Having seen this many years ago and having been rather confused by it. I wondered if waiting years to see it again if it would come together for me. Unfortunately, it has not, becoming even more of a mystery than before. I wondered if the issues I had with it before were my issue, but ultimately, the conclusion that I came to is the fact that it strives for new wave artistry but simply ends up being pretentious. Robert Montgomery, so good on "Lady in the Lake", tried again in the film noir genre and managed to turn this into a cult classic. I am not a part of that cult.
Arriving by Greyhound in a border town during a fiesta, Montgomery finds intrigue in local corruption, finding an amigo on jolly Thomas Gomez and a pest in young Wanda Hendrix. Other corrupt characters give only moderate clues over what is going on, and it takes a lot of patience to get to the conclusion to really put it all together.
Andrea King plays one of the great femme fatales of all time, and where she is going remains an impressive mystery. A scene with villains beating up Gomez as children observe it from their seats on a twirling carousel, is one of the great visuals of the noir genre.
Perhaps the problem also lies in the setting. Rural border towns are creepy looking and dark at night and I really longed for a city setting to make this feel like a desolate area where occasional crowd scenes could bring on a flash of excitement. Montgomery is a rather cold, unemotional anti-war, with Hendrix following him around non- stop like some unwanted guardian angel.
Dry and humorless, this drags slightly and I kept longing for something to happen. Fred Clark, on his debut, makes an intriguing sleeve,leading him to a lengthy career of playing snarky WASPS. Some interesting photography gives the appropriate atmosphere, but overall, this is a highly overrated bore.
Arriving by Greyhound in a border town during a fiesta, Montgomery finds intrigue in local corruption, finding an amigo on jolly Thomas Gomez and a pest in young Wanda Hendrix. Other corrupt characters give only moderate clues over what is going on, and it takes a lot of patience to get to the conclusion to really put it all together.
Andrea King plays one of the great femme fatales of all time, and where she is going remains an impressive mystery. A scene with villains beating up Gomez as children observe it from their seats on a twirling carousel, is one of the great visuals of the noir genre.
Perhaps the problem also lies in the setting. Rural border towns are creepy looking and dark at night and I really longed for a city setting to make this feel like a desolate area where occasional crowd scenes could bring on a flash of excitement. Montgomery is a rather cold, unemotional anti-war, with Hendrix following him around non- stop like some unwanted guardian angel.
Dry and humorless, this drags slightly and I kept longing for something to happen. Fred Clark, on his debut, makes an intriguing sleeve,leading him to a lengthy career of playing snarky WASPS. Some interesting photography gives the appropriate atmosphere, but overall, this is a highly overrated bore.