Calcutta

Some of the best movies utilize their setting to great effect, even if they weren’t actually filmed there. For instance, not a single frame of Casablanca was filmed in Africa, yet there is a feel to that picture that lends it authenticity. Calcutta, the 1947 film noir picture, attempts to do the same thing, but the results are less effective. There are moments where it succeeds, but more often than not it just feels like it was filmed on LA soundstages. Adding to that is an over-reliance on studio actors, mostly white men and women, which betrays the effect. While this movie doesn’t feel like it was made on the cheap, it never quite soars to the levels this story needs. 

The story involves two pilots, Neale Gordon (Alan Ladd) and Pedro Blake (William Bendix), who become amateur sleuths when one of their own, Bill Cunningham, has been killed, strangled by a rope. Bill’s fiancée, Virginia Moore (Gail Russell) is wearing a bit of jewelry well outside of his pay range, which leads Gordon to the jeweler who sold him the item. This in turn leads to the discovery of a smuggling ring running hot jewelry out of Calcutta. Bill received a large amount of money recently and bought the expensive jewelry for Virginia, but where did that money come from? As Gordon digs further, he finds himself falling for Virginia himself, despite being involved with another girl, Marina (June Duprez). The further down the rabbit hole Gordon goes, the more he begins to suspect Virginia may have had something to do with Bill’s death.

There are a lot of moving parts to this movie. Unfortunately, the mystery is not all that interesting and often gets bogged down in sappy dialogue and an unconvincing romance brewing between Gordon and Moore. The acting is solid for the most part, except for Gail Russell who is obviously reciting her dialogue and looking for her cues. It is distracting enough that it ruins every scene that she is in, which is quite a lot. When there are action sequences, they are well-staged, though the stunt work is painfully obvious; there is just not enough to keep up the energy. This is a film that needed more action-adventure and less talking scenes inside hotel rooms. For an exotic setting like this it needed to utilize it better. 1947 - 83 minutes