The best part of The Big Bluff happens in the final couple of minutes. Up until then the film is mostly a bore, relying on wooden characters and a premise that is as generic as it comes. The central premise here is con man Ricardo (John Bromfield) romancing a wealthy heiress, Valerie (Martha Vickers), knowing that she suffers from a bad heart. The idea is he will marry her, then speed her along to her premature death and inherit her money. Along the way, Valerie’s friend Marsha (Eve Miller) suspects Ricardo’s motives but cannot prove any wrongdoing, thus preventing her from putting a stop to his schemes.
This might have worked had it been shortened to a fifty-minute television episode and a better actor than Bromfield been cast as the villain. As it stands it is just painfully dull for a large percentage of the time. Bromfield is looking a little like Clark Gable here, complete with the pencil mustache, but he lacks any of the charisma and charm that allowed Gable to charm his way into the hearts of women everywhere. Vickers comes across better as the naive heiress who is a little too sweet-natured and trusting for her own good. This was a change of pace for the actress who was more known for playing shrewish characters. There are other stand-out performances here, too, especially Fritzie Darvel, whose allure could melt a glacier, but they are all underserved by a hastily written script that rarely comes alive.
This is a movie that struggles to justify being a feature film. Nothing about it stands out as worth dedicating more than an hour to. Instead, it should have been tightened up and released as part of a crime drama television anthology of the type that was popular in the early days of TV broadcasts. Still, it’s almost worth sitting through it just to see the hilariously ironic finale, a moment far better written than anything else here. 1955- 71 minutes
Comments
Post a Comment