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Déjeuner sur l'herbe, Technicolor soundstage treatment. A ferry in the Caribbean, the man of mystery (Glenn Ford) "has the manners of a peddler," he's got the vessel hijacked within ten minutes. His cohorts are jailbirds, his hostages are an American couple (Ann Sheridan, Zachary Scott). "I'm going to show him some of the places that tourists don't generally see." Guatemala as far as others need to know, actually Honduras in the midst of a coup d'état, the deposed president hides from dictatorial forces. Up the river in a canoe, the promise of treasure holds the interest of the expansive cutthroat (Rodolfo Acosta). "No man is free without gold." "A man who is free is wealthy." The jungle adventure as political-moral landscape, a remarkable oneiric drift, a perfect expression of Jacques Tourneur's pure mise en scène throughout. An early view of prisoners in the ship's hull prepares the recherché sense of abstraction, a dissolve from the deck to a coastal vista gives a veritable Rothko of purple sky and azure ocean with a slash of emerald verdure in between. Ford in white suit adds to the filmmaker's roster of hard-boiled somnambulists, the pervasive greens of studio foliage are punctuated by Sheridan's red hair and yellow peignoir. "Think you can keep up with a man who's running for his life?" Details shade in mysterious depth to the potboiler scenario: An off-screen cacophony of animalistic sounds, "Lisa" stenciled on a money belt, Scott's hurt gaze behind a weaselly veneer. Shootout under a downpour and showdown amid burning huts, patriots gunned down as bandits and a gunrunner declared hero. The leading lady in spent close-up contemplates retirement, "I've had enough excitement to last me the rest of my life." Buňuel is quite near with Death in the Garden. With Jack Elam, Ric Roman, Rico Alaniz, and Stanley Andrews.
--- Fernando F. Croce |