Et tournent les chevaux de bois

ROBERT MONTGOMERY never seemed quite as comfortable in tough guy roles as someone like Humphrey Bogart was--and this is a role that would have been ideal for Bogart. Not to say that Montgomery isn't effective--he's especially good in the latter part of the story where he must stagger around after a brutal beating. His direction too has to be commended, taut and keeping the sense of imminent danger lurking in the shadows at all times.

He plays a typical film noir character, struggling to wrong a right in a world where he feels alienated and suspicious of everyone. But it's a little too much of a one note performance with a sneer behind every sarcastic comment and never letting us know what he is really all about. That becomes true of the other characters too. We are never told why Wanda Hendrix (as a blue-eyed Mexican girl) follows him around so worshipfully after he has some rude exchanges with her. We never fully know why Pablo takes to him so instantly, enough to bear a brutal beating to keep his whereabouts a secret. Nor do we know why Art Smith follows him around at a respectful distance and seems to serve as his conscience when some expository dialogue trys to shed light on their characters. But keeping these characters as an enigma is partly what makes the film so fascinating.

Even the femme fatale is kept at a shadowy distance and Andrea King makes her an interesting woman whom we know has an ulterior motive in wanting to help Montgomery. Some extra tension is derived from the scene where Pablo (Thomas Gomez with a heavy Spanish accent) is brutally beaten while children nearby ride a carousel but become aware of their dangerous surroundings in the midst of a joyful ride.

Robert Montgomery is only partly successful as the bluntly outspoken tough guy and therein lies one of the film's chief faults. Furthermore, the low-key lighting cannot disguise the fact that almost all of the film's settings have a stagebound look to them, even the haven that Pablo supplies and where the carousel rides are taken. Most of the exteriors have that soundstage look with a rather stylized seediness to replicate a small Mexican town. It's an artificiality that cannot be ignored when watching the film.

Thomas Gomez won a Supporting Role Oscar nomination for his colorful Pablo. His thick accent reminds me of Akim Tamiroff and the other cave dwellers in Hemingway's FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS. Gomez gives Tamiroff a run for his money.

Summing up: a fascinating but ultimately unsatisfying film noir with an ending involving the Mexican girl that can only cause speculation. Was her true motive revealed? The answer remains obscure.

I can only repeat: what a role this would have been for Bogart!!

I don't really care very much for Robert Montgomery as a serious actor; they must have been at least a half dozen or more Hollywood actors at the time who could have handled the role better: Bogart, Cagney, Flynn, Power, Holden, Ford (etc). But despite being miscast, Montgomery pulls it off with some help from a great supporting cast. Great writing by a woman writer, Dorothy B Hughes, and a great screenplay by Lederer and Hecht (Lancaster's old buddy) provides the viewer with a real treat for atmosphere and storytelling. Gagin comes to New Mexico to square accounts with the guy who shot his partner, Shorty. Mr. Hugo is well-played by. Fred Clark. But the person who steals this film is not Montgomery, Clark or even Thomas Gomez, who was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor role as Pancho in the film. No, the film is stolen by actress, Wanda Hendrix as Pila, a wild-looking, space cadet, who is fiercely loyal to Gagin. One of the best film noir pieces you will ever see.

I was in the process of reading this book and then started watching a movie without knowing what the movie was. It was deja vu all of the sudden. It turned out to be this movie. I think that Robert Montgomery did a great job of capturing the character that was in the book. Tough but naive at the same time. A very good noir film that should get more play and recognition.

The dark atmosphere,the craziness of the music and the partying in the background all the time as the story unfolds. Maybe I had a leg up reading the book almost first. It's very rare when I think a movie based on a book is just as good as the book. I felt sympathy for Robert Montgomery's character. All the time thinking he was going to lose to the cheats. He had his own principals and stuck to them.

Can't say enough.

Good movie.

From the film's opening scene, which shows the protagonist, Lucky Gagin, emerging from a bus into a dusty Mexican town, the viewer is hooked. There are so many good things about this film, primarily the acting performances -- Robert Montgomery is a standout, as are Wanda Hendrix, Fred Clark, Thomas Gomez, and Art Smith. They each completely occupy their characters and make them come to life. Another highlight is the dialogue -- there are numerous memorable exchanges between Montgomery and Hendrix, and Clark delivers two especially well-written diatribes that serve to solidify his character in the consciousness. The story itself is quite simple, and is driven far more by characterization than by plot, but that is what makes the film so good. The film also contains its share of classically dark noir imagery -- most memorable is the scene in which the Gomez character is savagely beaten by two hoods while a group of neighborhood children sail along on the nearby merry-go-round, at first gaily enjoying the free ride but growing increasingly somber and afraid as they witness the brutal attack. This one is a definite must-see, particularly for film noir buffs, but also for film lovers of all types.

I saw this film when I was a young boy when it first came out in 1947 but didn't truly appreciate it till I saw it on TCM the other night again. I agree with all your commentators as to its enigmatic mystery and its possible shortfalls attributable to Montgomery vis a vis Bogart. I found the dialogue and the monologues gripping. In later looking this movie up here I discovered why: the script was by Ben Hecht (of Front Page fame). No wonder it was so great. As many of your commentators point out (and very perceptively too) the individual performances of Gomez, Hendrix, Clark, etc. were all splendid, not to forget Montgomery himself. But TCM must have edited the film or else I fell asleep watching it: I definitely did not see Gomez being beaten up by anyone while being watched by uncomprehending children. That part was definitely not in the version that I watched, sad to say. One of the strongest parts of the film was the disillusionment and cynicism expressed by the Montgomery character against patriotism, and WWII and its profiteers in typical film-noir fashion. Also strikingly evocative and disturbing was the final scene in which the innocent-appearing and passive Hendrix character finally opens up to her friends and re-enacts the events of the film in a vivacious and cynical way to show her friends how sophisticated she is after all. What a dash of cold water in the face of those who expected a romantic ending between two such repressed characters who made a specialty out of never showing their emotions. A great, great movie.