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| Macao | 
 enlarge | Actors: Philip Ahn, Rico Alaniz, Edward Ashley, Trevor Bardette, William Bendix
Studio: Turner Home Ent
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $8.10
You Save: $11.88 (59%)
New (37) Used (14) from $6.17
Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 22227
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 81
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: TRNDT7782D
UPC: 053939778229
EAN: 0053939778229
ASIN: B000JLTREU
Theatrical Release Date: 1952
Release Date: January 23, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Studio: Turner Hm Entertainm Release Date: 01/23/2007 Rating: Nr
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 Weak story but Mitchum as always transcends the subject matter January 4, 2009
I first saw this about twenty years ago and just watched it for the second time. I remembered it being a lot better than it was the second time around. Unfortunately, several films I've rewatched lately have turned out to have been better in my memory than they were upon reviewing. Still, though the film suffers from lackluster direction and a weak script, the presence of several very good actors makes it more interesting than it might otherwise have been.
Also, this film has a fascinating commentary track supplied by Jane Russell, screenwriter Stanley Rubin, and writer Eddie Muller (on my official personal reading list, "My Next 50 Books," is Muller's highly regarded DARK CITY: THE LOST WORLD OF FILM NOIR). To be honest, I actually enjoyed the commentary track more than the regular. The production was a thorough mess, with Howard Hughes spatting with Josef von Sternberg, who was replaced by Nicholas Ray before the film was completed. Ray was at the time engaged in a divorce with his wife, Gloria Grahame, who has the second female lead in the film. All of this partially accounts for how bland the production is, though it doesn't help that the film was clearly filmed entirely on a sound stage. With a title suggesting an exotic setting, it was in fact stage-bound and moribund production. There is a little stock footage that is brought out to suggest the actual locale, but it is pretty obvious that it was all filmed in Hollywood.
The main reason to see the film is for Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell. The story has a nice twist on the mistaken identity plot. If it shows some night on TCM I'd recommend students of film catching that, but apart from that it isn't worth chasing down. It isn't anywhere close to the best work in Mitchum's career and you wouldn't want to watch it to study von Sternberg, since the project was taken out of his hands. Watching it won't hurt you, but there are probably better ways to spend one's time.
Mitchum is still the coolest guy around, even in this so-so semi-noir July 12, 2008
With noirs, good acting is the head on the mug of beer. Strictly speaking, it's not needed for enjoyment, but a beer is more satisfying with the foam on. That brings up Jane Russell. In Macao, she looks mighty fine with all that Howard Hughes-directed attention given to how she was photographed and what she wore. Not speaking, she's every inch a femme fatale. Speaking, she's just every other inch. That straightforward all-American diction (she was born in Minnesota) gets in the way of the noir illusion. She simply isn't a seducer of sweating insurance salesmen or dumb Swedes. She's a great pal to share a life and a bed with, a woman with a nice sense of pleasant irony. There just isn't much steam generated between her and Robert Mitchum. Rita Hayworth, on the other hand, would have set Mitchum's laid back toes to smoldering.
There's a lot of inside discussion about von Sternberg and this movie...all that talk about arches in the casino and beaded curtains everywhere else. Personally, I think if you didn't know the gossip you'd never suspect von Sternberg had anything to do with Macao. The movie is just a better-than-average mystery with hints of noirish charm. The story is straightforward and unexceptional. The photography is first-rate. Whatever Nicholas Ray had to do to pull the pieces together when Howard Hughes fired von Sternberg after most of the movie had been shot, Ray did efficiently. What makes Macao interesting today is one more opportunity to watch Robert Mitchum be the coolest guy around. The downside is that Gloria Grahame is wasted...and, contrary to quotes and gossip, she doesn't overact for a minute.
The story? Three strangers arrive at Macao on the ferry from Hong Kong. There's Julie Benson (Jane Russell), a down-on-her-luck singer with a chip on her shoulder. She needs a job. There's Nick Cochrane (Robert Mitchum), a down-on-his-luck drifter who can't return to the States. And there's Lawrence C. Trumble (William Bendix), a small-time businessman who deals in "coconut oil, pearl buttons, fertilizer and nylon hose." Within hours Benson and Cochrane are dealing with Vincent Halloran (Brad Dexter), owner of one of the biggest casinos in Macao, The Quick Reward. He hires Julie to be a singer in the casino and tries to convince Cochrane to get on the next ferry back to Hong Kong. Seems Halloran is wanted bad by the New York cops, but no one can touch him as long as he stays in Macao and within the three-mile territorial limit. Halloran thinks Cochrane is an undercover cop trying to trick him out of his lair. And what role does Trumble play in all this...it has to involve more than the pair of nylons he gave Julie on the ferry. Observing all this, leaning against a wall or a piano, looking through curtains and poking her nose into things she shouldn't, is Margie (Gloria Grahame), dice girl at the casino and Halloran's squeeze. She seems to love the guy. As the story plays out there will be knives in the back, chases through Macao's darkened docks and across boats, a romantic slow ride in a sampan, and diamonds. One drawback is that Howard Hughes gave Russell plenty of opportunities to sing in his movie. She has three songs. The story slows appreciably to make time for her carefully photographed songbirding. Russell has a nice voice and does no harm except to the Arlen-Mercer classic, "One for My Baby." She has no feel for the blues and sounds as out-of-touch with the song's emotions as Doris Day would have.
The DVD transfer is better than adequate. There's a commentary track by Stanley Rubin, one of the writers, and Eddie Muller, a specialist in noirs, with a separate commentary by Jane Russell spliced in, plus a TCM interview by Robert Osborne with Mitchum and Russell. I'm told the Rubin/Muller discussion is a lot of fun if you like to hear all the dish about the movie. The Osborne discussion, which I sampled parts of, is disquieting. Osborne is upbeat and wags his tail a lot, but an aged Mitchum seems bored and an aged Russell seems alternately jaundiced and amused by it all. Maybe that's just me.
