Avventura a Malaga

To say that the career of Lazslo Benedick is 'spotty' would be something of an understatement. He somehow survived his directorial debut, 'The Kissing Bandit' and under the auspices of Stanley Kramer made two films of note which were generally well-received. Even allowing for the vicissitudes of film-making it beggars belief that he spent the next twenty years or so doing his best with the mediocre material at his disposal.

Made in the UK and adapted from 'The Scent of Danger' by Donald Mackenzie, this low-budget crime drama is no exception. It basically has two things going for it: Trevor Howard and the ill-fated Dorothy Dandridge who not only bring an understated sexual tension to proceedings but whose personas make us care what happens to their characters. No one ever cares in the least what happens to Edmund Purdom so he is perfectly cast as the rotter.

Needless to say the racial/interracial element that proved the curse of Dandridge's life and career again reared its ugly head, causing a delay in the film's release and it was not shown in 'The Land of the Free' for over two years. It was to be her last completed film.

Statuesque Dorothy Dandridge's follow-up to "Porgy and Bess", it's a return to the forties film noir ;aka "Malaga" where part of the action takes place ,it takes us from England to Spain .

The first fifteen minutes are almost silent in the darkness of a luxury house.The screenplay is deriivative but the Dandrige/Howard / Purdom acting is effective and gives the movie substance :;the main question ,all along the movie ,even when there are only two of them is :who can be trusted ? Once a betrayer ,always a betrayer ,they might say . Howard is first a macho ,who does not put his trust in women ,but little by little , he discovers that all are not necessarily femmes fatales.

It's a pity Miss Dandridge 's career was short-lived ,becaused she had already three good movies under her belt (" Porgy and Bess" plus "Carmen Jones " and "Tamango" ,both based on French writer Prosper Mérimée's short stories.)

Dorothy Dandridge is the only reason to see this awful film. The plot sucks. The dialog is really stupid. The film is racist because Dorothy and Trevor are not allowed to touch even though they share the same bed. This was Dorothy's last film and the desperation shows.

After her Oscar nominated role as "Carmen Jones" in 1954 Dandridge was offered only one more starring role in a big production movie because Hollywood didn't know what to do with a beautiful black leading lady...thus relegating the star to whatever low budget B or foreign films her devoted manager could scrounge up.

"Porgy and Bess" followed five years after "Carmen" but was universally panned or boycotted by blacks resenting the mammy images and blatant racial stereotypes created by producer Otto Preminger, Dorothy's back door white lover.

Actually Trevor Howard is much too ugly to kiss beautiful Dorothy Dandridge...race aside. She should have been given a handsome leading man like her lightweight boyfriend in this film. Still I would love to see legitimate quality copies of MALAGA, MURDER MEN, and PORGY & BESSS released on DVD.

Forget Carmen Jones! This is Dorothy Dandridge's greatest performance on film, bar none. Her disillusioned, world-weary, but still hopeful Gianna is the essence of film noir. The parallels to her life are eerie. She says to Johnny (Trevor Howard), "No, with us, Johnny, it has to be everything -- or nothing." "Everything and Nothing" would be the title of her posthumously-published autobiography a few years later. She says, "London was my Mexico. There isn't any Mexico for anybody, anywhere." The day she died, she was to return to Mexico to do some television and film work.

Forget the drivel published in most movie-listing books. Watch this film for yourself (if you can find a way to do so). This is a master actress giving everything she has to a role. I would love to see a brand-new director's cut with the outtakes replaced. The haunting music is by Matyas Seiber, who studied composition under Bela Bartok. This film is new every time you watch it.

I remembered this film as a child when it would come on Channel 7 movie. I could not believe this was Ms. Dandridge's last film role because she was so good. Hopefully this movie will be on DVD. The cast was so good and due to Jim Crow they could show kissing between black and whites in films like they can now. I've always liked Trevor Howard and he was quite good in Malaga. After Carmen Jones Ms. Dandridge did other films such as Island in The Sun Porgy and Bess, The Decks Ran Red and Tamango and except for Porgy and Bess she always seem to be lusted after by white men. But Ms. Dandridge to me was our Marilyn Monroe! This movie is rarely shown on TV whether cable or not! For Black History month certain stations would mostly show Sidney Poitier movies as if that is what Black History is all about. Some people never heard of Dorothy Dandridge until Halle Berry portrayed on HBO! They say you're as good as last film and this film would be the last for Ms. Dandridge and we will never know what other film roles she would have done.