Bait

The movie BAIT is remembered, if for anything, for Cleo Moore's "kissing" incident while on a promo tour for the film. While being interviewed on live television in Chicago, the host quizzed Cleo about movie kisses and the subject somehow got around to how short they usually are. The host (no fool he!!) then suggested to Cleo that they go for a record smooch over live television to which the always publicity savvy La Moore agreed and they enjoyed a fairly chaste smooch that ran for several minutes and made national headlines. Too bad the film Cleo was promoting was not as interesting. BAIT is definitely not one of the better Cleo Moore/Hugo Haas collaborations and undoubtedly quite a few fans of the blonde sex-bomb will not be pleased to see she spends quite a bit of the film with her hair up and wearing jeans and a non-tucked in flannel shirt, not exactly pinup glamour. The movie does have it's moments though, notably the intriguing introduction by Sir Cedric Hardwicke.

Cleo stars as a cashier in a little dump of a mom-and-pop store, despised because she is an apparently unwed mother. Nasty old gold prospector Hugo Haas looks on her as trash but his partner John Agar is clearly attracted to the luckless blonde. When the men actually discover gold, greedy Haas tries to think of a way to have it all for himself and decides to marry Cleo, certain that in their secluded corner of the world Agar won't be able to resist Cleo's sex appeal, thus allowing Haas to shoot and kill him and get away with it via "the unwritten law".

The best thing about the film is the natural chemistry between Cleo Moore and John Agar. Hugo Haas makes a much better villain than sympathetic leading man so he's well cast and gives a good performance although his direction is generally uninspired. This one used to play on late shows in the 1980's fairly often but is somewhat elusive in recent years, hopefully Sony will be releasing it in their custom line of "made to order" titles following their recent success of the boxed set of "bad girls" mostly starring Cleo Moore.

One review labelled this film Hugo Haas at his worst. Well, it certainly isn't one of his best. A young man comes to a joint in the wilderness where he is invited by an old gold-digger (Hugo Haas) to form a partnership in the quest of a gold mine somewhere up in the mountains, and employed at the joint is Cleo Moore, against whom Haas warns the young man to have anything to do with her, since she is a bad woman. Naturally he does get something to do with her. The three of them go up in the mountains, and the young man actually stumbles on the gold mine, and thus you would think they all have made their fortune. Actually there's where the problems begin. This is a commonplace morality about the damnation of greed, and to make things worse there is a blizzard complicating things. The mountain scapes are wonderful, but that is about the only thing making the film worth watching.

Into the world of Hugo Haas and Cleo Moore yet again, this time with "Bait" from 1954.

I like what one reviewer said - Haas does these movies on no money, acts in them himself, and somehow, they work. Well, sort of.

In this one, Haas plays Marko, a man who once found a gold mine and has been unable to find it again searches every year.

However, he manages to talk a young man, Ray Brighton, to pay expenses and, should they find the mine, work it for 50% apiece.

Marko, however, has no intention of splitting the gold with anyone, of which he informs Ray. When Ray threatens to leave, Marko again agrees to their original terms.

Marko has an idea of how to get rid of his "partner." He marries an attractive woman (Moore) who has an illegitimate child and works where the two get their supplies. She's happy for a little security.

There's no question that she and Ray are attracted to one another, but she refuses to give into him. Marko is sure they will succumb to adultery, and then he will be able to kill Ray.

Now, I must point out, the beginning of this film was not shown in the film I saw. It is apparently a narration by Sir Cedric Hardwicke as the Devil, who says he can manipulate people to do things. Don't ask me what Sir Cedric was thinking of other than a paycheck.

The very pretty Moore wears baggy clothes throughout for some reason. Her character is thought of as a "loose woman," but she isn't.

Haas really acts nuts in this. Why anyone would want to spend winter in a cabin with him is beyond me.

I'm a fan of Huge Haas's films but this one was rather awkward and stilted, especially in the first half. It has a "lazy" feel to it as Haas didn't want to find the dramaturgical equivalent of his dark themes, including a sexual subtext that is never successfully realized.

Obviously one level of the sexual theme is quite explicit. But the suggestion of sexual impotence and misogyny and how that relates to the protagonist's interest in gold is never dramaturgically staged.

Especially awkward are the voice-overs, which suggests that Haas didn't know how to cinematically convey his ides except by stating them outright.

To be fair with only 3 main characters in the film, and, excluding the Haas character, only two, and with the other two isolated from each other, it's difficult to dramatically stage the themes in the film.

But Haas in my view was a cinematic genius, though he relies mainly on establishing shots for many scenes. Yet they are effective for what he wants to convey.

He himself was a superb actor and by far the best thing in the film. I've never been a fan of Cleo Moore though .Agar, who bore a striking resemblance to Jeffrey Hunter, acquitted himself fairly well.

Cinematically there is a remarkable scene where Moore and Agar are seated at a table when both their heads move into darkness. But mainly Haas relies on establishing shots that work quite well in the film.

For those who wish to explore Haas's career further, this is not the film to start with, for Haas made some very powerful films exploring the darker side of sex.

Hugo Haas' first American movie set the pattern for many of his efforts ;"bait" takes again the deadly love triangle of " pickup" and it's another variation on the theme ; the middle-age man ,who,like in the mentioned movie and in "strange fascination ",marries a pretty girl who could be his daughter out of the blue , much to the surprise of the usual handsome young lad.

But here it seems that ,more than Cleo Moore's charms, it's gold which is the hero's obsession, the attractive wife playing the role of a bait (check the title) .

Hugo Haas had a fancy for enclosed places : the "shacks" in "pickup" and in this movie; his character is not totally cardboard :he might be responsible for his former partner' s death he left in the cold ,but a new partner ,although helpful ,may also be a nuisance when it comes to share the gold .Note also his love for dogs :himself in "pickup ", John Agar here.