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Lisbon

  • 1956
  • Approved
  • 1h 30m
IMDb RATING
5.9/10
754
YOUR RATING
Maureen O'Hara and Ray Milland in Lisbon (1956)
Film NoirAdventureCrimeDrama

High stakes battle of wits and morals between gentlemen crooks, set in beautiful Portugal. A smuggler is hired to kidnap the rich husband of an American woman who's just arrived in Lisbon.High stakes battle of wits and morals between gentlemen crooks, set in beautiful Portugal. A smuggler is hired to kidnap the rich husband of an American woman who's just arrived in Lisbon.High stakes battle of wits and morals between gentlemen crooks, set in beautiful Portugal. A smuggler is hired to kidnap the rich husband of an American woman who's just arrived in Lisbon.

  • Director
    • Ray Milland
  • Writers
    • John Tucker Battle
    • Martin Rackin
    • Lord Byron
  • Stars
    • Ray Milland
    • Maureen O'Hara
    • Claude Rains
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.9/10
    754
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Ray Milland
    • Writers
      • John Tucker Battle
      • Martin Rackin
      • Lord Byron
    • Stars
      • Ray Milland
      • Maureen O'Hara
      • Claude Rains
    • 28User reviews
    • 8Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos36

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    Top Cast13

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    Ray Milland
    Ray Milland
    • Capt. Robert John Evans
    Maureen O'Hara
    Maureen O'Hara
    • Sylvia Merrill
    Claude Rains
    Claude Rains
    • Aristides Mavros
    Yvonne Furneaux
    Yvonne Furneaux
    • Maria Madalena Massenet
    Francis Lederer
    Francis Lederer
    • Serafim
    Percy Marmont
    Percy Marmont
    • Lloyd Merrill
    Jay Novello
    Jay Novello
    • Inspector João Casimiro Fonseca
    Edward Chapman
    Edward Chapman
    • Edgar Selwyn
    Harold Jamieson
    • Philip Norworth
    Humberto Madeira
    • Toni
    Robie Lester
    • Singer
    • (as Roby Charmandy)
    Anita Guerreiro
    Anita Guerreiro
    • Fado Singer
    • (uncredited)
    Vasco Santana
    Vasco Santana
    • Self - Customer at Fado's House
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Ray Milland
    • Writers
      • John Tucker Battle
      • Martin Rackin
      • Lord Byron
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews28

    5.9754
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    Featured reviews

    8autobenelux

    A Good potboiler of the time

    I consider Ray Milland was a much more influential director and actor than the afficiandos estimate. A good sound actor who could carry the lead particularly well and as this film and "A Man Alone" indicate he had the ability to create watchable,logical movies that had good camera work and never over egged the pudding.The Camera work in Lisbon is particularly good as are the sets which convey the aura of the time. The story line is clever without being to complex and an air of authenticity pervades the production which was done in an age where the backlot was normally everything.Splendid acting from Claude Rains as usual with Milland and the rest matching it perfectly. A good rainy day movie even now and worth my score of 8.
    6arfdawg-1

    Lisbon Like It Isn't Today

    I've been to Lisbon and it looked nothing like this Lisbon of this movie filmed in the mid-50's. The Lisbon in this film is gorgeous. Today, it's rather gritty and contrary to this movie where everyone speaks English, no one does. The illiteracy rate is like 40%.

    The film is a romance/drama/film noir.

    Claude Rains is really odd. He was born in England but has a really non-English way of speaking. He also looks rather old. Ray Miland who also directed this film is also looking rather old. Every time I see him I think of he and Rosie Greer in the 2-Headed Man. He plays a really horny smuggler.

    Anyway, on to the movie. It's capably directed. Well acted and reasonably well done. Some of it stretches believability. And segments are really hokey. The subplots are not needed at all --especially the one with the hot sexed up secretary. And some of the writing could have been improved.

