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Big Steal (The) (1949)
R2 - France - Editions Montparnasse Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (25th May 2007). |
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The Film
 “RKO Pictures” (or “RKO Radio Pictures Inc.”, as it was soon known) was the American film company who once produced such classicz as “King Kong (1933)”, “Flying Down to Rio (1933)” and “Citizen Kane (1941)”. During the 1940s the company started to focus on the smaller horror, adventure and especially “film noir” vehicles. The latter genre introduced a new star, Robert Mitchum, to the American audience. During the 7-year period that Mitchum was a contract player for RKO, he appeared in over 20 films (almost half of them were “noirs”) - from “Girl Rush (1944)” to “Track of the Cat (1954)”. In the 1948 the eccentric multimillionaire Howard Hughes (yes, the one from Martin Scorsese´s “The Aviator (2004)”) gained control of the company, causing many changes - and havoc. It was in that time when also its biggest star Mitchum was in serious trouble with the law, when he was arrested for possession of marijuana. Hughes was not ready to abandon his most valuable asset, so the new film for him went quickly in production to show that the studio supports the troubled actor, even when it wasn´t clear what the outcome would be of his legal problems (at best, the scandal publicity might actually help at the box office). The book “Robert Mitchum - Baby I Don't Care” (St. Martin's Press, 2001) by author Lee Server gives some insight into this era and the production of “The Big Steal (1949)”. The film was prepared in a very fast schedule, since all the scenes at the location in Mexico were to be ready for shooting on the weekend following Mitchum´s trial (and sentencing). The always optimistic Hughes didn´t really consider the fact that his main star would be found “guilty” - which eventually happened. Mitchum served 60 days in the “prison farm”, while he should´ve been shooting his next “film noir”. When the original female lead Lizabeth Scott also withdrew at the last minute due to the “Mitchum case”, Hughes had eventually to choose Jane Greer (Mitchum and Greer were also together in the acclaimed “Out of the Past (1947)”), even when the actress had been on Hughes “black list” for personal reasons. Greer was also pregnant at the time. The sentence also caused many problems for Don Siegel, the unknown director that had made his mark in Warner Bros. as an efficient montage/second unit-director, but who was out of work before Hughes hired him for the film. Siegel was at the location in Mexico without his lead star, so he had to use a Mitchum double whenever it was possible and the original screenplay had to be re-adjusted and also stripped down. What once was a dark thriller started to steer into a lighter adventure-action. Siegel had been shooting endless car chases and when he noticed that the original tone of the story had changed, he started to encourage the actors to add some humour and even a tongue-in-cheek feel into their characters. The plot started to get very simple. And when it was time for Mitchum to finally join into the production in Mexico, he was drunk. The positive side was that due to the psychical work at the prison farm, he was in good shape (he lost 10 pounds). Despite these various problems and delays of the production (along with continuity errors due to the fact that it was filmed in many periods), “The Big Steal” is an entertaining and straightforward film. It´s hardly a classic compared to many other Mitchum-noirs from the same era, but shows why Siegel later on was known as an effective director, especially in various action and crime genres. Mitchum also was just the beginning for Siegel´s admirable record of the tough leading men that he directed; Steve McQueen in “Hell is for Heroes (1962)”, Lee Marvin in “The Killers (1964)”, John Wayne in his last film “The Shootist (1976)”, Charles Bronson in “Telefon (1977)” and of course five films with Clint Eastwood (e.g. “Dirty Harry (1971)” and “Escape from Alcatraz (1979)”). That list alone is truly something. In “The Big Steal” Mitchum plays Lieutenant Duke Halliday, who is after the shady con-artist Jim Fiske (Patric Knowles - e.g. “The Wolf Man (1941)” and “Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)”). Halliday, however, is also chased by Captain Vincent Blake (William Bendix - e.g. “Lifeboat (1944)”), who believes that Halliday is responsible for the robbery that has taken place. To make things even more complicated, Fiske has also double-crossed his fiancé Joan Graham (Jane Greer), who´s soon