Second Chance

When characters in a film get into a cable car, you know it's only a matter of time before PING! the cable snaps. Strand by strand, of course, for maximum

tension (ha ha). Mitchum the boxer and Darnell the ex-moll on the run take

the fateful cable car up to a little Mexican hilltop town whose inhabitants have created a totally cardboard experience for tourists. The architecture is

"hacienda style" and lady guests can buy pseudo flamenco costumes in the

"vibrant, bustling" street market. Any Mexican not employed in the hotel,

selling peasant tat, or playing unctuous Mariachi music is out in the plaza

waving a balloon and shouting for joy, or performing a sinuous dance of no

particular origin. It reminds me of the many embarrassing ads on British TV

featuring funny Europeans. Then the main cast members climb aboard that

cable car and it becomes a lifeboat movie and you can write the script

yourself. Two cheers, though, for the feisty British middle-aged couple ("My

wife can help - she was a nurse's aide in London during the Blitz!").

Mitchum is brilliant as usual but Darnell is a little clumsy in the love scenes and speaks as though she was dubbing her lines.

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 ****

These are the last spoken words in this movie, before it ends rather abruptly. They characterize the whole affair accurately. Second Chance is a beautiful movie, the locations in Mexico look superb and made me yearn for my next holiday, despite the faded colors. In the middle there is a long sequence of a typical fiesta with fireworks and a surprisingly lascivious and suggestive dance scene – just for the fun of it. The action moves on to a spectacular old suspension railway which I also found impressive and entertaining.

Unfortunately the story development is not good. It looks like nobody could decide what kind of movie this should be. It starts out like a film noir, then becomes a dreamy romance before turning into a classic, full fledged disaster flick with a suspended cable car full of different characters (look how all passengers assemble on the rear platform without the whole thing keeling over as I expect it should). Every part is OK in itself, but the different pieces do not tie together well.

Anybody who is interested in old movies, where locations, objects and events may or may not have symbolic significance will like this Technicolor movie made by RKO studios in its last stages of existence.

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.

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.