava Gardner is very beatiful in this early role, and she makes the most of it, Charles Laughton is very good as the sly henchman, oily and treacherous, he creats a fasinating character of a small role, a sort of unshaven Quasimodo, who sweats a lot and have trouble with sour feets. He is both human, weak and repulsive at the same time. Vincent Price is the suave villain, his playboy sportsman is both naive and evil but more icy than most of his roles of this kind, and he gives a fine performance. John Hodiak is a broken down ex-pilot, with alcoholic problems, a small role but well played. All these supporting players give the film a definite noir feeling, as well as Joseph Ruttenbergs moody graphics and Miklos Rozas score, also telling the story in flashback with Taylor narrating while recovering from beeing druged, gives the story a feeling of defeat and betrayal. The settings are dirty and seedy and the climate steamy, and the usual glossy high MGM production values, gives the footage a feeling of tropical heat. The story is a little slow moving, but the final shot-out between Taylor and villain Price during a carnival, is stylish and intersting as the element of death and joy are effectivley juxtaposed.

"The Bribe" is one of the forties film noir entries, and I love it! Top stars of the era include Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, Charles Laughton, and Vincent Price. It is a story of an honest cop, Rigby played with remarkable insight, by Robert Taylor, who falls in love with a suspect (Ava Gardner), and can't make up his mind on if she is guilty or innocent. John Hodiak is the husband, who is a former fly boy turned crook. Charles Laughton is at his sinister best as the "pie shaped man" who is hired by Vincent Price to pay off Rigby. Laughton dogs Rigby, knowing that he is in love with Gardner, till he caves in and decides to take a bribe to save his love. As in many film noir, only Taylor's last name is used, we never know Rigby's first name, interesting. Taylor is very convincing as a man torn between love and honor. He is so conflicted, that you feel sorry for him, wishing that Ava would just run away with him before he turns crook himself. She drugs him and makes sure he can't stop the crooks, but he recovers, and confronts her, not realizing the trouble she is in herself. In the end, love and honor conquer all. There is a spectacular fireworks ending, that is reminiscent of "Ride the Pink Horse." All in all the love scenes are sincere, probably because Taylor and Gardner were having an affair at the time of filming, despite the fact that Taylor was very married to Barbara Stanwyck. Quintessential film noir.

A federal agent tries to bust a stolen airplane motor ring in Central America, but ends up falling for the wife of one of the prime suspects. I've enjoyed Robert Taylor in other pictures (notably HIGH WALL) but here he's merely satisfactory, likable but too stiff. Ava Gardner fares slightly better, a little dull but with an appealing sultriness. As usual, it's the bad guys with the plum roles: Vincent Price and especially Charles Laughton with yet another memorable turn. Laughton is fast becoming one of my favorite actors, consistently the best thing about whatever he appears in. The main problem here is pacing. The first three-quarters are very slow, giving the appearance of doling out information and building the Taylor/Gardner relationship but not actually do much of either. One brief action scene breaks up the tedium, other than that it's rather uneventful until the final 25-30 minutes. Things do heat up nicely then, however, culminating in an amazing fireworks-illuminated climax. Laughton and the ending elevate this one enough to make it worthwhile.

"The Bribe" is a somewhat slow noir drama starring Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, Charles Laughton, John Hodiak, and Vincent Price. With a cast like that, nothing is all bad. Though the story drags in spots and the bad guys are somewhat obvious, it still makes for good viewing. Taylor is Rigby, a fed investigating war surplus violations involving the sale of airplane motors in a place called Carlotta in South America. The suspects have been narrowed down to two Americans, Tug Hintten (Hodiak) and his wife, Elizabeth, a singer (Gardner). Once in Carlotta, Rigby meets J.J. Bealer, portrayed by Charles Laughton, and Carwood (Vincent Price). They're worth watching, too, though Rigby becomes instantly distracted by Elizabeth. Their love story develops overnight, which might seem strange, but it's Ava at her most gorgeous and Taylor at his most ruggedly handsome. You can hardly blame either one of them. The questions for Rigby are: Where are the motors being hidden, who's the head guy, who's involved...and how involved is Elizabeth? The movie, with the exception of the finale, is fairly routine stuff. Laughton and Price have the best roles. Laughton is fabulous as a slovenly loser whose feet hurt, and Price is excellent. Everyone else is good, including Hodiak, his career in major nosedive as he appears in a supporting role, though a showy one as a drunk with a weak heart. The big action takes place at the finale, which is exciting and visually marvelous. We could have used a little more of that type of thing throughout the film.