The plot is quite good and the twist at the end works well. It was mostly filmed on location which added to the setting of what is basically a chase movie. Director Rex Bailey keeps the story moving along nicely. Top billed George Brent is George Brent. I liked better ubiquitous character actor Morris Ankrum as the exiled and weary Tip Morgan and Alberto Morin as the faithful Pablo whose demise is rather poignant. Also liked Marvin Press as the unfortunate Cookie, viciously bumped off by his fellow gangsters when he sustains a wound. Unfortunately Hillary Brooke is wasted in her role, only appearing after half the movie is over. The film could have done with more of her charming villainy.
4 Reviews
"When I stay he gives me the rush of the vagabond"
hwg1957-102-26570426 October 2023
Warning: Spoilers
A Last Hurrah For Brent
boblipton27 May 2024
For a couple of decades, true-crime writer George Brent has been trying to find out what happened to crime reporter Morris Ankrum. Now he's off to Mexico in what he hopes will be the last trip investigating the matter. He quickly find Ankrum and the daughter he took along, grown into Karen Sharpe. But there are people trying to make sure Ankrum doesn't get back, even if they have to kill him, including Hillary Brooke, Carleton Young, and Stuart Randall.
It's a last hurrah for Brent as a leading man, and about time; he's looking pudgy and not moving very fast. He would continue acting on big and little screens until shortly before his death in 1979 at the age of 75.
The plot has an issue or three. The issue of who is behind the machinations could be figured out in short order had Brent simply asked Ankrum, which would turn this into a very short movie indeed. Nonetheless, I was able to figure it out fairly easily. With Marjorie Lord and Alberto Morin.
It's a last hurrah for Brent as a leading man, and about time; he's looking pudgy and not moving very fast. He would continue acting on big and little screens until shortly before his death in 1979 at the age of 75.
The plot has an issue or three. The issue of who is behind the machinations could be figured out in short order had Brent simply asked Ankrum, which would turn this into a very short movie indeed. Nonetheless, I was able to figure it out fairly easily. With Marjorie Lord and Alberto Morin.
George Brent's last starring role in a film
jarrodmcdonald-119 February 2018
George Brent had his last leading role in a movie when he made this low-budget drama for Monogram/Allied Artists. A bit of a letdown considering the great stuff he had done with Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck and Olivia De Havilland who would all continue to make big budget films for some time after this.
The popular leading man of the 1930s and 1940s still looks fit for a guy of his age, and his pleasing personality is apparent in all his scenes. But the routine plot and by-the-numbers character he plays is certainly no challenge for him. Or for some of us watching, who wish to stay awake. In some ways, you can see the influence television was already having on mainstream films such as this one. It does not differ from any crime yarn that would be made on the small screen during this era, except that at around 70 minutes and with no commercials, it's a longer drama with a number of outdoor sequences.
Helping the production is actress Hillary Brooke who specialized in playing crooked "dames" as well as Marjorie Lord who appears as Brent's girl Friday. Lord's movie career never really went beyond B films like this, and she would soon make a more lasting mark on TV as Danny Thomas' wife on his long-running sitcom.
I'd recommend MEXICAN MANHUNT not exactly for the story (it's been done a million times) but for anyone who likes George Brent. He deserved a better script but shows us he still had considerable charm and was still every bit a class act though his days as a movie star were now over.
The popular leading man of the 1930s and 1940s still looks fit for a guy of his age, and his pleasing personality is apparent in all his scenes. But the routine plot and by-the-numbers character he plays is certainly no challenge for him. Or for some of us watching, who wish to stay awake. In some ways, you can see the influence television was already having on mainstream films such as this one. It does not differ from any crime yarn that would be made on the small screen during this era, except that at around 70 minutes and with no commercials, it's a longer drama with a number of outdoor sequences.
Helping the production is actress Hillary Brooke who specialized in playing crooked "dames" as well as Marjorie Lord who appears as Brent's girl Friday. Lord's movie career never really went beyond B films like this, and she would soon make a more lasting mark on TV as Danny Thomas' wife on his long-running sitcom.
I'd recommend MEXICAN MANHUNT not exactly for the story (it's been done a million times) but for anyone who likes George Brent. He deserved a better script but shows us he still had considerable charm and was still every bit a class act though his days as a movie star were now over.
No more effective than an hour long anthology tv crime drama.
mark.waltz27 July 2018
Warning: Spoilers
He doesn't twitter or tweet.
So says private detective George Brent to his barely seen assistant Marjorie Lord as he goes off to visit an American in Mexico (Morris Ankrum) who needs help getting back to the United States with daughter Karen Sharpe after hiding out in Mexico for years. He's been threatened to stay out of the USA because of his knowledge of the guilty party of a long ago crime, and when the gang who threatened Ankrum discover that he's on his way back, they go out of their way to convince him that it's not the best idea.
Traveling along with them is the good natured American born Mexican (Alberto Morin) who keeps claiming that he was like a mother to Sharpe, and risks everything to save the feisty, unafraid Sharpe. The criminal gang, lead by aging femme fatale Hilary Brooke, is obviously determined to stop Ankrum from getting anywhere and this means that there will be casualties, even if it means turning on members of their own gang. Morin is amusing, especially when he refers to himself as an American w**b**k in Mexico.
Watchable, if predictable and filled with plot holes, this is old fashioned even by 1950's standards, obviously of low budget TV quality. The dialog is cliched and the villains completely one dimensional. But for a 70 minute bottom of the bill second feature you can't expect "The Big Sleep" or "Out of the Past". It's second string film noir with cardboard cutout characters and serviceable acting, but not much else. One last hurrah for George Brent who comes out of this unscathed.
So says private detective George Brent to his barely seen assistant Marjorie Lord as he goes off to visit an American in Mexico (Morris Ankrum) who needs help getting back to the United States with daughter Karen Sharpe after hiding out in Mexico for years. He's been threatened to stay out of the USA because of his knowledge of the guilty party of a long ago crime, and when the gang who threatened Ankrum discover that he's on his way back, they go out of their way to convince him that it's not the best idea.
Traveling along with them is the good natured American born Mexican (Alberto Morin) who keeps claiming that he was like a mother to Sharpe, and risks everything to save the feisty, unafraid Sharpe. The criminal gang, lead by aging femme fatale Hilary Brooke, is obviously determined to stop Ankrum from getting anywhere and this means that there will be casualties, even if it means turning on members of their own gang. Morin is amusing, especially when he refers to himself as an American w**b**k in Mexico.
Watchable, if predictable and filled with plot holes, this is old fashioned even by 1950's standards, obviously of low budget TV quality. The dialog is cliched and the villains completely one dimensional. But for a 70 minute bottom of the bill second feature you can't expect "The Big Sleep" or "Out of the Past". It's second string film noir with cardboard cutout characters and serviceable acting, but not much else. One last hurrah for George Brent who comes out of this unscathed.
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