Meurtres à Calcutta

Gail Russell too soft, lovely and vulnerable to be the bad girl in this somewhat boring film. Too much dialogue and not enough action. June Duprez underused. Do not get the feeling of being in India. Really just another detective story. Almost no more than one flying sequence. Ladd plays it cool and indifferent with Chinese shop keepers. Ladd in all his sartorial splendor. Ladd a good looking guy when young. Light colored suits worn by Ladd and others give testimony to lack of air conditioning in those days. This is best reference to a very hot Calcutta climate. Man whose murder Ladd is trying to solve is only seen in one or two sequences at beginning of film. Very easy to forget what he looks like for such a good buddy of Ladd and Bendix.

Calcutta is far from Alan Ladd's finest hour on the silver screen (nor director John Farrow's, for that matter). His trademark contempt for women and his android-like affect prove unappealing and tedious when not undercut by plausible psychology or fleshed-out co-stars. Here he has nothing but a murky Asian hodgepodge of noir cliches to wade through, the inevitable William Bendix at his side (and, this time, on his side). Trying to solve the murder of a fellow trunk-line pilot working the route from India to China, he drifts from hotel to casino to airfield encountering a rogues' gallery of grotesques. Edith King, as a stogie-puffing Baby Jane Hudson, promises more than she delivers; Gail Russell, the black widow of the piece, is kind of like Mary Astor to three parts water. This is one film from the noir cycle whose obscurity gives little cause for regret.

This film, which actually was one of Ladd's most financially successful films of the 40's, is a fun ride. Surprisingly, it's reputation has been one of a potboiler. It moves swiftly and has many good twists and turns. Gail Russell is wonderful and breathtakingly beautiful as the mysterious femme fatale. Alan Ladd was very well matched with Gail Russell. More so than Veronica Lake with her stony blonde beauty. The beautiful darkness of Russell and the Blonde Ladd was much more interesting. They were close friends and it shows in their two feature films together. A lot of the TV prints of this films have scenes missing that are crucial to the plot so if you can get a hold of a complete version of Calcutta you will be very lucky. A fun film from the 40's that you should try and catch up with.

Routine mystery suffers from Ladd's seeming indifference to his character in the lead and Gail Russell's unsuitability for her role. Add into that the fact that they share almost no rapport on screen and it hurts the picture. Gail, a lovely actress whose looks had not been destroyed by her extreme alcoholism at this point, is too gentle a presence to be convincing as the sort of femme fatale that was Ladd's frequent partner, Veronica Lake's stock in trade. The best performance comes from supporting player Edith King, in her screen debut, as the shady but very fun Mrs. Smith who though it's never stated outright is obviously the local madame as well as involved in other shady doings. The picture comes to life whenever she enters the scene. It's a pity her role isn't larger. Otherwise this is a standard actioner, which despite the title could have been set anywhere since it's mostly set indoors, that the studios pumped out weekly to keep product in the theatres during the Golden Age.

"Calcutta" was one of Alan Ladd's most successful movies of the 1940s (even out-grossing "The Blue Dahlia") and is a fun combination of film noir and adventure. Alan Ladd and Gail Russell made a beautiful couple, and I was sorry that they made only two co-starring vehicles together.

Some critics resented the fact that Gail Russell was the villainness of the story, but I have to disagree. It added irony at the end, and debunked the type-casting limitations so many stars of that period had to suffer through. She was a real beauty! As well, the supporting cast is excellent, in particular Broadway's Edith King. Without a doubt, this is a typical Alan Ladd "star vehicle" of the period -- to be enjoyed for what it is (a fun "Terry and the Pirates" type vehicle), and not to be over-analyzed.