Ride the Pink Horse

When a bus arrives in San Pablo, the mysterious American Lucky Gagin (Robert Montgomery) looks for the La Fonda Hotel and he meets the local Pila (Wanda Hendrix) that offers to take him there. Gagin is a tough man and army veteran and he seeks out a man called Frank Hugo (Fred Clark) and he learns that he will be back to his room only on the next day. Gagin stumbles upon FBI Agent Bill Retz (Art Smith), who is chasing the powerful mobster Frank Hugo, and he warns Gagin to forget his scheme for revenging his friend Shorty that was murdered by Frank. Then Gagin looks for a hotel room and he goes to the Bar Tres Violetas, where he befriends the owner of carousel called Pancho (Thomas Gomez) and he buys drinks for his friends in the bar. Pancho offers a place to Gagin to spend the night. On the next morning, Gagin goes to the hotel and meets Frank Hugo. He blackmails the mobster, asking for 30,000 dollars to give a check that incriminates him. Frank Hugo accepts the deal and tell that the money will be available only at 7:00 PM. Will Gagin succeed in his extortion of money from Frank?

"Ride the Pink Horse" is a different film-noir directed by Robert Montgomery, who is also the lead actor. His bitter and unpleasant character is well-developed as a war veteran disillusioned with the post-war life since his lover is unfaithful and his best friend was murdered by a mobster. Wanda Hendrix performs a weird character, maltreated by Gagin but following him like a puppy. But the plot is a good story of friendship. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Do Lodo Brotou Uma Flor" ("From the Mud Sprouted a Flower")

ROBERT MONTGOMERY never seemed quite as comfortable in tough guy roles as someone like Humphrey Bogart was--and this is a role that would have been ideal for Bogart. Not to say that Montgomery isn't effective--he's especially good in the latter part of the story where he must stagger around after a brutal beating. His direction too has to be commended, taut and keeping the sense of imminent danger lurking in the shadows at all times.

He plays a typical film noir character, struggling to wrong a right in a world where he feels alienated and suspicious of everyone. But it's a little too much of a one note performance with a sneer behind every sarcastic comment and never letting us know what he is really all about. That becomes true of the other characters too. We are never told why Wanda Hendrix (as a blue-eyed Mexican girl) follows him around so worshipfully after he has some rude exchanges with her. We never fully know why Pablo takes to him so instantly, enough to bear a brutal beating to keep his whereabouts a secret. Nor do we know why Art Smith follows him around at a respectful distance and seems to serve as his conscience when some expository dialogue trys to shed light on their characters. But keeping these characters as an enigma is partly what makes the film so fascinating.

Even the femme fatale is kept at a shadowy distance and Andrea King makes her an interesting woman whom we know has an ulterior motive in wanting to help Montgomery. Some extra tension is derived from the scene where Pablo (Thomas Gomez with a heavy Spanish accent) is brutally beaten while children nearby ride a carousel but become aware of their dangerous surroundings in the midst of a joyful ride.

Robert Montgomery is only partly successful as the bluntly outspoken tough guy and therein lies one of the film's chief faults. Furthermore, the low-key lighting cannot disguise the fact that almost all of the film's settings have a stagebound look to them, even the haven that Pablo supplies and where the carousel rides are taken. Most of the exteriors have that soundstage look with a rather stylized seediness to replicate a small Mexican town. It's an artificiality that cannot be ignored when watching the film.

Thomas Gomez won a Supporting Role Oscar nomination for his colorful Pablo. His thick accent reminds me of Akim Tamiroff and the other cave dwellers in Hemingway's FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS. Gomez gives Tamiroff a run for his money.

Summing up: a fascinating but ultimately unsatisfying film noir with an ending involving the Mexican girl that can only cause speculation. Was her true motive revealed? The answer remains obscure.

I can only repeat: what a role this would have been for Bogart!!

