How often does a criminal arrest increase a person’s box-office appeal? Usually you hear the exact opposite is the case, such as when Robert Downey Jr was going through his legal troubles and found himself uninsurable and unhireable. But 1940s Hollywood was a different time and an actor with a reputation for being a bad boy could attract an audience based on that persona alone. In late 1948, Robert Mitchum was arrested for marijuana possession and he spent some time in jail. This arrest was seen by RKO head Howard Hughes as a positive rather than a liability; he saw it as a way to boost the attention given to what was planned as a low-rent B- picture. His gamble paid off and the film, when it released the following year, turned a modest profit. People, apparently, are drawn to forbidden fruit.
But it is not just the clever casting that brought audiences to the theaters. This is a legitimately well-made film, though the way things are set up leads to a lot of confusion in the first half. Robert Mitchum is playing Duke Halliday, a U.S. Army lieutenant who has been robbed of a $300,000 payroll by Jim Fiske (Patric Knowles). Captain Blake (William Bendix) suspects Halliday of being in on the robbery so he pursues Halliday into Mexico even as Halliday is pursuing Fiske. Along the way, Joan Graham (Jane Greer), Fiske’s ex-girlfriend, is also pursuing Fiske. She loaned him $2,000 and is intent on getting it back. She and Halliday join forces against Fiske, hoping to catch up to him and get all the money back, all the while Blake is narrowing in on them. Sitting back and watching all of this, like a cat observing mice, is Mexican Police Inspector General Ortega (Ramon Novarro), who has met the three pursuers and is watching from a distance in order to piece the whole puzzle together and pounce on his prey when the time is right.
Aside from Mitchum, himself, there are plenty of other things to attract an audience to this picture. For one, it uses the locale to great advantage with some breathtaking photography in Tehuacán, Veracruz, and Mexico City. Ample use of the native Hispanics adds plenty of local color and realism to the film as well. On top of that, there are many action set pieces that are well staged, especially the vehicle chase sequences where you can tell the cars are driving at high speed on roads with poor traction, heightening the tension. As mentioned above, the story is confusing at first but once you get a good sense of the principal characters it all smooths out. This is especially an issue with the character of Halliday because it takes us a long time to determine whether he is on the side of good. But, despite that, this is a fun watch from start to finish and one that ultimately demands a rewatch. 1949 - 71 minutes
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