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The Bribe (1949)

A loaded cast and crew make this an interesting draw (only the director Robert Leonard is little known to me, though he has two Best Director nominations). But really: Ava Gardner in a dramatic noir, with Robert Taylor the male lead (including a very noir voiceover to start). Throw in Charles Laughton and Vincent Price in smaller roles, and Joseph Ruttenberg doing cinematography and Miklos Rozsa the music. And it starts great, in a lonely room in Central America, rain pouring down the windows at night. And then the flashbacks begin. Maybe all this makes me a sucker. I expected a lot even with the clichés pouring on. But we have a formula noir here with all the elements exaggerated and none of them missed--the woman is even a nightclub singer, and wait for the drug in the drink later on. If you are willing to enjoy the form rather than the specifics of the movie, you have your film. It's almost great, and might someday be considered a classic simply because it makes so clear the elements of that form (the noir-alienated male, femme fatale, flashbacks, dramatic lighting, crime and treachery, short clipped phrases). It's so good at all this, it became the model for the comic send-up, "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid." But in a way this isn't fair, because the movie does work on its own, despite its lack of originality. It grows and gets better as you go, and the consistency of the production and the solidity of the plot make it worth seeing. Gardner is not great in the way some leading noir females are, but she has her sculptural poise and is still young as an actress. Taylor has sort of the same problem of not quite rising to the needs of the role, but he is fine. The fact that the two of them are not "amazing" is one of the holdbacks of the film--lots of noirs have formula plots but have such great acting it doesn't matter a bit. So Laughton, then, rising to the occasion, is really amazing. I've heard his performance called campy, but I don't think so, not for the genre. It's subtle, and if he's a character, he's not a caricature. Price, also good, has a someone limited role. Until the end. The final ten minutes is a film wonder. If you can't watch the whole thing for some reason, you can still be thrilled by the ending. The drama, the lighting, the photography, the pace and editing, it's all unparalleled.

"The Bribe" is a somewhat slow noir drama starring Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, Charles Laughton, John Hodiak, and Vincent Price. With a cast like that, nothing is all bad. Though the story drags in spots and the bad guys are somewhat obvious, it still makes for good viewing. Taylor is Rigby, a fed investigating war surplus violations involving the sale of airplane motors in a place called Carlotta in South America. The suspects have been narrowed down to two Americans, Tug Hintten (Hodiak) and his wife, Elizabeth, a singer (Gardner). Once in Carlotta, Rigby meets J.J. Bealer, portrayed by Charles Laughton, and Carwood (Vincent Price). They're worth watching, too, though Rigby becomes instantly distracted by Elizabeth. Their love story develops overnight, which might seem strange, but it's Ava at her most gorgeous and Taylor at his most ruggedly handsome. You can hardly blame either one of them. The questions for Rigby are: Where are the motors being hidden, who's the head guy, who's involved...and how involved is Elizabeth? The movie, with the exception of the finale, is fairly routine stuff. Laughton and Price have the best roles. Laughton is fabulous as a slovenly loser whose feet hurt, and Price is excellent. Everyone else is good, including Hodiak, his career in major nosedive as he appears in a supporting role, though a showy one as a drunk with a weak heart. The big action takes place at the finale, which is exciting and visually marvelous. We could have used a little more of that type of thing throughout the film.

The reflective voice-over narration was a staple of film noir, but here it boasts the conceit of Robert Taylor addressing it to himself in the second person ("You..."). That curious choice informs the first half of The Bribe, told in flashback; midway, we catch up to the present and the droning ceases. Starting as a routine foreign-intrigue drama -- something about surplus airplane motors, but who cares -- set in an island off Central America called Carlota (or sometimes Carlotta; the film can't quite decide), the film boasts a top-notch cast: Taylor, Ava Gardner, John Hodiak, Vincent Price and Charles Laughton, who could be either the most actorly of hams or the hammiest of actors but here opts for the latter. Most of the way through it's not bad, but in its second half the tone darkens noticeably, when director Leonard decides to treat us to some stylistic flourishes. The over-the-top, Wellsian-Hitchcockian climax is (literally) pyrotechnic, and actually stands as one of the more memorable sound-and-light shows in the whole noir cycle.

After reading the mostly lukewarm reviews on IMDb, I decided to give this movie a try. I like Vincent Price and Charles Laughton, so I figured it would be worth a look.

Am I ever glad I did! I found perhaps the best movie of 1949! Once again I ask the question, "Why have I never heard of this movie?"

Perhaps because Ava Gardner went on to star in bigger films. But I certainly never saw her better (with the possible exception of the far later "Night of the Iguana").

I would not call this a film noir. There are several necessary film noir elements that are missing from "The Bribe," in my opinion. I'd call it more of a cop story.

However, that's a lot like saying "Casablanca" is a bar story. Or a war story. Similar to that film, the crime plot of "The Bribe" is just a backdrop for the love that transforms and overturns Taylor's, Gardner's and Hodiak's lives.

They say the course of true love never did run smooth. But Bogie and Bergman had a picnic in the park compared to what Taylor and Gardner must suffer. Both eventually fall so deeply in love that they're willing to destroy their lives for each other, yet neither trusts the other, and both are certain they have been betrayed. Used.

Ava Gardner is absolutely captivating in her second major role. Although Taylor does not manage to evoke the pathos Bogart does, Gardner absolutely sizzles! She is on screen during a large portion of the film, and every moment is riveting. Her acting has genuine depth as well, far outdoing Bergman's somewhat cold, rather simplistic naiveté. The girl is really torn up inside!

The other great delight in the film is Charles Laughton. He plays the sleaziest, lowest-down weasel that just about ever graced the pages of fiction, yet there were times that he reminded me more of Sophocles's blind seer Tiresias. And in spite of how unwashed and repulsive he is, in spite of how uncaringly he treats everyone he comes in contact with, in spite of his contemptible, almost laughable cowardice, he somehow still manages to come off as a genuinely lovable character.

The movie starts out kind of dumb. I thought with the voice-over narration that it was going to be another "Lady In The Lake," or maybe "Murder, My Sweet." But once the movie gets going, after half an hour or so, it just gets better and better. The plot becomes intense and intriguing. When I thought it was about to end, there were four more plot twists to go!

Don't let this one slip by you next time!

A federal agent tries to bust a stolen airplane motor ring in Central America, but ends up falling for the wife of one of the prime suspects. I've enjoyed Robert Taylor in other pictures (notably HIGH WALL) but here he's merely satisfactory, likable but too stiff. Ava Gardner fares slightly better, a little dull but with an appealing sultriness. As usual, it's the bad guys with the plum roles: Vincent Price and especially Charles Laughton with yet another memorable turn. Laughton is fast becoming one of my favorite actors, consistently the best thing about whatever he appears in. The main problem here is pacing. The first three-quarters are very slow, giving the appearance of doling out information and building the Taylor/Gardner relationship but not actually do much of either. One brief action scene breaks up the tedium, other than that it's rather uneventful until the final 25-30 minutes. Things do heat up nicely then, however, culminating in an amazing fireworks-illuminated climax. Laughton and the ending elevate this one enough to make it worthwhile.