Les deux escrocs

THREE SMART PEOPLE might be considered the low-point of Lucille Ball's career at MGM in the 1940's but it's still a quite good little tale and a rather unique cross between romance and crime drama. Lucy and John Hodiak are elegant con artists who find themselves battling for the same pigeon. There are romantic sparks immediately but a rival is a rival and they each deliberately ruin the other's con. When Lucy learns from old partner Elijah Cook Jr that Hodiak is carrying a hidden a half million in bonds, she ditches Cook and manages to find a spot on the cross-country train Hodiak is on heading toward New Orleans. Lucy is unaware though that Hodiak's traveling partner Lloyd Nolan is a cop escorting him on one last fun fling before Hodiak turns himself in for a prison stretch of at least five years.

This smooth pseudo-film noir is surprisingly agreeable. Essentially a three person picture (Ball, Hodiak, and Nolan) the only other part of any length is Cook's who surprisingly billed below both Hugo Haas and Lenore Ulric in roles that are basically bit parts. The movie looks great and it's no surprise Lucy later sought the cinematographer Karl Freund to helm I LOVE LUCY. She's a vision here, particularly in the Mardi Gras segment. The extended New Orleans sequence is the highlight of the film and director Jules Dassin and the production designers do a very fine job of capturing both the unique look of the city and Carnival season, complete with jazz for the background music. TWO SMART PEOPLE is a very enjoyable diversion with a nice performance by Lucy in an atypical role.

In order to enjoy this movie, you have to start out with the understanding that the plot makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE! A convicted con man (John Hodiak) convinces a stupid police officer who is accompanying him to prison (Lloyd Nolan) to make it a leisurely first class trip together -- by way of New Orleans, Mexico, and some top notch night clubs and restaurants. Apparently this is the idiot cop's brilliant way of trying to loosen up the con man and trick him into revealing where he has hidden some valuable bonds. Add a beautiful con woman (Lucille Ball) who finds out about the bonds from the idiot cop, complete changes in personality on the part of the key characters near end of the film, and a particularly ridiculous non-explanation for how the bonds were recovered at the finale. It's a lot for a reasonably intelligent mind to discard.

But if you can, there are some notable performances. Lucille Ball is very believable in a non-comic, romantic role. She was quite a hot-cha-cha back in the day, if you can get Lucy Ricardo out of your head (another one of the mental challenges this movie presents). Lloyd Nolan plays his usual straight arrow, trustworthy role so convincingly that it's hard to believe that he makes so many dumb decisions and gets into so many stupid jams during the trip. It's almost like he's the world's most unfunny member of the Three Stooges. I never understood why the con man didn't just escape with the bonds during one of the many moments when Nolan was distracted, then come back and get Lucille Ball later if he was so in love with her.

I was impressed with the solid acting job that John Hodiak did as the con man, so I looked him up on the internet to find out why he didn't become a bigger star, and sadly discovered that he died fairly young. He did a good job of being just rogue-ish enough to be a convincing con man, but just soft enough to fall in love with a glamorous woman.

Anyway, this isn't the only movie ever made that requires you you check your brain at the door. And if you can, there are worse ways to pass a couple of hours.

Two Smart People (1946)

An odd, charming, crime romance with a series of great locales and a real sense of love triumphs over everything. You might expect this from MGM somehow--it lacks the intensity we think of with Warner Bros. crime flicks--but it has more warmth and aura that critics give it credit for. And when it gets to the crazy Mardi Gras scenes, it's really pretty fun.

The star here is Lucille Ball. Yes, the comic queen of the 1950s in a dramatic role, and she's convincing, despite the fact that she was unhappy to be in the film (she knew it was her last with MGM). Ball actually made a lot of films before television took her to the top, and she's always really good if never quite sizzling or memorable. She (and everyone) blames the weak script for her lackluster appearance here, but I thought the whole mood of the movie took on its own life and it worked well. The cinematography is led by legendary Karl Freund who later filmed 149 "I Love Lucy" episodes and who had already shot classic movies like "Metropolis," "Dracula," and would later do "Key Largo."

Across from Ball in the romantic male lead is John Hodiak, who tries to light up the screen but seems to be slightly trying, as if he knows the kind of charming con man he is meant to be and can't quite "become" it. Still, he's likable, and his chemistry with Ball isn't bad. A third lead has to be mentioned, Lloyd Nolan, because he's the laid back cop who is the most at ease in the film, and who is used to bounce the romance off of.

It's true, the script, both the dialog and plot, are routine stuff. But don't let that worry you. The ploy of the stolen bonds hidden in the book (seen in the first scene) is a little overdone as it goes (with a small twist in the final minutes), but it's really just a way to keep a slight suspense going. As the two leads fall for each other in the most impossible circumstance, there is the feeling that maybe the bonds are really the goal, and not true love. Great character actor Elisha Cook Jr. is creeping around in the background, waiting for the money to turn up.

Like many post-war films, the filming here is intensely moody, sharp, and filled with moving camera. It's a pleasure just to watch. Director Jules Dassin has several truly great films to his credit, and this one is usually brushed off as a failure of sorts, but I wouldn't do that. I enjoyed every minute. Even when there were cracks in the plot, I still wanted to be there, to go along for the ride. And that's good enough!

Anyone coming to Jules Dassin's Two Smart People in expectation of the hard-core noir of his Brute Force, The Naked City, Thieves' Highway or Night and the City will have a surprise in store. Here, Dassin betrays his continental roots in fabricating a light if poignant romance between two con-artists. And though the movie has a noir veneer, it's less suggestive of Fritz Lang or Robert Siodmak than of Ernst Lubitch – specifically the Lubitch of Trouble in Paradise, another elegant romance sparked between larcenous lovers.

The pairing here is between Lucille Ball, on the lam from a job she pulled in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and John Hodiak, being escorted back from the west coast to finish a stint at Sing Sing by cop Lloyd Nolan. While trying to sabotage one another's swindles, Ball and Hodiak fall in love, and she joins him on his train journey to that castle on the Hudson. Also in play are half a million in bonds which are tucked away in a fancy cookbook (all ortolans and truffles) that Hodiak, a bit of a gourmet, keeps with him for bedside reading. And the wild card is nasty Elisha Cook, Jr., one of Ball's former partners in crime, who wants the bonds for himself.

Dassin keeps a delicate balance between the intrigue and the romance, but the romance wins out (and who's complaining). Hodiak takes to the lighter, more debonair style with greater conviction than he does the harder-boiled roles he played in Somewhere in the Night and Desert Fury that same year. Ball, in a role that is neither too broad (like The Fuller Brush Girl or Miss Grant Takes Richmond) nor too melodramatic (like The Big Street), delivers a subtle and winning performance – and she looks smashing.

For his finale, Dassin whisks us to New Orleans during Mardi Gras, granting Cook a flamboyant exit. It's a gaudy set-piece crowded with costumed revelers that raises the spirits before they grow subdued at the surprisingly bittersweet ending. If Two Smart People can be counted as part of the noir cycle (and it often is), it's possibly its most effervescent title. If not, who cares? It remains an offbeat delight all its own.

This was Lucille Ball's final film for MGM. Though she didn't like it, she's very good and has nice chemistry with John Hodiak. They are ably supported by Elisha Cook, Jr., and Lloyd Nolan.

Con man Hodiak is headed back to prison on a train with detective Nolan when they meet con woman Ball. Gangster Cook wants the bonds Hodiak is hiding. The two leads fall for one another. There is a long Mardi Gras scene at the end of the film. Ball looks fantastic in the festival gowns.

Light fun. Directed by Jules Dassin without the flair that would make him one of the great directors.