Macao

Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell in Macao (dir. Josef von Sternberg, 1952).

Another Howard Hughes production for RKO with Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell, all very enjoyable. Sternberg goes nuts with the location and its attending atmosphere, simultaneously exoticizing and de-exoticizing the Asian and Portuguese characters (some are "inscrutable," for example, but speak perfect English). Mitchum and Russell play beautifully together, and William Bendix is solid and affable as always. Gloria Grahame is handed a scrawny turkey of a role as the lead gangster's disgruntled moll, but invests it with enough graceful toughness to make it seem more than it is. Nice line from Russell: "Everybody's lonely and worried and sorry."

The Shanghai Gesture

Ona Munson and Maria Ouspenskaya in The Shanghai Gesture (dir. Josef von Sternberg, 1941).

I wish I could post a screen capture of almost every single shot in this gorgeous, incoherent, screwed-up, delirious film. Victor Mature as Dr. Omar the "Persian Poet"! And the dialogue: "Stop behaving like a disabled flamingo."