The Bribe (1949) A loaded cast and crew make this an interesting draw (only the director Robert Leonard is little known to me, though he has two Best Director nominations). But really: Ava Gardner in a dramatic noir, with Robert Taylor the male lead (including a very noir voiceover to start). Throw in Charles Laughton and Vincent Price in smaller roles, and Joseph Ruttenberg doing cinematography and Miklos Rozsa the music. And it starts great, in a lonely room in Central America, rain pouring down the windows at night. And then the flashbacks begin. Maybe all this makes me a sucker. I expected a lot even with the clichés pouring on. But we have a formula noir here with all the elements exaggerated and none of them missed-the woman is even a nightclub singer, and wait for the drug in the drink later on. If you are willing to enjoy the form rather than the specifics of the movie, you have your film. It's almost great, and might someday be considered a classic simply because it makes so clear the elements of that form (the noir-alienated male, femme fatale, flashbacks, dramatic lighting, crime and treachery, short clipped phrases). It's so good at all this, it became the model for the comic send-up, "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid." But in a way this isn't fair, because the movie does work on its own, despite its lack of originality. It grows and gets better as you go, and the consistency of the production and the solidity of the plot make it worth seeing. Gardner is not great in the way some leading noir females are, but she has her sculptural poise and is still young as an actress. Taylor has sort of the same problem of not quite rising to the needs of the role, but he is fine. The fact that the two of them are not "amazing" is one of the holdbacks of the film-lots of noirs have formula plots but have such great acting it doesn't matter a bit. So Laughton, then, rising to the occasion, is really amazing. I've heard his performance called campy, but I don't think so, not for the genre. It's subtle, and if he's a character, he's not a caricature. Price, also good, has a someone limited role. Until the end. The final ten minutes is a film wonder. If you can't watch the whole thing for some reason, you can still be thrilled by the ending. The drama, the lighting, the photography, the pace and editing, it's all unparalleled.

Robert Taylor is his usually surly self in this sluggish crime drama. Playing a federal agent, Taylor tediously supplies voice over on how he is assigned to catch smugglers stealing plane engines in South America. Part of the gang is Ava Gardner. She is legendary as a Hollywood sex goddess and I'm still waiting to see her in just one effective role as a femme fatale. She's pretty much a goody two shoes here and does little to show off her sultry assets. The pace is brutal as the film plods ahead with little or no suspense. This film is a complete waste of time despite what seems on the surface to be a decent cast. This is the bottom of the barrel where crime dramas of the 40's are concerned. Try, 'Out of The Past' with Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer instead.

Robert Taylor is a government agent sent to a fictional Hispanic country to track down a gang who is illegally making money off surplus airplane engines--a very esoteric subject to say the least. He is told that the government thinks it's one of two people who is involved with the gang--Mr. OR Mrs. Hintten (John Hodiak and Eva Gardner). When Taylor arrives, Mr. Hintten seems to thrust his wife into Taylor's lap and not surprisingly romantic sparks fly. Only later does Taylor learn that there are many more who are involved--and don't mind bribing or killing him to avoid being caught.THE BRIBE is a pretty good film, though with its stars (Robert Taylor, Eva Gardner, Vincent Price, Charles Laughton and John Hodiak) you'd expect more. And, in a rare case, I don't have a lot of specific complaints about the movie--its more that there is a general aura of slowness about the film. Despite it being a suspense film, it really lacked suspense--that is, up until the exciting finale. I think that there was just too much talking and scheming and not enough action or surprising twists.Not bad...just not all that memorable.

After reading the mostly lukewarm reviews on IMDb, I decided to give this movie a try. I like Vincent Price and Charles Laughton, so I figured it would be worth a look.Am I ever glad I did! I found perhaps the best movie of 1949! Once again I ask the question, "Why have I never heard of this movie?"Perhaps because Ava Gardner went on to star in bigger films. But I certainly never saw her better (with the possible exception of the far later "Night of the Iguana").I would not call this a film noir. There are several necessary film noir elements that are missing from "The Bribe," in my opinion. I'd call it more of a cop story.However, that's a lot like saying "Casablanca" is a bar story. Or a war story. Similar to that film, the crime plot of "The Bribe" is just a backdrop for the love that transforms and overturns Taylor's, Gardner's and Hodiak's lives.They say the course of true love never did run smooth. But Bogie and Bergman had a picnic in the park compared to what Taylor and Gardner must suffer. Both eventually fall so deeply in love that they're willing to destroy their lives for each other, yet neither trusts the other, and both are certain they have been betrayed. Used.Ava Gardner is absolutely captivating in her second major role. Although Taylor does not manage to evoke the pathos Bogart does, Gardner absolutely sizzles! She is on screen during a large portion of the film, and every moment is riveting. Her acting has genuine depth as well, far outdoing Bergman's somewhat cold, rather simplistic naiveté. The girl is really torn up inside! The other great delight in the film is Charles Laughton. He plays the sleaziest, lowest-down weasel that just about ever graced the pages of fiction, yet there were times that he reminded me more of Sophocles's blind seer Tiresias. And in spite of how unwashed and repulsive he is, in spite of how uncaringly he treats everyone he comes in contact with, in spite of his contemptible, almost laughable cowardice, he somehow still manages to come off as a genuinely lovable character.The movie starts out kind of dumb. I thought with the voice-over narration that it was going to be another "Lady In The Lake," or maybe "Murder, My Sweet." But once the movie gets going, after half an hour or so, it just gets better and better. The plot becomes intense and intriguing. When I thought it was about to end, there were four more plot twists to go! Don't let this one slip by you next time!