Macao (1952), about two mysterious people who meet on a boat sailing from Hong Kong to Macao, is a somewhat intriguing noir that often falls into the ho-hum category, only to be rescued again by it's formidable cast. Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell and William Bendix do their best to confuse and beguile the viewers, and although it's mostly the latter, I found myself hanging on until the end, mostly because it was so bizarre.

Mitchum stars as Nick Cochran, an out-of-work con man on the run whom casino owner Halloran (Brad Dexter) believes is a US Treasury agent looking for something to pin on Halloran. Nick meets the voluptuous Julie Benson (Russell) on the ship and while he falls for her charms, she relieves him of his wallet, much like she does most of the men she lures in  

Recommended by Police Lieutenant Sebastian (Thomas Gomez) after he warns her to get a real job and no monkey business in his port, Halloran hires her to sing. When he sees her, Nick puts the heat on her to return his money. Halloran gets so nervous about Cochran he orders his roulette dealer to let him win big bucks so he'll leave. But suddenly he changes his mind and Nick loses everything.

Now Halloran is just plain mad at Nick for causing so much trouble. He orders his girlfriend Margie (Gloria Grahame) to kill him Nick, but Margie has noticed that Halloran has been paying a little too much interest in Julie. So she decides to play a different game with Nick.

Howard Hughes was a producer of this film that seemed to have a lot of fingers in the pie. At one point director Josef von Sternberg was dismissed from the film and director Nicholas Ray took over. The screenplay appeared to fall apart several times as the actors often gave the impression they were flying by the seat of their pants. The sets go from extreme, to fitting to "why is that in there?"

Still, there was no denying the chemistry between Mitchum and Russell, who is a sexy bombshell in this movie. Unfortunately that in itself, along with all the other non-conformity going on, the noir elements of the movie get lost. Fans of Mitchum and Russell, however, will probably be entertained.

Director: Josef von Sternberg

Writer: story - Bob Williams; screenplay - Stanley Rubin and Bernard C. Schoenfeld

Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, William Bendix, Thomas Gomez, Gloria Grahame and Brad Dexter

Rating: Not rated

Classic Movie Guide Rating: 2.5 our of 5 stars

Run Time: 81 minutes

Studio: RKO Pictures

Format: B&W, Standard