Singapore

Fred Macmurray played one unforgettable role as Walter Neff in "Double Indemnity" (1944) and I cannot quite separate him from this role when I see FM perform in other films like "Singapore" where he plays Matt Gordon a pearl smuggler.I fervently believe the best acted performances come from the actor having an affinity or some actual practical experience of the role in real life.I am not saying FM was into insurance fraud but he looked more comfortable in an American setting.The plot has been adequately commented on by other reviewers above, most notably by Terrell-4 from San Antonio Texas, whose review I commend.

There were a few things I found irritating and getting a second rate TV director will not produce a first class film.First, after Ava Gardner had being roughed up by one of the "baddies" to get her to talk, there was not a blemish, bruise or mark on her Venus like face.When FM wants to pay for his bar bills he decides how much he will pay leaving some notes on the table, without waiting to receive a bill - I noticed he did this on at least two occasions.Yet again actors (FM) appear to be able to walk through other guests hotel bedroom doors or magically have the right key in their pockets, this is a general continuity criticism of films of this era; so much for hotel security.What is an American gangster doing in Singapore? One of the "heavies" sounded like he came from 1920s Chicage!

On the plus side I liked Roland Culver's performance as plantation manager van Leiden who played an honest man who is prepared to give up his Venus like wife because he knows she really loves Walter Neff (sorry FM).Richard Haydn for once plays it straight as the police commissioner in colonial Singapore on the trail of local malefactors and I hardly recognised him compared to say his performance as Mr Wilson in "Cluny Brown" (1946).

Taken all together I found it enjoyable but uneven and therefore rated it 6/10.

Before it became the modern miracle of cheerless, nose-to-the-grindstone capitalism, Singapore had a past; in the opening years of the Cold War, it was known as Red City. John Brahm's romantic intrigue, set just before and after World War II, evokes that shady period, using the city-state at the tip of the Maylay peninsula as another Oriental port of intrigue, like Shanghai or Macao.

Fred MacMurray had been a smuggler as the war drew close; when the Japanese attacked, he lost both a fortune in pearls and his fiancee, Ava Gardner, who was presumed killed. Now it's 1946 and, returning to retrieve the pearls he'd hidden, catches sight of Gardner, now married but with no memory of her past -- or theirs. In his quest to restore both pieces of his pre-war bliss, he must overcome multiple obstacles: a shrewed British colonial official; Gardner's possessive, rich husband; and a criminal gang headed by Thomas Gomez, who's also after those pearls.

Though there's a lot packed into it, Singapore's plot stays pretty thin, but Brahm makes the most of what he has to work with. A craftsmanlike if uneven director, he contributed several installments to the noir cycle (Hangover Square, The Locket, the Brasher Doubloon). His work rarely rose to the heights of inspiration reached by fellow European emigres like Fritz Lang, Robert Siodmak or Billy Wilder, and Singapore was his swan song to Hollywood (he ended up in television).

At first glance, it might seem a recipe for folly to team MacMurray with the sultry Gardner. But he had survived being matched against Barbara Stanwyck (and more than once), while her fiery reputation owed more to her off-screen life than to her film roles. So no sparks fly, but the story gets told. Singapore remains a stylish -- Brahm sets those ceiling fans spinning -- if lightweight romantic thriller (all told, it's two or three cuts above John Farrow's somewhat similar Calcutta of the same year).

SINGAPORE (1947) Fred MacMurray, Ava Gardner. ** Bland mix of film noir, and imitation CASABLANCA. Imagine all the CASABLANCA characters portrayed by competent but unmemorable actors. Place them, again, in an exotic setting, in a story about passionate lovers separated by war and later reunited. Once more, the love of the hero's life is married to another man, but this time the plot includes amnesia and pearl smuggling. Gardner is radiant and sexy, but her acting inexperience shows. MacMurray is wooden. First rate cinematography, however.

Director John Brahm manages to hold this poor-man's "Casablanca" together. The picture moves at a good clip and Brahm makes the studio-set Singapore visually interesting. There's help too from stars Fred MacMurray and Ava Gardner as lovers whose lives are complicated by World War II and Gardner's amnesia when MacMurray, who thought her dead, finds her again in postwar Singapore, married to a wealthy planter. MacMurray and Gardner are really a goofy romantic team, but MacMurray has his appealing casual charm, and Gardner's vague, unfocused acting works well in some of her amnesiac scenes (plus she was at her most beautiful in the late 1940's). Supporting turns by pros like Richard Haydn and Spring Byington are also a plus. Overall, contrived and derivative, but it looks like a classic compared to the depressing Errol Flynn 1957 remake, "Istanbul."

On her way up the Hollywood ladder MGM loaned Ava Gardner out for this potboiler adventure film Singapore. As the area suggests romance and mystery just the title alone would bring in a few customers at the box office. In fact Singapore still is an area of intrigue though now enjoying a prosperity that could not have been imagined when this film was made.

Fred MacMurray and Ava Gardner are a pair of star crossed lovers who marry just before the Japanese invade and occupy the city. MacMurray has a fortune in pearls that he stashes and while trying to retrieve them the bombs are dropped and he thinks Gardner is killed. He barely gets away in his schooner with other refugees without pearls and without Ava who he married just before the attack.

After the war Fred's back to get his pearls, but he sees Ava now married to Roland Culver and with a bad case of amnesia. And he's got other problems as villains Thomas Gomez and George Lloyd want them as well.

Singapore was created on the Universal back lot and didn't have the advantage that its remake Istanbul had with color and location shooting. But they did make a better film though not all that much better. It's been compared to Casablanca by many to the detriment of Singapore. But those letters of transit that will allow two people, which two to escape and join the fight against Nazism are a much bigger prize than Fred's pearls. You care a lot more about Bogey, Bergman, and Henreid than the triangle here. And this film didn't have As Time Goes By either.

MacMurray and Gardner also don't have the chemistry that Bogey and Bergman do. But that's not fair, who else ever did?

Singapore is your routine potboiler another film MacMurray was grabbing for the paycheck after he left Paramount. As for Ava after The Killers and The Hucksters it was not a step down, but just keeping her on the same career plateau as before.