Saigon
                                                                                                   
Director: Leslie Fenton
Year: 1947
Rating: 5.50
Paramount was hoping for more zip from Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake in this film but it lands with a small thud. Previously they had worked together in This Gun for Hire (1942), The Glass Key (1942) and The Blue Dahlia (1946) and all three films are considered top tier noir and had done well at the box office. Ladd and Lake sounded good in the publicity and Lake was one of few actresses shorter than Ladd. This turned out to be their final pairing though as Lake's contract with Paramount was coming to an end and they didn't re-sign her. It was sadly the beginning in the decline of her film career with her mounting personal problems. Was there anyone more adorable than she was in Sullivan's Travels or more sympathetic than she was in This Gun for Hire. Nearly overnight she became a huge star and she was in fashion. The It Girl. She became one of the tragic stories that Hollywood is replete with.

 

This film never takes off and lies there like an overbaked cake. The director Leslie Fenton manages the difficult task of making all the characters dislikable or irritating in different ways. By the end of the film, you are just tired of them and wish them goodbye. The war is over, and three members of a bomber crew find themselves in Shanghai about to be delisted. Ladd was the major, Douglass Dick the captain and Wally Cassell the fast-talking sergeant. Ladd has just learned that Dick is dying from something or another and promises the doctor to tell him on his own. Instead, he and Cassell decide not to tell him but show him a good time till his time comes. So right away, I am annoyed with these guys - let him spend his last days with his family in Ohio. Ladd gets a job to fly a shady fellow to Saigon for $10,000 but on the day they are supposed to fly the police show up and the three of them plus the secretary hop on the plane and take off.

 

The secretary is of course Veronica Lake and the dying man takes a big liking to her while Ladd is nasty and superior with her. And is for much of the film. Pushing her around, threatening her and forcing her with blackmail to pretend to return the affection of Dick. He is a jerk. The sort of guy who would come home from work and expect dinner to be waiting for him or complain if his collars were not starched. She resents it and slaps him a few times - so you know they are going to fall in love because it is Ladd and Lake after all.



Turns out she is carrying $500,000 of her boss's money and a French cop keeps showing up like they are the only people in Vietnam and it is just a matter of time till the boss makes an appearance.  I think they were going for a Casablanca vibe - Ladd being Bogart - surly and tough with no patience for a woman.  But he goes over the line that Bogart may have brushed against but never went over. He is just mean - and you know what Taylor Swift says about being mean. Lake isn't much better coming off as hard bitten and manipulative. Not a pleasant experience for the most part and explains why this one is generally left out when talking about their films together.