teaming up for the common cause with Halliday. Since they all have ended up in Mexico City, the local inspector general Ortega (Ramon Novarro - e.g. the title character in “Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925)”, and “Mata Hari (1931)”) is close by, monitoring all the “suspicious gringos”. Fiske, with Halliday and Joan on his heels, is driving across rural Mexico and Captain Blake is not very far from behind. The film is one long 71-minute “cat & mouse”-scene, after the score is finally settled and there are a few surprises. It´s not really fair to call “The Big Steal” a proper “film noir”, since it´s quite light in tone, humorous even. Everything´s also happening mainly in broad daylight, so the typical noir-imagery is not very well presented. There are of course a few good-old Hollywood fist-fights, along with some gun waving (one gun fight is almost like that taken from a western), but that´s about it. Even the lead woman is not very “fatale” this time. The film is still enjoyable, because it´s so easy to watch, never really taking a breath from action and chase. Something is constantly going on and even when there aren´t many clever plot points or proper “drama”, the film stays interesting. Actors are all solid, but Mitchum looks slightly bored in some scenes, almost like “I just gotta do this now”. Straight after the prison sentence his thoughts were probably partly elsewhere. His typical sarcastic, confident tone and “tough guy”-look is still there, which is already one good reason to see the film. Mitchum and Greer also have good chemistry together, although I would´ve hoped for more “romance” between their characters. Real Mexican locations are serving the story well and many times the humorous situations originate from the American vs Mexican cultural differences. Local people are taking it easy and watch the Americans that are either running or driving away, always in a hurry. Some scenes go a bit too far pointing at how laid back the life in Mexico is, since there are often some Mexicans sitting at the edge of the road when the car chase is on, which looks unintentionally funny. On the other hand the Mexican people seem to be fair and also helpful and inspector general Ortega is probably the smartest of the whole bunch. He doesn´t interfere in the situation at first, since by waiting all the parties blow the whole thing open probably by themselves. “The Big Steal” is too simplistic to be a really memorable film, but it´s a film where you definitely won´t get bored.
Video
The French-release by “Editions Montparnasse” is actually a re-release of this title, which now has a different cover and comes in a slipcase (instead of a keep case). The B&W transfer is presented in its OAR of 4:3, which is fairly decent. Some softness is present and the black levels are not always that strong, but the transfer is relatively clean (only some film artifacts here and there) and stable. I would say that the transfer is somewhere in the middle of pristine restorations and mediocre releases from the smaller labels. It could be better, but still worth a look. “Single layer” disc is coded “R2” and has 12 chapters. Note, that the running time is only 71:19 minutes (PAL), when the back cover claims it to be 102 minutes (!).
Audio
Two audio tracks are included; English and French Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono. Optional French subtitles are also included. There´s some background hiss and the dialogue can be slightly muffled (in some exterior scenes where there are more e.g. traffic noises and such, the dialogue tends to get more buried), but the track is a relatively normal Mono-track for the film of this age. Note that some brief Spanish dialogue-bits are not subtitled in English.
Extras
Only extra is a brief (2 minute) introduction to the film by the film critic Serge Bromberg. He´s also running the French film restoration and production company “Lobster Films”. The featurette is in French and there are no subtitles. The French title of the film is “Ça commence à Vera Cruz” and is part of the “Collection RKO” line by “Editions Montparnasse”. Note, that this re-release drops the Robert Mitchum biography and quote-notes and bonus film extracts from the original release (while adding the introduction).
Overall
Quick and fun, “The Big Steal” is not a serious Noir and was made during the turbulence in both RKO and in Mitchum´s personal life. Director Don Siegel still made it work and good actors saved the other half. French-release is almost bare bones, but the transfer is decent. This DVD is available at Xploited Cinema.
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