I'd like to know a bit more about the background of this film because the script was credited to Wells Root who has a lot of credits and it is a decent story but the result is really garbled and confusing.
Veronica Lake, in her last film before a hiatus, is a woman who arrives in Mexico to escape the civil war. That's a good idea - you've got Emperor Maximilian and Carlotta and revolutionaries. It was shot in Mexico. Zachary Scott is good value as a nasty aristocrat and Arturo de Cordova is fine as noble who is secretly a revolutionary albeit with the requisit amount of sexual harasment of the heroine. It's Robin Hood set in Maximilian Mexico with Lake as Maid Marian - that should work.
But it gets confusing with people being captured and escaping and recaptured. One minute de Cordova is on top then it's Scott and I wasn't sure where Lake's loyalties lay. Then thisre mine got flooded and people were being captured.
Its frustrating because all the ingredients are there - a sword fight in a cave, a mine flooding, romance, peasants uprising, a last minute reprieve from a hanging. Production values are fine, especially in the second half. Lake is wooden - her acting got worse as she went on - but she looks okay. Scott is good.
A curio. There's narration at the beginning and dubbing - these feels cut about.
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