Ava Gardner came to the movies via an MGM contract but despite her beauty and off-screen fame (she was married to Mickey Rooney and Artie Shaw), the studio used her for little more than walk ons.
This film was crucial to her career because it gave her a decent role, one that eventually led to her casting in The Killers, which made her a star. Ava is stunning and already quite an accomplished actor playing a girl who returns to a small town to sell her house and see how she feels about her n’er-do-well former boyfriend (George Raft).
It’s an entirely decent drama, with some interesting characters: Raft is a useless bum who still has tickets on himself, Tom Conway the smooth guy who wants Gardner and can’t stand how she loves Raft, Victor McLaglen as a bartender who suggests murder. The script was written by a superior talent, Philip Yordan, who knows how to convey a tale of small town seediness (bars, train stations, dance halls), laced with tough dialogue. Raft is quite good playing a loser.
No comments:
Post a Comment