Crosswinds

Crosswinds will not disappoint adventure fans...it has 6 characters in search of an illegal treasure each wants to steal...sunken government gold. All these characters are desperate and find themselves in more and more dangerous circumstances as they double cross each other to jockey for survival. John Payne fans will be happy to see him strutting his prime beef, spending half the picture in swimming trunks as he dives for gold, fights off cannibals, and gets involved with lovely Rhonda. And there's plenty of action fighting off his competitors as well by making a devil's bargain with the scoundrel(Forest Tucker) who stole his yacht.

"Crosswinds" is a very enjoyable adventure and mystery set in the South Pacific around what then was colonial New Guinea. It was under Australian administration following WW II. Filmed in color, with sea and maritime scenes shot on the coast of Florida, this film has a small cast but some popular leads and supporting actors of the day. It doesn't take long to realize how the title fits the story perfectly.

This is a fine mixture of intrigue, mystery, jungle action, romance and light comedy. When Steve Singleton sails his primo schooner into a New Guinea port looking for freight hauling or other business, he has no idea that he would become mixed up in a gold-theft plot with more double-crossing characters than one could shake a stick at. John Payne's Singleton soon learns that he can trust no one.

The intrigue involves plot twists, arrests, double-crosses, a missing plane with a huge gold shipment aboard, a dead pilot, hostile natives, rescue of the female lead as hostage, some jungle fighting, and romance. The latter develops with Katherine Shelley, played by Rhonda Fleming. She works for the company that transports regular shipments of gold in the region. Nick Brandon, played by Robert Lowery, is the company pilot. He had served in the war with Singleton and had double-crossed him once before.

Forrest Tucker is Jumbo Johnson, an American who knows his way around the area. He has plotted a gold hist with Brandon. But first he pulls a double-cross on Singleton that gets him jailed and his beautiful schooner put on the auction block to pay his fine. Naturally, Jumbo winds up with the boat. Things go awry in the gold theft plan, and that leads to most of the action and rest of the story. After Brandon ditches his plane in an inland lake - with plans for them to recover the gold later, he is killed by natives. Shelley had flown with him that day and was captured by the tribe.

Two Englishmen appear on the scene, having mysteriously lost the skipper of the small motor-powered craft they are on. The two are known con-men by the authorities, but not yet of anyone else. Alan Mowbray and John Abbott are hilarious in their parts as Sir Cecil Daubrey and Algernon Mousey Sykes. They are the way that Singleton is able to get transport to find his boat and eventually become part of the gold discovery plans. But after they see Brandon's body float by in a canoe with a spear in his back, they first have to rescue Shelley.

The fun ramps up with double-crosses among double-crossers, another encounter with the natives to escape the area, and sailing back to civilization. But who will make it to the end, what will happen to the gold, and what will the future be for these characters? It's a very fun film to watch.

Here are some favorite lines from this film.

Katherine Shelley, "I heard the music, so I put two and two together and said to myself... mmm, you're cooking pancakes." Steve Singleton, "You don't make sense, but you've got a pretty good sniffer."

Katherine, "See, you are running away." Steve, "From what?" Katherine, " From the world."

Sir Cedric Daubrey, "Well, let's go somewhere where the ears of the cockroaches are not so large."

Steve Singleton, "The first sign of a double-cross from you two cockroaches and I'll pin faces with Johnson against you."

Sir Cecil Daubrey, " Whereas Mousey and I were two against one, we are now distinctly in the minority. I don't think you have to doubt our love and affection."

Algernon 'Mousey' Sykes, "I never had the benefit of anyone at Oxford, but we think alike." Sir Cecil Daubrey, "That, I question. Let's say that objectively we are working toward the same end."

Sir Cecil Daubrey, "I do rather pride myself on employing a certain integrity in my skullduggery."

Sir Cecil Daubrey, "Cheating the government isn't stealing. It's a national pastime."

Singleton, "Unless a man wants to live on dried fish and coconuts, he has to run away form the world between jobs."

Jumbo Johnson, "Your partners?" Singleton, "Sure. Two of the scummiest waterfront rats that ever put a knife in a man's back You'd like 'em, Jumbo. They're just your type."

Jumbo, "Singleton, before we bring up these last two bars, I'd like to make you a proposition." Singleton, "It'll be crooked, but I'm listening."

Singleton, He wants to make a deal with me to freeze out you and Sykes." Sir Daubrey, "Understandable. Did you?" Singleton, "Well, I told him I'd like a little time to think it over. You see, I've had other offers." Daubrey, "Mousey?" Singleton, "Surprised?" Daubrey, "Not at all. I was about to make you an offer myself." Singleton, "I was rather hoping you would."

Full of double crosses and deceit, Crosswinds centers on a search for gold. However, does it really? I wouldn't have really known it was an "adventure" flick, since the romance was much more compelling. John Payne and Rhonda Fleming are great together, and she gives him such moony eyes, it's enough to make him forget all about Maureen O'Hara! It's love at first sight for Rhonda, and as soon as she sees John exert his manliness by punching out her luncheon companion, she comes on pretty strong. She comes over to his houseboat late at night and asks if she can stay, and in the morning she's breathless around him - even before they go for a spontaneous swim in the ocean.

Both stars show off their bods in this movie, so if you're in it for the beef- or cheese-cake, you won't be disappointed. There's literally a scene where John rips his shirt off while in the middle of a conversation for no reason. It's very funny, but hopefully he was a good sport about it. Hopefully he and Rhonda knew this wasn't going to be the next Gone With the Wind. Although, Rhonda really put her heart into the role. I've always liked her, but I've known she wasn't a wonderful actress. Perhaps she got along really well with John Payne, or perhaps she responded to Lewis Foster's direction, but she seemed to be the only cast member who actually acted. I'm looking forward to seeing her other three movies with John, to see if they maintain their chemistry.

Typical of the Paramount studios exotic features from this era, fifties, a charm provider which we will never find later, especially now, in the 20....' Lewis Foster, Edward Ludwig, Byron Haskin - NAKED JUNGLE - were the studio directors in charge of those little jewells. Stories, topics were always the same but who cares? Only focus on the settings, even artificial, scores, photography, and the overall atmosphere of adventures to the outer limits of planet earth, south seas, tropics, where the sea is always blue and the sun shining. This one is among my favourites, I don't know why. The presence of the usual Rhonda Fleming has of course much to do with it....

With the Everglades standing in for the New Guinea jungle, John Payne stars as a charter boat skipper who loses his boat to an unscrupulous Forrest Tucker. How he loses it to Tucker I won't divulge, but Payne is really played for a sucker.

But you take your allies where you find them and Payne has to team up with a couple of lowlifes played Alan Mowbray and John Abbott and they go looking for a downed plane that was piloted by Robert Lowery and had Rhonda Fleming and half a million dollars in gold bullion. Both those objects are worthy of rescue.

Crosswinds is your average action adventure drama and quite frankly I was never really convinced that we were in New Guinea, especially after seeing the Australian production of Walk Into Hell which was shot in the real New Guinea. But Rhonda Fleming photographed beautifully her red hair set against the green of the Everglades.

Crosswinds is a Pine-Thomas B film production from Paramount and it should please Rhonda's and Payne's fans.