The Big Switch
Up-Robert Mitchum And Jane Greer’s The Big Steal
DVD Review
By Sam
Lowell
The Big
Steal, starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, directed by Don Siegel, 1949
No question the
later actor Robert Mitchum was built for heavy lifting, was built to take a
punch and give a few too with those big broad shoulders and that jutted-jaw. No
question also that he would not lack for a little companionship under the
sheets if it came to that (and it would) from the ladies drawn to guys with dangerous
eyes and dangerous thoughts (bedroom eyes to the ladies and you can figure out
the thoughts yourself because after all I don’t want to get in trouble with
Will Hays’ Hollywood censorship operation even fifty plus years later). Yeah
back in the 1940s and 1950s, maybe later too, old Robert gave as good as he got
as the film under review, The Big Steal,
demonstrates. Although this effort is miles below his previous classic performance
with Jane Greer as the gun-simple mobster’s girl in Out of The Past.
Of course in
Out Of The Past Jane Greer was nothing
but a fetching if trigger-happy gangster’s girl femme fatale who has that
mobster (played by a young Kirk Douglas) and a hard-nosed P.I. (played by
Mitchum) mumbling to themselves (and liking it) before she lower the trigger on
the pair (and who knows who else on her way up in the world0. The whole film
was a thing of beauty as they all rush like hell to their twisted fates seemingly
incapable of avoiding some grim end. Here the pace as befits a film using the backdrop
of Mexico as its locale is slower, the game for mere filthy lucre rather than
lust, power, and oh yeah, filthy lucre.
Here’s how
it played out and once you know that play you know that old Mitchum was glad as
hell that he drew this ending rather than the couple of slugs he earned in Out of the Past for his efforts. Seems this
grifter named Fiske, a guy who thought he knew all the angles stepped up his
game a bit and robbed a U.S. Army payroll (a big payout of 300, 000 dollars by
the way) leaving a certain Army officer-in-charge holding the bag. Leaving Duke
holding the bag (Mitchum’s role). Like I said Duke/Mitchum wasn’t built to take
the fall no matter what the situation looked like at the beginning. Back then, now
too probably, robbing anything from the Army was going to cause waves and so
Duke was on the trail of Fiske into sunny Mexico to get the loot back. One way
or another. Along the way he ran into Joan, a good looking gringa who knows
Spanish played by that previously mentioned Jane Greer. Joan had her own axe to
grind with Fiske since he sweet-talked her out of a couple of grand before he
blew town on her.
Eventually Duke
and Joan crossed paths in their respective hunts for the grifter who as it turned
out was heading into the interior of Mexico to fence the 300k he robbed from
Duke since Army dough was too hot to handle in the States. But Duke and Joan were
not the only ones looking for the lost el dorado a certain Captain Blake, U.S.
Army and Duke’s boss, was looking for him to take the rap, and the dough. Blake
figured that the robbery was an “inside job” and Duke was down south of the
border looking for his payoff. So we had Duke (and after some not so subtle
verbal foreplay with all kinds of meaningful looks and repartee between the
pair a now smitten Joan and Duke too) chasing Fiske and Blake chasing then both
in dramatic car chases and sleigh-of-hands until Fiske got to the “max daddy” fence
who took a big chunk of dough for taking big risks. But just as the deal was
being consummated Duke (and don’t forget Joan okay) and Blake showed up. Turned
out Blake had a more than passing interest in his now exposed confederate
Fiske. But justice, rough Mexican justice, maybe rough Army justice too boot
won out in the end the good guys, Duke and Joan, won.
Still I, all
the way through the film. kept silently urging Duke to be careful around a
woman previously known to be a trite bit gun crazy.
No comments:
Post a Comment