Tip on a Dead Jockey

A wooden treatment of a shell shocked Korean war vet expatting it in Madrid. Malone barely registers ennui, disillusionment, or any other weight of the world characteristics; he acts more like the suburban dad opting not to shave all weekend. Dalio, the Casablanca croupier, is reduced to playing Malone's colorful sidekick, but a little goes a long way. Jack Lord and his Kennedyesque hairdo go through the motions. Bits of the script, co-written by Shaw, stand out, especially Malone comparing his domestic situation to a Balzac story, "too many people." The title drew me in, and I got a pig in a poke.

Tip on a Dead Jockey was a supporting role for 37 year old Jack Lord who was just starting out in his career as an actor. The film itself kinda plods along for the most part, but Jack totally saves the film. The cast is fantastic. Robert Taylor is a great leading man, Dorothy Malone is a decent leading lady. Gia Scalia shimmers as Lord's wife Paquita and the actor who plays Toto (who's name has slipped my memory at present) is adorable. Together they make a relatively slow and uninteresting story under normal circumstances enjoyable. However had Jack Lord not been in this film, I don't believe the movie would have made it at all. The writing isn't all that fantastic. And the main premise that Taylor's character is suffering from PSTD after experiencing too much death while flying, though a good plot, isn't enough to carry the picture on it's own. The writers did do a decent job however of finding a way to make him conquer his demons, and that helped bring a bit of life to an otherwise lifeless storyline. The title however is really a misnomer, as racing and Jockeys isn't anywhere close to the main plot theme. However, I would definitely recommend this film for the simple pleasure of seeing Jack Lord's performance. He is the reason I have given this film 10 stars. They are all for him! Though Lord would not make it as a film star, finding his niche in Television as the head of Hawaii five-O eleven years later, Jack's performance as Jimmy in this film is absolutely superb, and is a must see for Lord fans world wide.

Robert Taylor had been a familiar face in films for nearly 25 years when he made "Tip on a Dead Jockey" in 1957. Here, he plays Lloyd Tredman, a Korean war pilot who now lives in Madrid doing...well, not much. He is divorced (so he thinks) from his wife Phyllis (Dorothy Malone). However, she never signed the papers and travels to Madrid to find out what happened to their marriage and if there is any way to salvage it.

Lloyd admits that he is no longer able to pilot a plane. He is haunted by what he saw in Korea and is now too scared and nervous to fly again. He is the part-owner of a race horse, and is looking forward to winning a lot of money as a result of the race.

Before that happens, he is approached by a man who offers him $25,000 to smuggle money out of the country. Lloyd doesn't like it, but he says it all depends on what happens in the race. When the race doesn't turn out as planned, Lloyd is sure that the smuggler had something to do with it. Angry, he refuses to accept the job. Instead, it goes to his close friend Jimmy (Jack Lord). When Jimmy is delayed, his wife (Gia Scala) becomes hysterical, and becomes worse when Jimmy announces he's doing it again! At that point, Lloyd takes over. It's not a smooth trip, with Lloyd almost not able to take off due to being paralyzed from nerves. He finally does, and if anything could happen, it does.

This isn't a great movie. It moves slowly and there isn't a lot of action. It's interesting to see Jack Lord pre-Hawaii Five-O, young and with a slightly higher speaking voice and wearing less makeup than he did on his TV show. Dorothy Malone was attractive and good, but the plot is obvious.

Taylor, always solid and likable, did six films with director Richard Thorpe. I am a fan of classic films, so I watch him because he is from the golden age, but also because he was my late mother's absolute favorite. He does a good job here.

A few words about my mom's favorite guy, after my father, of course. The kid from Nebraska, with his resonant speaking voice and perfect face went on from this film to a successful TV series, "The Detectives," and continued in films until his death from lung cancer at the age of 57, in 1969. Yeah, the cigarettes got most of them.

He is somewhat out of favor for testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee as a friendly witness. However, a new book, Robert Taylor: Reluctant Witness, disputes this. In truth, I don't think he was the sharpest knife in the drawer and probably didn't understand the impact of the committee -- and, like many, he saw Communism as a threat. He claimed to have used bad judgment in accepting the film "Song of Russia." The truth? He did whatever Louis B. Mayer told him to do and wasn't aware that it was making a political statement until someone told him it was pro-Communist. He lived under the umbrella of MGM nearly his entire career and just did what he was assigned.

It's not an excuse, and I'm the last one to applaud blacklisting or witch hunts. But everyone who testified had an agenda. Except probably Robert Taylor, who, when he left MGM, didn't know how to make a dinner reservation.

The main reason I wanted to see this film was Robert Taylor Quite frankly, I did not expect this to be much of a movie because it was a film made on back end of his career. Wow, was I pleasantly surprised. First, I thought the story was interesting and for the time in which it was made had a good depth of psychology in it. The title of the film is a clearly a metaphor for Taylor's character, so someone was thinking on a very sophisticated level. I really like that kind of intelligence in a film. In terms of performance, both Taylor and Malone were superb, demonstrating a wide emotional range with good screen chemistry. I really liked seeing them together. Also a big surprise with his acting skill was Martin Gable. I only knew him from "What's My Line". If you are a Robert Taylor fan I do recommend this movie. Yes, he looks older than his actual age but he still had "it", including that wonderful resonant voice. It is so very tragic that he died so young.

Phyllis Tredman (Dorothy Malone) flies to Madrid to discover why her husband wants a divorce. She finds Lloyd (Robert Taylor), a pilot, has lost his nerve and his livelihood. He is haunted by his memories of the Korean War and refuses to fly.

When a Mr Smith makes a shady proposition, Lloyd refuses - pinning his hopes on a horse he part owns. But Smith is not to be denied ...

So when he loses his last dollar on a horse race fixed by a smuggler, he forces himself to accept a $25,000 offer to transport a box of contraband currency from Egypt to Spain.

But as Tredman makes the return flight home, he discovers his cargo also includes heroin as he races across the Mediterranean with Interpol hot on his trail.

Robert Taylor does really well as a former pilot suffering PTSD in this engaging adventure/drama tale set in Madrid. I didn't find it slow at all, and it was quite interesting, though maybe more of the effects of PTSD could've been underlined. Having said that, this film was made in a time when PTSD -known as shell shock then - wasn't well talked about. Still, it's a fine story, has great characters- liked the interaction between Taylor, Jack Lord, Gina Scala, Dorothy Malone and the comic sidekick of Taylor's and the character depth. What makes this picture plough along at a good pace is the characters and the dilemma that one of them has. There's some nice flying sequences which would make aviation buffs happy.

In the 1950's, Mr Taylor made a slew of films that moved away from his Golden Age romanticised image such as The Devil's Doorway, the Last Hunt, Rogue Cop, Saddle the Wind etc. There, he played a more mature hero. That trend continues here.