 Mitchum and Russell Escape to Macao September 30, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is one of Robert Mitchum's coolest films. It is not a dark noir film like "Out of the Past" but a crime caper with a great cast set in an exotic locale. It has its own atmosphere and is a lot of fun for Mitchum fans. This is pure entertainment with a breezy feel all the way through, much the same as "The Big Steal" with Mitchum and Jane Greer.
Mitchum ends up in Macao and is mistaken for William Bendix, a cop looking to extradite casino owner Brad Dexter. Gloria Grahame plays the beautiful and abused ingenue tangled up with Dexter, and would steal this film were it not for the obvious chemistry between Mitchum and Jane Russell.
The two obviously liked each other and had a lot of fun making this film. Mitchum always had nice things to say about Russell whenever asked about the actresses he had worked with and Russell in turn always had nice things to say about Mitch. Both of them had their difficulties with the little dictator and director Joseph von Sternberg and it is probably in spite of his involvement with this film rather than because of it this movie turns out so utterly entertaining.
There is a glossy sheen and an airy feel to this Hollywood escapism. The entertaining crime angle, as the easygoing Mitchum is mistaken for Bendix, is played out nicely against the exotic locale of Macao. And the burgeoning romance between Mitchum and Russell gives this film just the right flavor. A movie that is great fun to watch. You'll enjoy it a little more every time you see it. Don't miss this one!
Interesting exotic film noir featuring a sultry Jane Russell August 8, 2007
This begins with a chase scene: a man in a white suit and white hat running, being chased by some thugs and a sinister Chinese guy with a knife. The man stops and looks back, forgetting Satchel Paige's dictum: "Don't look back, something might be gaining on you." They are in fact only dozen yards or so behind. But he starts running again and miraculously they are now further behind! (Typical chase scene camera work resulting in illogic. But never mind.) He ducks around a corner and hides. One of the thugs pauses, turns and sees him, which gives the man in the white suit a chance to knock him off his feet with a swift uppercut. Then he runs off in the direction he had turned. I was thinking how much he would be ahead of everybody by now if he had just kept running.
Chase scene ends with a knife thrown at him landing in the middle of his back. He's a cop from New York. Dead. Somehow this scene reminded me of something from Bud Abbott and Lou Costello.
Next scene is much better. Jane Russell as Julie Benson is in a cabin room on a passenger ship with a touristy kind of guy who's dancing, if you can call it that. He wants more than dancing. Julie pushes him away. He won't take no for an answer. She takes off a high heel and throws it at him. He ducks and the high heel flies out the window and hits Robert Mitchum who's playing an adventurer named Nick Cochran who just happened to be walking by. Boy meets girl, cute.
After a fashion he rescues the lady in distress. She's a hard talking, sultry babe with attitude. He wants to continue the party after knocking the masher out, but Julie isn't interested. So he takes her and kisses her. Very manly. She still isn't interested and tells him to beat it.
He does, but some time later he notices that his wallet is missing. We see her take out the dough and toss the wallet overboard. A few minutes later she meets up with William Bendix playing a global traveling salesman named Lawrence C. Trumble. Of course we know this is an elaborate disguise and he is somebody other than who he pretends to be. The "C" stands for Cicero, he later tells Nick, "but don't tell anybody." Trumble makes with the pleasantries, but Julie brushes him off. He tells her what he's selling. One thing she likes is nylons. He gives her a free pair, "no strings attached." She takes off her old nylons right there on the deck, tossing them overboard, one by one. Nick manages to be passing on the deck beneath and catches one of them as she puts on the new nylons. Later she asks, "Did you get a nice view?"
It's Macao, 36 miles from Hong Kong. It's hot. People are smoking and smuggling and gambling, and ex-pats who are stranded tend to make friends quickly. Naturally there's romance with Julie falling for Nick and vice versa, but some misunderstandings come between them. One has to do with Margie, played by the always intriguing Gloria Grahame, who, unlike Jane Russell, actually has an Oscar statue for her work in The Bad and the Beautiful from 1952, which, alas, I haven't seen. Seems that Margie would like to get her mitts on Nick and so manages at the urging of her boss, who owns a gambling nightclub, to make it seem like Nick bedded her down, or vice-versa, as you like.
This reminded me a bit of Casablanca (1942) and To Have and Have Not (1944) in that we have an American in an exotic locale with a dame in a joint amid some nefarious goings-on. As in To Have and Have Not, Jane Russell, like Lauren Bacall, does some singing. One of the numbers is "Make It One for My Baby and One More for the Road," which she does very well. Russell hails from a time when movies featured full-figured babes, and she was one of the best. Sexy, shapely and not a bad actress, Russell melted a few hearts in her time.
In a way "Macao" is almost a parody of Far Eastern intrigue films, which might account for the slight Abbott and Costello feel. I think this may come from the fact that Josef von Sternberg began as director, but Howard Hughes fired him and had Nicholas Ray finish up. Anyway, this moves right along and there is some nice chemistry between the two stars. Personally I got a kick out of seeing them both again after all these years.
Bottom line: a kind of film noir done with atmosphere and a lot of snappy one-liners. Definitely worth seeing.
Macao August 6, 2007
I am a noir film buff and think that Mitchum played in some of the best of this type of film. Macao is an excellent film with co-stars William Bendix and Jane Russell. It has plenty of intrigue and a good well developed plot sufficient keep the viewer's interest througout the film.
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