Not quite sure what to make of this one, but definitely interesting. One is never certain if its strangeness is due to inexperience on the part of the film-makers, or if it truly is an unambiguous artistic choice. The director and star, Robert Montgomery, was very much a creature of 1930's pre-war Hollywood and the film seems to be an unconscious attempt to transplant pre-war film-making sensibilities into the decidedly post-war genre of Film-Noir, with all of its fatalism, disillusionment and complications. It's as if Montgomery is an alien from the 30's exploring a strange, post-war Noir world; rejoicing and experimenting in this permissive new environment, but ever aware that he is not a native. (Though it's highly unlikely this idea ever occurred to him in such a concrete way, as this genre was not identified as such until French critics of the 1960's uncovered a new pattern in American films dealing with crime.)

There's much here that I, quite frankly, didn't understand. You never really get a handle on any of the characters or what their true motivations are; they're all tantalizingly enigmatic, opaque, but that is admittedly much of the joy of the picture. Everyone seems to be suffering from some kind of guilt that they just don't seem quite able to articulate, much less expiate, so they keep muddling along hoping that they'll stumble across an answer or justification for their sins. The villain of the piece, Fred Clark, is odd. He doesn't just want to trick Montgomery out of the money he's blackmailing him for, he wants to shame him for not being smart and demanding more. Montgomery is mighty odd as well, with some kind of a stubborn, indecipherable personal code of honor; sort of a dumbed down Sam Spade. He's trying to carve out some little island of corruption just for himself, stiff-arming both sides of the law in the process. Most peculiar is the little peasant girl played by Wanda Hendrix. She is instantly devoted to Montgomery, lovingly helps him out of a couple jams but at the end after they say goodbye, she makes some little speech to her friends in Spanish (w.o. subtitles) that gives the impression she was never as innocent as she let on. But what did she gain? And Art Smith (a good crafty little character actor who keeps turning up and making an impression in a lot of films I've been seeing like "Brute Force", "The Next Voice You Hear" and "In A Lonely Place") is an FBI agent who is more like Montgomery's guardian angel. He is almost God-like in how he can pinpoint the exact motivation behind Montgomery's every move and thought.

All these actors are fine, but Thomas Gomez steals every scene he's in as the deceptively heroic operator of the merry-go-round. He is involved in the film's most brutal and poignant scene, as he is beat up by a couple of Clark's thugs (as the children watch captively on the spinning carousel) for refusing to reveal his friend Montgomery's whereabouts. And I love his great line when Montgomery stumbles back for help after getting stabbed in a fight. He shrugs wearily and says "when you're young everyone sticks knife in you."

I couldn't for the life of me figure out why the movie would be called "Ride the Pink Horse", but I like the other reviewer's theory that it has to do with the arbitrary nature of life itself. A definite cult item.

I was in the process of reading this book and then started watching a movie without knowing what the movie was. It was deja vu all of the sudden. It turned out to be this movie. I think that Robert Montgomery did a great job of capturing the character that was in the book. Tough but naive at the same time. A very good noir film that should get more play and recognition.

The dark atmosphere,the craziness of the music and the partying in the background all the time as the story unfolds. Maybe I had a leg up reading the book almost first. It's very rare when I think a movie based on a book is just as good as the book. I felt sympathy for Robert Montgomery's character. All the time thinking he was going to lose to the cheats. He had his own principals and stuck to them.

Can't say enough.

Good movie.

This is a classic pseudo film noir. It means to emulate, but not necessarily be, a true film noir.

Robert Montgomery is excellent and believable as a man driven to revenge the death of his war time pal.

The scenes with Wanda Hendrix as, in turns, a guileless teen, a knowing friend and a woman who 'sees things' are taut and dramatic. There are a few moments of humor there too.

Mr Montgomery's direction is both intelligent and convincing. There are moments of drama. Moments of near pathos. Moments of comedy. Moments of boredom - from the characters, not the audience.

The 'Fed' and 'Pancho' the carousel owner are interesting and engaging characters. Not hollow or cardboard cutouts that one might see in some films.

All in all it is a very enjoyable film and a must see for those that appreciate both the acting skills and the directorial skills of Mr. Robert Montgomery.