The Come On

During the 1950s, Anne Baxter appeared in any number of routine, less than distinguished crime thrillers – last gasps of the dying noir cycle that were long on plot but short on style. One of them, The Come-On, is a warmed-over tale of murder and duplicity, but Baxter, bless her trouper's heart, gives it her considerable all as though she were starring in a major-studio `A' production.

Coming out of the surf down in Mexico, Baxter finds Sterling Hayden ogling her. They strike sparks and agree to meet aboard his boat, the imaginatively christened Lucky Lady. She abruptly leaves their rendezvous; later, in a bar, Sterling sees her with her drunken, abusive husband (John Hoyt). It happens, however, that Baxter and Hoyt aren't really married but partners in a racket – high-class grifters. Only Baxter wants out and wants Hayden to help her – by murdering Hoyt.

It's a mechanical, wheels-within-wheels plot, featuring a mercenary gumshoe (Jesse White) and `accidents' with missing bodies that turn out to be neither missing nor bodies, at least in the dead sense. Through it all, Baxter, emotes all over the place (never more effectively than in a scene near a mail chute, where an incriminating letter may or may not be headed to the police). Sterling's role is less meaty: He's not quite the chump, but except for throwing a couple of slaps and punches, he's pretty passive. Come to think of it, he appeared in any number of routine, less than distinguished crime thrillers during the 1950s, too.

Allied Artists Studios was Formed by some of Hollywood's Independent Thinking "Stars".

It was a Reconditioned "Monogram" that had its Place for some Fine Actors to Work Outside the Studio System.

Although Envisioned as an Alternative to Big-Buck, Highly Controlled Studio Work,

the Major Problem was that Transforming a Poverty-Row Studio into a Look-as-Good as the Majors Film Proved to be a Task Insurmountable.

It's Extremely Evident in "The Come On" where there isn't a Scene that looks Stylish, or for that Matter Believable.

Of Course the Outdoor Stuff doesn't Suffer as Much because it Brings its Own "Natural" Ambience.

But Here all the Indoor Scenes Look Tacky, Droll, Lifeless and Void, even though Fronted by some Top-Talented Thespians.

Anne Baxter, is known as one of the Consummate-Professionals, Hard Working, Oscar Winning, and Sexy.

A Privileged Private Upbringing didn't Prepare Her for the Troubling Ups and Downs in Her Private as Well as Professional Life.

Always, Giving Her All, Willing to Work in Prestigious Productions...Nefertiti in "The 10 Commandments" (1956), the same Year as this Bargain-Basement Film-Noir.

She can be Spotted Here, still with some Sexual-Charm (at 32).

Delivering Her Lines and Acting Like this could be an Oscar Contender. She Drives the Picture, almost Single-Handedly.

But Gets Stalwart Support from He-Man Sterling Hayden, very at Home in His Home Away from Home, On-a-Boat.

His Regular-Good-Guy Character is Opposed by John Hoyt, a Serpentine, Domineering Partner-in-Crime with Baxter, and He is a Great Love to Hate Villain.

Character Actor Jesse White is a Sleazy Private-Eye, Uncouth and Uncool, and makes His Presence Count along with the 3 Other Leads.

The Script is a Complicated Contrivance that Fuels Film-Noir Regularly, with Murder, Blackmail, Passion, and Greed.

The Down-Side is the Aforementioned Bland Look of the Thing that Puts the Burden of Making the Sleazy B-Grade Entertainment Entertaining.

They do a Fine Job in this 2nd Tier, Late-Noir, and that Makes it...

Worth a Watch.

Anne Baxter and John Hoyt have a nice racket. They're in a bad marriage, but there's always a sympathetic man to help her out, with a check to let her run and hide.... and then Hoyt shows up and demands more money, because what he giving his wife the money for? But when Sterling Hayden shows up, it's different. This time, she realizes, it's really love. She confesses it all to Hayden, and he forgives her. But will Hoyt let her go?

It's an ambitious Allied Artists movies straight down my strike zone when it comes to what I like: con men and women weaving a tale that drags in not only the suckers in the movie, but me. Unfortunately, it doesn't do that, although it took me a bit of time to recognize it. That settled, th twists that were offered after that were not surprises at all, just as inevitable as the shootout at the end of a B western.

There are some good performances here, including Mr. Hoyt and Jesse White as a crooked PI. Alas, the leads were not compelling: Hayden , as he so often did in this phase of his career, seemed anxious to get back on his boat, and Miss Baxter seems to play it too broad in overcompensation.

Anne Baxter was assuredly one of America's finest actresses whose sheer professionalism enabled her to shine regardless of the material. She had 'gone blonde' for Hitchcock in 'I Confess' and decided to stay that way for a while. This change of hair colour may not have brought her better films but it certainly accentuated her extraordinary sensuality.

From the moment she emerges from the water in a two-piece swimsuit in this potboiler one is 'hooked' and it is her subsequent performance that keeps one watching. The character of Rita is one of film's most fascinating femme fatales who spells trouble with a capital 'T'. She is ably supported by John Hoyt, suitably reptilian as a blackmailer and Jesse White as a venal private investigator. She finds true love with the fisherman of Sterling Hayden but their relationship is, naturally, doomed from the outset.

The film itself, one of five made by former publicist Russell Birdwell, is in truth pretty dire but is redeemed by the performances and by having Ernest Haller behind the camera.

Hayden, one of Hollywood's mavericks, has a thankless part. He professed to hate filming but his persona was at least used to great effect by Stanley Kubrick. Such a pity that 'tax problems' prevented his playing Quint in 'Jaws'. As for Miss Baxter, it was Cecil B. de Mille who came to her rescue with 'The Ten Commandments'.

This splendid artiste never gave less than her best and it is only fitting that the final words be hers: "Acting is not what I do. It is what I am."

It has all the typical ingredients of a standard noir: crime, misery, blackmail, murder, motivation of money, scoundrels and at least one honest chap who commits the mistake of falling in love with the wrong woman, who is a racketeer, has always been so and is deeply involved with racketeers, as she officially but not legally is married to one of the worst of them, a completely ruthless criminal. We are used to see Anne Baxter in such roles, they were the kind of roles she was an expert on, she usually played them out with great passion, and so she does here with a vengeance. Sterling Hayden is the honest man, a fisherman, who isn't stupid but he is too sunken in love not to be bogged down in the confusion of it. John Hoyt is convincing enough as the villain, you hate him from the beginning and there are no mitigating circumstances in anything he does, you simply can't expect anything of him but the worst, which is what he delivers. Anne Baxter's luckless character does have mitigating circumstances though, she was somehow born out of luck which always has kept hounding her, and which she desperately tries to sort herself out of, while she only succeeds in making it worse. She is a tragic figure.