Infamie

Before I start, I'd like to call out 'melvelvit-1' - obviously a male - who refers in his review to Anne Baxter as "no spring chicken." She was 32. Get a life.

"The Come On" is a low-budget noir starring Baxter, Sterling Hayden, John Hoyt, and Jesse White. Baxter plays Rita, who meets Dave (Hayden) on the beach. There's immediate electricity, but meeting her in a nightclub later on, he finds out the man she's with, Harold (Hoyt) is her husband. He loses interest. Later she explains her situation - she grew up poor and is not married to Harold. They work cons together for big money, and she stays in the best hotels, wears the most beautiful clothes, travels first class - and she likes it that way.

Rita doesn't fool around - she's in love with Dave and tells him that to keep him on a string, Hoyt is keeping money he owes her. Of course, should he die...well, we've all seen that before.

The whole thing becomes convoluted with blackmail, lies, and betrayal.

Routine stuff, with Bancroft effective as a femme fatale. Hayden just never does it for me, he always comes off as stiff and monotonal, though he does have a certain presence. Jesse White is great as a sleazy detective, and Hoyt gives a good performance as the controlling and vicious Harold.

Entertaining if not exceptional.

Allied Artists Studios was Formed by some of Hollywood's Independent Thinking "Stars".

It was a Reconditioned "Monogram" that had its Place for some Fine Actors to Work Outside the Studio System.

Although Envisioned as an Alternative to Big-Buck, Highly Controlled Studio Work,

the Major Problem was that Transforming a Poverty-Row Studio into a Look-as-Good as the Majors Film Proved to be a Task Insurmountable.

It's Extremely Evident in "The Come On" where there isn't a Scene that looks Stylish, or for that Matter Believable.

Of Course the Outdoor Stuff doesn't Suffer as Much because it Brings its Own "Natural" Ambience.

But Here all the Indoor Scenes Look Tacky, Droll, Lifeless and Void, even though Fronted by some Top-Talented Thespians.

Anne Baxter, is known as one of the Consummate-Professionals, Hard Working, Oscar Winning, and Sexy.

A Privileged Private Upbringing didn't Prepare Her for the Troubling Ups and Downs in Her Private as Well as Professional Life.

Always, Giving Her All, Willing to Work in Prestigious Productions...Nefertiti in "The 10 Commandments" (1956), the same Year as this Bargain-Basement Film-Noir.

She can be Spotted Here, still with some Sexual-Charm (at 32).

Delivering Her Lines and Acting Like this could be an Oscar Contender. She Drives the Picture, almost Single-Handedly.

But Gets Stalwart Support from He-Man Sterling Hayden, very at Home in His Home Away from Home, On-a-Boat.

His Regular-Good-Guy Character is Opposed by John Hoyt, a Serpentine, Domineering Partner-in-Crime with Baxter, and He is a Great Love to Hate Villain.

Character Actor Jesse White is a Sleazy Private-Eye, Uncouth and Uncool, and makes His Presence Count along with the 3 Other Leads.

The Script is a Complicated Contrivance that Fuels Film-Noir Regularly, with Murder, Blackmail, Passion, and Greed.

The Down-Side is the Aforementioned Bland Look of the Thing that Puts the Burden of Making the Sleazy B-Grade Entertainment Entertaining.

They do a Fine Job in this 2nd Tier, Late-Noir, and that Makes it...

Worth a Watch.

Allied Artists' plot twisty low-budget noir opens with shapely con-artist Anne Baxter emerging from the Pacific to come on to restless fisherman Sterling Hayden who immediately falls hook, line, and sinker. Before you know it, she's begging him to kill her brutal partner-in-crime but Anne isn't wrapped too tight and their plans soon spiral out of control...

In 50s B movies where the budget is spent on the salaries of stars on the cusp of "past their prime", it's their chemistry that counts and although there's none here, it's not for lack of trying on the leading lady's part. Anne Baxter certainly doesn't hold anything back in what amounts to a dry run for her scheming Nefritiri in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS and it's kind of campy seeing her vamp it up in broad strokes, especially since she's no spring chicken. Sterling Hayden always seems the same for some reason and was no different than he was in CRIME OF PASSION (1957) when he steeled himself to make love to a mature Barbara Stanwyck -but at least here he does it in swim trunks, albeit briefly. Quirky character actor John Hoyt smoothly plays Anne's control freak "husband" as a civilized sadist while a rumpled Jesse White (TV's Maytag repairman) provides the sleaze as the two-bit private dick Hoyt hires to watch his wayward woman. The twists and turns the story takes keep the pulpy pot boiling until the star-crossed lovers come full circle in the surf and although Baxter & Hayden are no threat to Romeo & Juliet, the body count is satisfying at least. The director (not that it matters) was publicist Russell Birdwell who coined the tagline "How would you like to tussle with Russell?" for THE OUTLAW and would go on to make the preposterous THE GIRL IN THE KREMLIN with two -make that three- glam-mannequins: the life-like lunk Lex Barker and chattering magyar Zsa Zsa Gabor in a dual role.

Anne Baxter was assuredly one of America's finest actresses whose sheer professionalism enabled her to shine regardless of the material. She had 'gone blonde' for Hitchcock in 'I Confess' and decided to stay that way for a while. This change of hair colour may not have brought her better films but it certainly accentuated her extraordinary sensuality.

From the moment she emerges from the water in a two-piece swimsuit in this potboiler one is 'hooked' and it is her subsequent performance that keeps one watching. The character of Rita is one of film's most fascinating femme fatales who spells trouble with a capital 'T'. She is ably supported by John Hoyt, suitably reptilian as a blackmailer and Jesse White as a venal private investigator. She finds true love with the fisherman of Sterling Hayden but their relationship is, naturally, doomed from the outset.

The film itself, one of five made by former publicist Russell Birdwell, is in truth pretty dire but is redeemed by the performances and by having Ernest Haller behind the camera.

Hayden, one of Hollywood's mavericks, has a thankless part. He professed to hate filming but his persona was at least used to great effect by Stanley Kubrick. Such a pity that 'tax problems' prevented his playing Quint in 'Jaws'. As for Miss Baxter, it was Cecil B. de Mille who came to her rescue with 'The Ten Commandments'.

This splendid artiste never gave less than her best and it is only fitting that the final words be hers: "Acting is not what I do. It is what I am."

During the 1950s, Anne Baxter appeared in any number of routine, less than distinguished crime thrillers – last gasps of the dying noir cycle that were long on plot but short on style. One of them, The Come-On, is a warmed-over tale of murder and duplicity, but Baxter, bless her trouper's heart, gives it her considerable all as though she were starring in a major-studio `A' production.

Coming out of the surf down in Mexico, Baxter finds Sterling Hayden ogling her. They strike sparks and agree to meet aboard his boat, the imaginatively christened Lucky Lady. She abruptly leaves their rendezvous; later, in a bar, Sterling sees her with her drunken, abusive husband (John Hoyt). It happens, however, that Baxter and Hoyt aren't really married but partners in a racket – high-class grifters. Only Baxter wants out and wants Hayden to help her – by murdering Hoyt.

It's a mechanical, wheels-within-wheels plot, featuring a mercenary gumshoe (Jesse White) and `accidents' with missing bodies that turn out to be neither missing nor bodies, at least in the dead sense. Through it all, Baxter, emotes all over the place (never more effectively than in a scene near a mail chute, where an incriminating letter may or may not be headed to the police). Sterling's role is less meaty: He's not quite the chump, but except for throwing a couple of slaps and punches, he's pretty passive. Come to think of it, he appeared in any number of routine, less than distinguished crime thrillers during the 1950s, too.