    But it sure does look nice in Technicolor.
    7planktonrules

    The final portion of the film offered a few nice surprises.

    I have seen more films than practically anyone. One thing I really appreciate is a picture that surprises me...one that avoids the usual formulas and cliches. Well, although "Lisbon" seems like a by-the-numbers movie, its final portion manages to offer quite a few surprises...and I really appreciate that.

    The film, not surprisingly, is set in Lisbon, Portugal. It centers initially around two very different criminal smugglers....Aristides Mavros (Claude Rains), a man who has no scruples whatsoever, and Captain Robert Evans (Ray Milland), a rogue with few scruples...though how much you'll have to discover through the course of the movie.

    Into this den of not niceness arrives a lady who is there to ransom back her rich elderly husband. Sylvia (Maureen O'Hara) is an odd one...and who she is and what her intentions are not clear until later in the movie...which I appreciate. Of course, the Captain is smitten with her....and another lady is smitten with him. How does all this work out? See the film!

    An odd movie....not O'Hara's nor Milland's best. But still, it offers enough surprises that I felt pleased overall. Oh, and it was also directed by Milland as well.
    6ma-cortes

    Routine thriller in which Ray Milland directs and stars a sea captain entangled in international espionage and crime

    Set in 1950s , Lisbon , Portugal, it details an international thief hiring a skipper named Robert Evans (Ray Milland) who lives on a yacht by the river . The latter mostly smuggles consuming products such as cigarettes and booze. Lisbon's police inspector, Joao Casimiro Fonseca (Jay Novello) , is aware of this and often times attempts to catch Evans red-handed but to no avail. At the same time, American Sylvia Merrill (Mauren O'Hara) , wife of industrialist Lloyd Merrill, arrives in Lisbon to arrange the secret release her husband from Communist doings . As Robert Evans has to rescue Maureen O'Hara's husband , but events go awry . She first complains to the State Department about her husband's imprisonment but U. S. officials seem unable to make any progress to obtain his release. Sylvia Merrill contacts wealthy jewel crook and smuggler Aristides Mavros (Claude Rains) , a Greek living in Lisbon, to negotiate a bribe for Communist officials and have her husband released from his Soviet jail .

    A thriller movie with adventure , romence , thrills , plot twists set in a city of intrigue , murder and excitement . On location story with gorgeous outdoors from Lisbon brilliantly photographed by Jack Marta and regarding morals among gentlemen thieves. A familiar and simple script concerning a smuggler is hired to release the rich husband of an American woman who's just arrived in Lisbon ; along the way, intercrossing high stakes and ordinary battle of wits , being told less-than-average panache . It contains attractive scenarios , acceptable performance but nothing special . Stars Ray Milland giving a nice acting as an American expatriate Captain Robert John Evans does a bit of smuggling of consumer goods and contraband using his fast boat . While Maureen O'Hara is pretty good as the damsel in distress who attempts to rescue his elderly husband from Communist prison behind the Iron Curtain . Being well accompanied by a nice support cast , such as : Claude Rains as big shot criminal Aristides Mavros , the wonderful Yvonne Furneaux as Madalena Massenet , Francis Lederer as heinous murderer Serafim , Percy Marmont , Jay Novello and Edward Chapman.

    It packs a lot of Lisbon sightseeing , such as : Tagus River, Lisbon, Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, Belém, Panoramic view from the Miradouro da Senhora do Monte , Lisbon , Palácio de Seteais, Sintra, Lisbon, Tobis Portuguesa, Lumiar, Lisbon, Tower of Belém , Praça do Comércio, Cascais, Lisbon,Castelo São Jorge,Lisbon Airport, Portela, Loures, Lisbon Lisbon, Portugal. The motion picture was professionally directed by Ray Milland . Ray was a notorious actor, but also a producer and a craftsman filmmaker. With this Lisbon (1956), Ray Milland moved into another direction, turning out several off-beat, low-budget films with himself as the lead, notably A Man Alone (1957) his Western debut , The Safecracker (1958) , Panic in Year Zero! (1962) and Hostile Witness (1969) . Rating : 5.5/10 . Less-than-notable , but acceptable and passable . The flick will appeal to Ray Milland and Maureen O'Hara fans.
    8mamalv

    Beautifully photographed, with Ray Milland starring and directing. A quite good adventure.

