Castle's economic direction and a snappy script by Robert L. Winters plays a brassy good-time girl who may or may not be in cahoots with the gang, and Curtis, who never utters a word, portrays a handsome, trigger-happy hitman. Location shooting in San Francisco, Vancouver, and Tucson distinguishes this run-of-the-mill police procedural about a square-jawed narc (Duff) who enlists the services of a convicted criminal (Duryea) to help infiltrate and shut down a drug syndicate. Though it's a B-grade film, Johnny Stool Pigeon features a cast of future A-list performers, including Shelley Winters, Howard Duff, and Tony Curtis (billed here as Anthony), as well as another strong performance from one of noir's most beloved bad guys, Dan Duryea. Johnny Stool Pigeon, one of a handful of noirs Castle made in the late 1940s and early 1950s, also transmits a semi-documentary vibe as it salutes the brave men of the Bureau of Narcotics and Bureau of Customs who bust drug rings and put dangerous thugs behind bars. Long before he churned out low-budget, gimmicky horror flicks in the early 1960s, William Castle was a journeyman director who worked in several genres. As knock-offs go, Singapore is far from a bust, but a little more originality, tension, and grit would make this tale of amnesia more memorable. ![]() Brahm, who helmed such previous hits as The Lodger, Hangover Square, and The Locket, supplies some welcome artistic touches, most notably a dynamite final shot that earns our admiration and makes us wish the rest of the movie could be as inventive and flashy. Though a feeling of déjà vu permeates Singapore, the film keeps us involved throughout its brisk 79-minute running time. Lucky for us, the stellar supporting cast picks up the slack, with Gomez, Richard Haydn, Spring Byington, and Porter Hall, who the same year would memorably portray the neurotic, vindictive department store psychiatrist in Miracle on 34th Street, all contributing fine work. MacMurray and Gardner click, but they don't combust like Bogie and Bergman, and although the 24-year-old Gardner is gorgeously photographed, her acting is still a bit unpolished. A little more spice and duplicity would lend her romance with Matt more heat and lend Singapore, which lacks most of the noir conventions we know and love, more punch. Matt's attempts to jar Linda's memory while he searches for his precious pearls, which are also coveted by a corrupt, ruthless businessman (Thomas Gomez), forms the crux of the film's plot.įor Gardner, Singapore came hot on the heels of her electrifying portrayal of a femme fatale in The Killers, but there's nothing fatal about Linda, who's a sympathetic heroine from beginning to end. She's very much alive, of course, but when Matt runs into her by chance in a nightclub, he discovers she's not only married to Michael Van Leyden (Roland Culver), an older man who comforted and protected her while the two languished in a Japanese prison camp, but also a victim of amnesia. ![]() He's also haunted by memories of his alluring fiancée, Linda Grahame (Ava Gardner), who disappeared after Singapore was bombed and is presumed dead. All of it doesn't amount to a hill of beans, but it's slickly mounted and nicely acted by a talented cast.įred MacMurray plays smuggler Matt Gordon, a kinder, gentler version of Double Indemnity's Walter Neff, who returns to Singapore after World War II to reclaim a stash of hidden pearls he was forced to leave behind when the Japanese invaded and occupied the British colony. Director John Brahm's formulaic romantic thriller features a heroine torn between a lovable rogue and a man to whom she feels indebted, a stash of coveted pearls instead of letters of transit, and a climactic airport finale. There's China, Calcutta, and Saigon, but the one that most closely follows the Casablanca blueprint is without a doubt Singapore. Singapore, Johnny Stool Pigeon (you gotta love that title!), and The Raging Tide are hardly noir classics, but they're all solid, entertaining pictures sure to please diehard fans.Įager to ride the coattails of Casablanca's success, several studios produced geographically titled films set in exotic locales that brim with passion and intrigue. ![]() In its continuing (and admirable) effort to crank out as many sequels as The Fast and the Furious franchise, Kino Lorber releases Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema VI, a collection of three moody, B-grade dramas that explore greed, desire, and organized crime and feature an array of established and up-and-coming stars.
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