Lucky Nick Cain

American gambler Nick Cain arrives at the town of San Paola, and befriends shoe-shine boy Toni. He discovers he has been framed for the murder of an American Treasury agent.

He escapes with Kay Wonderly to an abandoned village, leaving her to hide out. Cain gets help from Massine, whom he does not trust. He uncovers an international counterfeiting ring, members of which are responsible for the murder.

Lucky Nick Cain is a fast-paced European noir-adventure which stars ole stone face George Raft, and in a standard plot he's framed for murder of a U. S treasured agent. What makes this thriller of interest is the visuals, which are submerged in lush noir images that augment the nocturnal claustrophobia of narrow, hillside European streets through jagged camera angles; plus there are several imaginative sequences, including Nick's drug-induced dream of a floating telephone and Kay's cacophonous nightmare of wolves and owls circling the ruins. Quite a creepy scene.

Definitely kept my attention with Raft and Gray getting drugged, then escape to the ruins, Raft returns to the town to investigate - the plot is boiling and I found it quite fun and not at all dull. The locales and atmosphere help, too. The mystery is slowly unraveled and doesn't let the cat out of the bag too soon. There are some odd elements like the kidnapping by florist, a dungeon holding female prisoners, a bar full of aggressive prostitutes. Nice action finale in the dungeon with a spiral staircase.

The plot creaked and were I that bothered I might watch this film again (I've just seen it on YouTube) to see if I missed something.

I'm unclear why the gang went to so much trouble to set Nick Cain up with the body of the agent - why not just dump it in the sea or out in the country? And it was remarkable how townspeople identified Nick and Kay just from their names on a Wanted poster - and how on a couple of occasions someone conveniently turned up out of the blue.

The settings were nice enough, and Hugh French made an impression on me as the hotel manager, reminding me of David Niven - in fact he was even more suave, if that's possible. I'm surprised he didn't have a bigger film career.

James Hadley Chase,among other writers, was well renowned for his ability to capture the readers attention from the beginning to end in all of his crime-thriller novels. That is where the difficulty sets in, can the director and crew capture the same in the movie? The story starts off with the arrival of an American gambler (Nick-George Raft) at a Mediterranean town of San Paola. Soon he gets acquainted with Kay (Coleen Gray) and finds himself framed for a murder, forcing him to go on the run with her. So far so good yet this is the turning point of the movie. Instead of going the edge of your seat 'why and who?' it turned into mediocrity. Overall, had the potential to be a great movie and could have rivaled movies like The Fugitive (1993) had a bit more suspense/tension been pumped into the screenplay and other movie making aspects.

There are three draw cards to this movie: Coleen Gray is one. She's so relaxed and natural, while ageing George Raft is stiff and dull. Two: the Riviera/Italian locations are easy on the eye. Three: it's good to see Enzo Staiola (from The Bicycle Thieves) in a supporting role as a shoeshine boy. Otherwise it's another lacklustre melo/thriller, with no-one really trying hard enough to breath life or thrills into it. There's even a sequence where Mr Raft is given a chance to perform the tango (for which he had been famous a couple of decades previously), but none of the camera angles give a look at his moves; we have to imagine how graceful he is (or was) from the inadequate mid-shots. It seems George was a bit past it. British movies would often attempt a boost to international sales by importing an old Hollywood star. Usually it didn't work. The young Hollywood star works for me, and the even younger Italian neo-realist star, but George is walking through this one.

Gambler George Raft shows up in a casino town on the Italian Riviera, where he's welcomed by the management as a star attraction. They give him a suite, offer him police protection and a case of wine, open the baccarat table early for his pleasure. They also tell Coleen Gray they will forgive her debt if she simply keeps him interested enough to stay in town. That evening, Raft opens a bottle of the complimentary wine, pours a couple of glasses...and realizes too late it's doped. When they wake, the staff and police want to know about the dead body in the room. They escape and try to figure out what's going on.

It's based on a novel by James Hadley Chase, and I hope the novel was good. This is an incredibly clumsy movie as directed by Joseph M. Newman. At one point, Raft and Miss Gray dance a tango.... and the entire dance is shot in close-up, showing only their heads and shoulders. the entire movie is directed in that way, the easiest camera set-ups, so cheaply shot that it's clear this is another paycheck movie for Raft. The real villains, despite the obvious care and intelligence of their operations are so overt and clumsy, it's astonishing, and there's a cute kid dragged in to make sure we know that Raft is a good guy.