Product Description

A traveling night club singer gets hired by an American expatriate who runs a casino in Macao and specializes in converting stolen jewelry into cash. Complications ensue when one of her traveling companions turns out to be a cop.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44682 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2007-01-23
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 81 minutes

Customer Reviews

good Mitchum-Russell sparks; entertaining
I haven't yet seen the dvd version, but am glad it's being released. Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell made two film noir-ish films together -- "Macao" and "His Kind of Woman." They're both good, but I prefer this one. Made in 1952, Mitchum and Russell were at the height of their bigger-than-life attractiveness; and as subsequent interviews with them have shown (I saw one a few years ago on TCM), they actually liked each other and have an easy-going, unpretentious ease to their playing which makes it easy to root for their romance in this film. Mitchum is rightly admired for his acting, but Russell is underrated -- she has an "I know I'm attractive, but it's no big deal" attitude that is supremely likable. And in a film like "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," which I've watched many times, Marilyn Monroe clearly is the charismatic star, but Russell gives superb support, and her "no nonsense" line readings are really expert (and help set Monroe up). The plot of "Macao" is rather dense and hard to follow, but the decor and ambience carry the day -- the look undoubtedly has to do with legendary director Josef von Sternberg (who the stars and crew hated); but some of the scenes, according to that TCM interview, were actually written and/or improvised by the two stars. Russell's also a good, straight-forward singer; and she does an amusing job with Jule Styne's "You Kill Me" (during which the movie nightclub audience pays her no attention) and a nice version of the superb Harold Arlen classic, "One for My Baby." Throw in sultry Gloria Grahame as a secondary shady lady, and it's a pretty entertaining film.

A routine melodrama with a few flashy decorative touches...
'Macao' emerges on screen as a routine exercise in melodrama with a few flashy decorative touches from Von Sternberg's hand...

Certainly the ambiance created did not at all suggest that Macao is an exotic, sinful, self-governing overseas territory of Portugal, on the South China Coast...

The plot opens with the arrival of a ship in the port of Macao, and aboard are a former American lieutenant in the Signal Corps, who has just lost his passport (Mitchum); a tall tawny brunette (Russell); and a happy salesman (William Bendix)...

Just before the boat docks, Mitchum, with a confused romantic involvement, uses up his sexual magnetism, in asking Jane about her past... Jane, a woman who had seen a lot and was not about to be surprised by much, replies: 'I don't warm up to questions when I don't know the answers myself.'

Eventually, she reveals that she had formerly been a cigarette girl and photographer at a Miami Beach Club, then was a fortune-teller, and now is coasting along as a singer...

Once again Jane's character is introspective but honest and open: 'I was never considered a brain. I'm a creature of moods.' Her philosophy was expressed by these words: 'Everybody's lonely worried, and sorry. Everybody's looking for something. I don't know whether it's a person or a place. But I'll keep on looking.'

If Mitchum was impressed by her personality, his unemotional expression gives no indication of such an interest... His sleep-hooded eyes still challenge women to rouse him and make him their own...

Upon arriving Jane is rapidly hired by gangster Brad Dexter to sing at his Club Quick Reward, much to the discomfort of his girlfriend and gaming table croupier, Gloria Grahame...

Jane, physically glorious, is soon at work, singing to the gambling crowd a version of 'You Kill Me.' Meantime Dexter and his corrupt police intimate friend, lieutenant Thomas Gomez, have been alerted that one of the three new visitors is an undercover police officer sent to bring Dexter back to justice by cheating him into coming outside the three-mile limit of Macao (which has no extradition treaties).

The criminal couple assume that Mitchum is the law-enforcer when in reality it is another big fellow...

Jane's highlight covers her performance of the song 'One for the Road'... To impress everybody, Jane was wearing a terrific dress...

Overlooked Noir Gem

A wonderfully tongue-in-cheek scripted RKO adventure story directed by Josef von Sternberg ("Shanghai Express"/"Morocco"/"The Shanghai Gesture"). Most of the action scenes were reshot on studio orders (Howard Hughes and his lackeys) by Nicholas Ray--though it retains that unique Sternberg look and feel.

It's based on a story by Bob Williams; the screenplay is by Stanley Crea Rubin and Bernard Schoenfeld. The story is set in the exotic port of Macao, located off the south coast of China, some 35 miles from Hong Kong. It's an ancient Portuguese colony, considered by many as the "Monte Carlo of the Orient."

Three Americans are on ferry boat that left Hong Kong for Macao, and all with different reasons for choosing to come here. Julie Benson (Jane Russell), a sexy lady with a chip on her shoulder, is an unemployed singer and world weary passenger, who had her passage paid for by a sleaze who forces himself on her as the implied payment for the ticket. Nick Cochran (Robert Mitchum) rescues the damsel-in-distress from her sexual attacker and as a reward Julie picks his pocket while giving him a kiss. He's a former sailor, who's on-the-lam over petty criminal charges he faces for a fight he got into back in New York five years ago over a redhead; and, the down-on-his-luck adventurer would rather keep drifting around the world than return home to face the music. Lawrence Trumble (William Bendix) poses as a travelling salesman, but the jolly traveller is really an undercover NYC policeman on assignment to arrest Macao underworld crime boss Vince Halloran (Brad Dexter) for having his Chinese knife to death a fellow NYC policeman because he was hot on the smuggler's tail. Halloran, an American expatriate, runs most of Macao, including a gambling casino. The problem is Halloran can't be arrested in Macao, only in international waters if he goes three miles outside of the protected area.

Halloran expects an undercover cop to arrest him (as was tried before), and has the crooked local police chief, Lt. Sebastian (Thomas Gomez), on the payroll to report all incoming passengers. Because Nick has no papers (his passport was lifted with his wallet), he's suspected of being the cop and is unsuccessfully bribed by the crime boss to leave Macao. Julie is hired by Halloran to sing in his casino, which incurs the jealousy of Halloran's girlfriend Margie (Gloria Grahame).

Taking advantage of the mix up, Trumble uses Nick to lure the gangster off Macao. He supplies Nick with a big diamond from a diamond necklace that the police recovered from a botched smuggling scheme of Halloran's. The other diamonds, worth $100,00 but offered to Halloran for $40,000, are held in Hong Kong, and the gangster agrees to go there to consumate the deal. Instead, he has his Chinese jump Nick. But they mistakenly kill Trumble, not realizing he's the real cop. Trumble, before he dies, tells Nick he cleared up with the NYC authorities the past criminal charges and he can return. But Nick decides to repay the favor, and cunningly gets Halloran to leave Macao and into the hands of the international police.

Jane Russell enthralls as she gets romanced by the laconic Mitchum, and they create movie magic together through their brilliant nuanced performances. The sultry actress was never better, as she belts out a few torch songs, tosses insults at Mitchum with natural ease, shows her romantic side and looks right through the leering bad guys of Macao as if they didn't exist. She's the good-bad girl, while he's the hard-luck innocent who can't even win when playing with loaded dice. They're both film noir characters, who Jane sums up when she tells her man: "Everybody's lonely, worried, and sorry. Everybody's looking for something." If you are looking for an underrated film noir gem, that somehow got swept under the rug--this is it!