Macao (1952)

Posted by Kristina

I remember a few years back Macao was scheduled for the Film Noir Festival at the Egyptian. Eddie Muller was the host and he told the audience he had called Jane Russell that day and told her the Egyptian was showing Macao. Her response was “Why”?

Her less than enthusiastic response is easily understood once learning about the making of the troubled RKO production. I can understand why she’d probably just want to forget the experience. The audience though sees the film differently, not having participated in the taxing production and can accept the film as a good example of the film noir genre, with the most interesting parts being the story of the production and the opening scenes of the film.

Click to play trailer

Macao’s production began after the success of the first Mitchum/Russell flick, His Kind of Woman, a better film than Macao in my opinion. Howard Hughes hired Josef von Sternberg (who helped Dietrich rocket to fame) to direct Macao, despite the fact Sternberg hadn’t done anything recently. Perhaps Hughes was hoping to recreate the atmosphere of Shanghai Gesture which Sternberg had directed, but more likely it was to propel Jane Russell’s star higher in Hollywood. Sternberg had all the right ingredients to start with: the very capable writing team of Stanley Rubin and Bernard C. Schoenfeld and a terrific array of noir actors including Mitchum, Russell, Gloria Grahame, Thomas Gomez, Brad Dexter and William Bendix. Unfortunately for the crew and the studio, Sternberg didn’t play well with others and made the set quite unpleasant. A showdown ensued between Mitchum and Sternberg and the director lost. He was replaced by Nicholas Ray after most of the movie (if not all of the movie, depending on which source you read) had already been filmed. Nicholas Ray and various members of the crew added dialogue and scenes and they shot over most of the scenes, but some of the remnants of Sternberg’s product are hinted at times through the use of unusual camera angles and lighting. Scenes of Gloria Grahame behind beaded curtains, Dexter spying behind shuttered windows, and Mitchum & Bendix shrouded by fish nets add to the veiled mystery of Macao and were probably filmed by Sternberg. The final product is a good, but not great, film featuring typical noir characters - a crime boss (Dexter), his mistress (Grahame), an ex-serviceman on the run from the law (Mitchum), a bad girl with a heart of gold (Russell), an undercover cop (Bendix), a crooked policeman (Gomez), and a odd assortment of various characters.

The opening of the story draws the audience immediately into the action and into a romance between Mitchum and Russell. The pace is pretty tight in the 81 minute movie and besides a tidy plot we are treated to some snappy dialogue including a great closing line (how’d that get by the 1952 censors?) and 3 songs by Jane. The story opens with a chase on a dock. The man being chased is a New York cop & is killed. We see that Vincent Halloran (Dexter) is involved in the murder.

Cut to Julie Benton (Russell) aboard a ferry. She’s broke and has hooked up with a seedy salesman so she can get to Macao. The salesman gets a little rough, even for Julie, and she throws her shoe at him, but it goes out the window and hits Nick Cochran (Mitchum) instead. Nick comes into the room and busts up the party. Cochran helps himself to a kiss from Julie and Julie lifts Nick’s wallet. They land in Macao, Julie and another passenger, Lawrence C. Trumble (self-proclaimed businessman of coconut oil, pearl buttons, fertilizer, and nylon stockings) gain entry but Cochran is without wallet and passport, so he has to check in with the local police, Lt Sebastian (Gomez). Sebastian allows Cochran into Macao for the time being.

Sebastian is on Halloran’s payroll and tells him that Cochran must be the cop sent in to finish the dead officer’s work of bringing Halloran to justice since Cochran has no identification papers. Halloran’s casino, The Quick Reward, attracts the characters from the boat – Julie gets a job singing there, Trumble gambles, Cochran tries to find work there. Also at the Quick Reward is Halloran’s girl, Margie (Grahame).

The major characters are now in place and the story moves steadily forward. I want to leave some mystery for those who haven’t seen the film yet, even though it is easily figured out, so that’s all of the story I’ll give.

The actors are good, but Grahame is somewhat underused. We see her but she doesn’t get enough dialogue and that is interesting too because Nicholas Ray was the clean up director and added extra scenes. Dexter is great as the crooked casino owner with the hots for Julie. He speaks in a soft voice and often with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. Bendix gets to go a bit against type in this movie, playing a relatively calm character. Male audiences will enjoy Russell’s gowns, er that is cleavage, and take a look for that lame dress rumored to weigh 26 pounds. Women will enjoy Mitchum’s charms.

Macao is a worthy entry in the noir genre, but some more mention must be made of Howard Hughes involvement in the film. His obsession with Russell's wardrobe and tactics he used while running RKO directly affected the quality of films made during his regin at RKO. The days of RKO noir films like Crossfire, Out of the Past, and They Live by Night were over by 1952. Hughes had script and star approval for all features by 1951 and the creative talents of the studio were not usually permitted to make decisions. So, RKO's noir products of this era turned out to be the type and quality of films like Clash by Night, Beware, My Lovely, Angel Face, and the exception to this list of lesser film noirs - The Narrow Margin (the best of the bunch from this period, Hughes must have left his one alone). So, all said, Macao turned out pretty well considering the chaotic production, switch of directors, and meddlesome tactics of Hughes.