First of all, this isn't a film noir. There's no femma fatale, for one thing. Robert Mitchum is also not a flawed hero nor an anti-hero. He merely walked into Act 1 without knowing what he was getting into, but changed his mind pretty quickly when he figured the good guys from the bad guys.
Anyway, Robert Mitchum is so cool it's almost unfair to every other male star at the time. But director Robert Wise also gets excellent performances out of the irrepressible Robert Preston, the unusually restrained Walter Brennan, and the super-cute Barbara Bel Geddes. Everyone knows Howard Hughes was a world-class nutjob but he was also a terrible judge of acting talent. He cut Bel Geddes contract after this film yet hung on to skanky Jane Russell.
The movie is impressively photographed. And there's an above-average bar fight, and an above-average climactic shootout. But the ending is trite.
Anyway, Robert Mitchum is so cool it's almost unfair to every other male star at the time. But director Robert Wise also gets excellent performances out of the irrepressible Robert Preston, the unusually restrained Walter Brennan, and the super-cute Barbara Bel Geddes. Everyone knows Howard Hughes was a world-class nutjob but he was also a terrible judge of acting talent. He cut Bel Geddes contract after this film yet hung on to skanky Jane Russell.
The movie is impressively photographed. And there's an above-average bar fight, and an above-average climactic shootout. But the ending is trite.