Directed by Robert Z. Leonard with Vincente Minnelli (uncredited).
Written by Marguerite Roberts and based on Frederick Nebel's short story. The Cinematography by Joseph Ruttenberg and Music by Miklós Rózsa
The film stars Robert Taylor as Rigby a undercover US government agent, Ava Gardner as Elizabeth Hintten a lounge singer in a backwater named Santa Carlotta on the island of Backlot, Central Hollywood. It's supposed to be a Central American big game fishing destination, Charles Laughton is J.J. Bealer a sleazy, sweaty, Brit expat con man with bad feet, Vincent Price as the suave contraband smuggler Carwood, John Hodiak as Elizabeth's alkie husband Tugwell aka 'Tug' Hintten, Samuel S. Hinds as Dr. Warren, John Hoyt as Rigby's boss Gibbs, Martin Garralaga as Pablo Gomez and Tito Renaldo as Emilio Gomez the fishing guide.
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| Robert Taylor as Rigby |
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| Ava Gardner as Elizabeth Hintten |
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| Vincent Price as Carwood |
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| Charles Laughton is J.J. Bealer |
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| Ava Gardner and John Hodiak |
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| Martin Garralaga as Pablo Gomez |
This one would be great for a Noir drinking game. Anytime you see a fan or a fan shadow take a drink. The film is so loaded with Hollywood backlot Tropical atmosphere it needs sideboards. This should get some kind of Noirsville Visual achievement award. Kudos to the Art Direction by Malcolm Brown and Cedric Gibbons and the Set Decoration by Edwin B. Willis.
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The story is pretty simple. Rigby is sent by Gibbs to track down on a smuggling operation that's moving good surplus military aircraft engines mixed in with scrap metal and selling it labeled as "ships ballast," to the highest bidder. The engines are tested on an island off the coast near a big game fishing destination, Santa Carlotta, a Central American backwater. His leads are an American couple Tug Hintten and his wife Elizabeth.
Tug is an ex Army Air Corp pilot who was getting by working on a Tropical passenger airline until he got grounded because of a heart condition. That got him and Elizabeth stranded and indebt in Santa Carlotta. They both work in a nightclub that caters to the fishing sports business. Tug as a bartender Elizabeth as a chanteuse. The only detail that doesn't mesh with the apparent facts is that Tug Hintten is the owner of a rather substantial boat.
Another suspicious character in our tale is J.J. Bealer, who seems to be present wherever Rigby goes. Rounding out the cast of suspects is Carwood who is a big wheeler-dealer in Central and South America who has his fingers in a number of pies. Rigby first met Carwood traveling on a flight into Santa Carlotta, but Carwood stayed on the plane to a destination further South on a business deal.
Once Rigby establishes his cover as a fisherman he engages a guide to take him fishing while he tails Hintten's boat to see what he can find. However, when Bealer offers him money to back off, Rigby knows that his cover is already blown.
It starts to go Noirsville when Rigby falls for Elizabeth and Carwood shows up back in Santa Carlotta wanting to go fishing with Rigby, and on their trip Carwood's ineptness at the controls of the fishing boat sends both Rigby and Emilio into the shark infested waters. Emilio doesn't make it.
Noirsville
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