Second Chance

SECOND CHANCE is a routinely-plotted thriller with an above-average setting (the glorious mountain top terrain of Mexico) and a decent cast to lift it above the norm for the genre. I should also note that it was originally released in 3D in 1953 as part of the short-lived 3D boom in movies, although watching it 'flat' there aren't many (or any) eye-popping sequences that stand out as in the likes of HOUSE OF WAX, for example.

The story opens with some excellent and suspenseful chase sequences in which put-upon heroine Linda Darnell is being hunted through the streets by the vengeful Jack Palance. It turns out that she's a witness ready to testify against a mob boss and he's the bodyguard sent to bring her home. You know the story by now, but what makes this fun is an ultra-laconic Robert Mitchum as a boozy boxer who Darnell ends up hooking up with.

Sadly the middle part of the film gets a little tedious with some drawn-out romance scenes and the great Palance left skulking in the background. However, things pick up for an extended, disaster-fuelled climax set in and atop a broken cable car. There are some great fight scenes and stunts which make full use of the taut scenario. SECOND CHANCE isn't the greatest film out there, but it's certainly a distinctive and memorable one.

Linda Darnell and Robert Mitchum are two people in love and looking for a "Second Chance," a 1953 film also starring Jack Palance. I chose to see this film because Darnell, Mitchum, and Palance are three of my screen favorites - Darnell for her looks and association with some of my favorite films, Mitchum just because I love him, and Palance because he can be quite interesting.

The movie concerns a gangster's ex-girlfriend Claire (Darnell) being pursued by a gunman named Cappy (Palance) as she runs away to avoid testifying against her ex-boyfriend. Though it seems like Cappy is stalking her, he really wants her for himself.

In Mexico, Claire meets a down but not quite out prizefighter Russ (Mitchum) and the two fall in love. He wants her to go away with him to his next fight and then to New York, where he intends to fight in Madison Square Garden and make a comeback.

I found this film fairly routine, dull, predictable and in the beginning, somewhat confusing. The star is really Mexico. Shot in color, the scenery is incredible. The last scenes on the cable car were very exciting and then tension really built.

Mitchum looks great but is somewhat lethargic - that sullen sexuality of his can become merely passive, and it does here. Darnell is beautiful and has the more dramatic role, which she handles well.

Palance plays a somewhat bizarre character - a killer in love with his proposed victim - and it's not one of his better performances. It's probably the role, which isn't fleshed out - every time we see him he's threatening Claire in one manner or another.

This movie is okay but the end and the scenery are well worth seeing. Unfortunately, I didn't see it in 3D, and you won't either.

Rather dire star-vehicle for Robert Mitchum and Linda Darnell. Gangster's girl in South America, anxious to turn herself over to the police and release incriminating evidence to Washington officials against her boyfriend, instead finds herself on the run from the mobster's murderous stooge (whom she's also apparently been involved with!). She uses a smitten professional boxer from the States to get the thug off her tail, but he's relentless and they all end up in a crippled cable car suspended perilously over the valley. Muddled script by Oscar Millard and Sydney Boehm, from D.M. Marshman Jr.'s original treatment, makes a particular mess of the relationship between breathless Darnell and good-guy Mitchum (she's such a complete blank anyway, it's confounding why Mitchum would even give her the time of day). The climax is well-directed (if visually unconvincing), there's a colorful wedding celebration with fireworks, and Jack Palance is a menacing heavy. ** from ****

A film with Robert Mitchum and Jack Palance and they slug it out in a cable car at the end of the film! Sounds like exciting stuff.! Unfortunately the film is heavy going up to the final climax. Jack Palance feels it necessary to shoot someone in an early scene and then the film just plods along with little excitement. Worth watching for the final exciting action.

This was a very confusing movie. Like the summary says, Clair Sinclair (Linda Darnell) is on the run from a hitman (Jack Palance) and the local prizefighter (Robert Mitchum) helps her out.

However, there were so many plot points that came up but never lead to anything, I started to think that this movie must have been cut from its original length. Or, it was just not very well edited. Anyway, half of the movie is pretty watchable, but there are so many pointless scenes and unexplained loose ends, I find it hard to rate this higher than 5/10.

Robert Mitchum is pretty good (very handsome in this one) but Jack Palance completely over does the bad guy act. Linda Darnell does a good job, especially when she has to run UPHILL in high heels on the cobblestone streets of San Cristobal. Get this, Jack Palance is after her, seems to know every turn she takes, but he CAN'T CATCH HER!

It was only after I watched this that I found out it was a 3-D movie, which could explain some of the scenes (like the fiesta and the aerial tram), but most of the movie is so run of the mill, I can't see why they would make it in 3-D.