Bait

It's typical of this film that although heroine Cleo Moore has a baby boy born out of wedlock we never see him.

Like a silent film or Russ Meyer movie without the jokes (or the voluptuousness), presented by Cedric Hardwicke as the Devil, whose projectionist (in the wittiest aside in the film) is referred to as Lucifer.

I guess that makes director/star Hugo Haas The Serpent, since rather surprisingly he proposes marriage to Miss Moore without showing any interest in consummating the union, and the Deadly Sin the film punishes turns about to be greed rather than lust.

"Marko" (Hugo Haas) and his best mate "Ray" (John Agar) head off into the wilderness searching for a lost gold mine. Duly found and riches secured, the former man starts to resent sharing with his younger partner so hits on quite an ingenious plan to be rid of him. When he returns from a supply run to the local town, he brings with him a new wife. "Peggy" (Cleo Moore) is a feisty, no-nonsense woman who is also quite appreciative of her husband taking her from the drudgery of the town. Now the ingeniousness of the plan kicks in. "Marko" hopes that his glamorous young wife and his business partner will fall for each other and that will allow them to catch them flagrante delicto - and all will be his! It's got to be said that being holed up in a remote cabin as the snow sets in tests the mettle of everyone, but will his plan succeed or will they realise they are being manipulated? The problem here is that there's just no chemistry. Anywhere. Moore can't quite decide if she wants to be Doris Day or Barbara Stanwyck and Agar is just straight out of central casting's book of handsome B-stars that deliver just enough but never more. There's something quite sad about the conclusion, and indeed that rather makes the whole thing worth a watch, but I think once will do.

The movie BAIT is remembered, if for anything, for Cleo Moore's "kissing" incident while on a promo tour for the film. While being interviewed on live television in Chicago, the host quizzed Cleo about movie kisses and the subject somehow got around to how short they usually are. The host (no fool he!!) then suggested to Cleo that they go for a record smooch over live television to which the always publicity savvy La Moore agreed and they enjoyed a fairly chaste smooch that ran for several minutes and made national headlines. Too bad the film Cleo was promoting was not as interesting. BAIT is definitely not one of the better Cleo Moore/Hugo Haas collaborations and undoubtedly quite a few fans of the blonde sex-bomb will not be pleased to see she spends quite a bit of the film with her hair up and wearing jeans and a non-tucked in flannel shirt, not exactly pinup glamour. The movie does have it's moments though, notably the intriguing introduction by Sir Cedric Hardwicke.

Cleo stars as a cashier in a little dump of a mom-and-pop store, despised because she is an apparently unwed mother. Nasty old gold prospector Hugo Haas looks on her as trash but his partner John Agar is clearly attracted to the luckless blonde. When the men actually discover gold, greedy Haas tries to think of a way to have it all for himself and decides to marry Cleo, certain that in their secluded corner of the world Agar won't be able to resist Cleo's sex appeal, thus allowing Haas to shoot and kill him and get away with it via "the unwritten law".

The best thing about the film is the natural chemistry between Cleo Moore and John Agar. Hugo Haas makes a much better villain than sympathetic leading man so he's well cast and gives a good performance although his direction is generally uninspired. This one used to play on late shows in the 1980's fairly often but is somewhat elusive in recent years, hopefully Sony will be releasing it in their custom line of "made to order" titles following their recent success of the boxed set of "bad girls" mostly starring Cleo Moore.

Sir Cedric Hardwicke had the self satisfied look of a man whose check from Harry Cohn had just cleared as he narrates the beginning of Bait. He's playing none other than old Scratch himself as he tells how the devil can make people do wicked things.

I think old Scratch had a head start with Hugo Haas who was definitely short a whole suit in his deck of cards. Haas is a crazy old prospector who lost both a mine and a partner in the Rockies and he'd like to find the former again. But he's getting on in years and he needs a younger partner for the heavy lifting.

Enter John Agar and they do find the old mine, but he's not looking to split with a new partner. So the fiendish Haas hatches a scheme whereby he marries sluttish Cleo Moore who's a better girl than she let's on and brings her back to their cabin. I would think that curvaceous Cleo might have gotten the hint that something was amiss when Haas not only doesn't pay attention to her, but encourages her to be in Agar's company at every opportunity.

This turgid drama is as stupid as it sounds. Need I say more.

Not a terrible movie until the very end of the movie. A love triangle that really never was and an ending that left me thinking what the what. I like John Agar, but this movie just doesn't add up to be a classic.