    Lisbon is the local for this adventure romance, starring Ray Milland and Maureen O'Hara. It is beautifully photographed on location and the story is rousing and the intrigue suspenseful. Claude Rains, is the thief who Sullivan hires to get back her elderly husband, a millionaire, who has been kidnapped by the Chinese. Rains, is of course, suave, devious, and wonderful as the man of many tastes, including beautiful young women. He has always been good in such a part, as he was in Notorious, as the Nazi spy. Ray Milland is dashing, elegant and just nice to look at. His part as the smuggler gives him a chance to use a little comedy, especially when pursued by a beautiful young woman who Raines employs as a "secretary." She is enamored of Milland and she tries to help him escape the hands of Sarafin, who works for Raines and wants to kill Milland to keep the girl for himself. Maureen seduces Milland, but he rejects her advances after she tells him she wants her husband back "dead." He returns the husband alive, and Raines is picked up by the police for the smuggling that Milland was doing all along. Nice twists all around. Milland is still so wonderful to look at and listen to, it is not surprising that all the women are in love with him. For those who thought that Yvonne Furneaux had a hard time throwing herself into the arms of Milland, you have to remember that she is living with Claude Rains as his mistress. Therefore Milland would not look older to her. He directs this film with just enough pace to make it interesting, and the O'Hara character is smooth and crafty. Beautiful to look at scenery only adds to the pictures appeal.

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    Related interests

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    Film Noir
    Still frame
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    Drama

    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      Nelson Riddle's instrumental recording of "Lisbon Antiga" (an ancient Portuguese melody) was already on the hit charts before this film was made. Republic publicity sent out a story that "Director/Producer Ray Milland took a recording of the music with him and had a Portuguese orchestra adapt it for a sequence in the picture".
    • Goofs
      Captain Evans takes Mrs. Meryll in a sightseeing tour of Sintra in a horse carriage. They stop first in front of the Palácio de Seteais - time for him to quote Lord Byron about the beauty of the place. Then they walk to the viewpoint and look back at Palácio da Pena (construction started in 1836), in the Romanesque Revivalist style, and could hardly have been built by the Moors, as Evans "explains" to his date. The Moors left the Portuguese territory in 1147 and (the latest) in 1249. Also in a hilltop of Sintra (not shown in the movie) is the 8th century granite defensive Castle of the Moors, taken without a battle by the Portuguese in 1147 - the same year the Moors lost Lisbon. As a sea captain Evans should have known better.
    • Quotes

      Capt. Robert John Evans: Have you been eating garlic?

      Maria Maddalena Masanet: In the sausage there is a soupçon of garlic.

      Capt. Robert John Evans: In the garlic there is a soupçon of sausage.

    • Connections
      Referenced in You Must Remember This: Six Degrees of Joan Crawford: The Middle Years (Mildred Pierce to Johnny Guitar) (2016)
    • Soundtracks
      Lisboa Antiga
      (orchestral recording)

      Music by Raúl Portela

      English Lyrics by Harry Dupree

      Sung by Robie Lester (as Roby Charmandy)

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    FAQ13

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • August 17, 1956 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • United States
      • Portugal
    • Languages
      • English
      • Portuguese
      • French
    • Also known as
      • Geheimzentrale Lissabon
    • Filming locations
      • Tagus River, Lisbon, Portugal(Several scenes in two docks, and a yacht on the river.)
    • Production company
      • Republic Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

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    • Runtime
      • 1h 30m(90 min)
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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