Saigon (1948) June 25, 2007
Posted by jackal in : Films, Film Noir , trackbackThe fourth and final 1940s Alan Ladd-Veronica Lake outing is easily the most obscure of the quartet. After the tough, memorable noirs This Gun for Hire, The Glass Key and The Blue Dahlia, Saigon trails a way behind: a minor, lazily-plotted, oriental crime caper. It’s still solid entertainment, better than IMDB would have you believe, due in large part to the central duo.
When Major Larry Briggs (Ladd), stationed in Shanghai after the war, discovers that an old army pal is slowly dying from a war injury, he gets together with a third member of his former bomber crew to plan a final vacation. To finance the trip, the trio take on a lucrative job flying the mysterious Mr Maris (Morris Carnovsky) and his secretary Susan (Veronica Lake) to Saigon. Ambushed by police at the last minute, Briggs is forced to leave Maris behind to an uncertain fate, over Susan’s vocal protests. Their ageing plane gives out en route and after an emergency landing, the ex-GIs and their feisty charge make their way on foot to Saigon, attracting the attention of a calculating local policeman (Luther Adler) along the way. Will he discover the mountain of dirty money Susan is carrying for her boss? Will Susan eventually fall for Larry? Will Mr Maris show up unexpectedly in the last reel? Well, duh. Rocket science this ain’t.
Saigon works despite its faults. The story is fairly predictable, and suffers from T2 syndrome (a lethargic middle act), but it’s glossy and well-produced; the glitzy, expansive set for the hotel in Saigon is particularly well-realized. Like the similarly studio-bound ‘exotic’ caper Macao, the stars are largely responsible for the fun. Ladd and Lake don’t have the overwhelming charm and sparkling interplay of Mitchum and Russell, but they click just the same. Ladd, a slightly built actor I often have trouble buying as a tough guy, delivers a solid performance here. Lake, not yet 30, but already creeping towards the end of her troubled career as a leading lady, plays suitably hard-to-get as the petulant ice-maiden, always perfectly made-up and dressed in a variety of flattering outfits, most notably the stunning, figure-hugging evening gown she dons for the last act.
Of the supporting cast, Morris Carnovsky makes for a smooth bad guy, and Luther Adler is quite excellent as the suspicious but ultimately honourable policeman Lt. Keon. Much of the pleasure, though, is in watching Ladd and Lake together for the final time, and even the film’s downbeat final scene feels strangely appropriate as a low-key farewell for the screen couple.
Although all four of the Ladd-Lake pictures were made at Paramount, Saigon is the only one that remains under their control, the earlier films now belonging to Universal along with almost all other pre-1948 Paramount films. Surprise, surprise, Saigon remains the only one not available on DVD (all of the other three are out from Universal in R2; This Gun for Hire in R1 as well). As is so often my plea at the end of a piece like this, hopefully that oversight will be rectified sometime soon.
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Always great to read about films I know little about, would like to see, but haven’t done so, which you frequently feature here. In a perfect world, movie people who make the decisions would be the type to actually buy the product they control and we’d have a Ladd-Lake DVD set.
I believe that Universal actually still has the rights to Saigon though. I might be wrong, but I think they control most everything Paramount released before 1950. An example I can think of is Billy Wilder’s A Foreign Affair, from 1948, which was made at Paramount but released on VHS by Universal.
Thanks clydefro. You may well be right about the rights still being with Uni - I’m no expert in the area, just going by what I’ve picked up here and there. There might be more chance of a DVD release with Universal, actually, and it’d make for a very nice boxset as you say …