A Caminho do Pecado

This is a pretty good movie. Vincent Price and Jane Russell are great together, real screen magic. There is also a great character performance by Hoagy Carmicheal as the piano player Happy. This movie can be a little long and tedious at some parts, but the "chase" scene at the end is great! Therefore, I give this movie an 8/10.

Shady business man and compulsive gambler Vincent Price and luscious wife Jane Russell get off the trans-continental train they're on on their way to LA to do some gambling in Las Vegas. They stay at the Fabulous Hotel where Price convinces the management to extend him $100,000 in credit so he can have money to gamble with. The movie has a somewhat interesting back story about Price and a ruined business partner in Boston. As well there is another back story about Russell and Las Vegas detective Victor Mature, who seem to have met a while ago when she was a singer at a casino where Hoagy Carmichael is the long time pianist and band leader. He (Carmichael) does a great number about a little over half-way through the film that must be seen. As well, Russell is wearing a super expensive diamond bracelet that is the object of an aggressive insurance investigator. For my money, Price, Carmichael, and the vintage Vegas scenes are the only really compelling reasons to watch, except for a decent chase between a helicopter and a Mercury woody across the desert which leads to an interesting fight in an abandoned military base.

Jane Russell's performance in "The Las Vegas Story" couldn't really be classified as acting since most of what she does here is react in a series of carefully posed close-ups. Still, when she relaxes a bit at the piano or offers to help an injured pilot, she's much more than just a sultry glamorous-puss--she's actually human. Russell's a former Vegas chanteuse who returns to her old digs after a stint in Palm Springs and a marriage to gambling-addict Vincent Price; she crosses paths again with ex-flame Victor Mature, now a police lieutenant, yet doesn't bat an eyelash when her hubby is eventually jailed on suspicion of murder. Despite the juicy-fruit dialogue and would-be hard-boiled atmospherics, this is a pretty simple and silly story, indeed. Price is the only member of the cast who tries creating a character; Mature goes through the motions unhappily while piano-man Hoagy Carmichael and police captain Jay C. Flippen are ridiculously over-the-top (and speaking of ridiculous, Carmichael's solo number "The Monkey Song" has to seen and heard to be believed!). There's not many females prominently featured besides Jane Russell...but that's acceptable. She'd walk all over them anyway. **1/2 from ****

I wasn't expecting much here but I must say I was most pleasantly surprised. For me, a film's success is measured by its capacity to keep me interested without going for a break and this one did just that from beginning to end. This isn't great cinema by any stretch of the imagination but it is great fun. I thought both headliners shone in their parts despite other reviewers' finding them wooden. You could feel their heat radiating every time they appeared together. You could see their eyes shooting daggers at each other. There was no denying their passion.

The story isn't the greatest but it's interesting enough and kept the surprises to the end. Quite a bit is thrown into it, drama, romance, murder and more, so it covers quite a few categories. There's some sleaze too, like when the insurance guy leers at Jane Russell's magnificent décolleté. I guess Howard Hughes just couldn't help himself. Yet Ms Russell is such a class act that her physical attributes are just icing on the cake.

There's also some nifty action scenes that I thought played out quite well, especially the desert sequence starting with the helicopter chase scene and ending with the air control tower. The whole thing had the feel of authenticity to it unlike the cgi stuff we're spoon fed today. These were real people working their craft, performing for the audience, and one hopes having fun at it. At least it seemed that way to me.

Sadly, we learn today of the passing of Victor Mature.

And while not receiving critical acclaim, The Las Vegas Story stands in my memory as an all-time favorite.

Victor Mature, when coupled with Jane Russell make the screen absolutely 'sizzle'. And who could ever forget the lovable Hoagy Carmichael?

But few have seen it. And even film historians when discussing Victor Mature's work rarely even mention it. However, I became hopelessly enthralled with this picture in the 50's and in a curious way, it still 'does it' for me today. The Las Vegas Story was and and remains my personal "Casablanca".