Second Chance

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.

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.

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.

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.

Second Chance (1953)

To really enjoy this movie you have to know its place in the RKO filmmaking world. And you'd probably have to see it in 3D as it was originally intended. You won't get too far with the meandering plot that doesn't create tension, or romance, or even curiosity. We are made to simply watch and wait for something to happen.

Of course, something does happen, and in a big way, near the end, something completely separate from the intended plot. And even in 2D you get the drama and the dizzying depth of it all. And you get to watch three very big stars in expensive Technicolor--producer Howard Hughes really laid it all out for this one. Robert Mitchum looks good as both lonely man wooing the girl and as a boxer (briefly). Linda Darnell is the woman every man wants, apparently (especially Hughes, by the way). And Jack Palance is like a piece of wreckage, wired up and angry and with a face to sink a thousand ships.

The setting is interesting, too, all shot on location in Mexico, except some reshooting of the boxing scene (oddly enough, because it looks so authentic). Mitchum and Palance both got into some local fistfighting, and traded blows once during filming. When the movie came out, even though it has hardly any plot (other than surviving the final disaster scene), it was a success. Good thing, because RKO was financially reeling, and would in two years be bought by a rubber company and by the end the of the decade was the first of the Majors (the big 5 Hollywood studios) to completely go under.

So, don't expect much and you'll find lots of little things to enjoy. And maybe they'll get the Technicolor goosed up properly in a re-release someday, complete with 3D effects.