Dull crime film is greatly elevated by glamorous the Jane Russell as a former torch singer returning to Las Vegas with her rich husband, a charming Vincent Price, only to encounter her old flame, police detective Victor Mature, who both run afoul Vegas thug Brad Dexter. The film's plot mostly hinges on a murder mystery that's barely interesting. Some of the best scenes are between Russell and her old piano player, Hoagy Carmichael. "The Las Vegas Story" was produced by Howard Hughes at RKO (who famously produced Russell's scandalous western "The Outlaw") and was directed by journeyman director Robert Stevenson, who later directed a number of pictures at Disney including classics like "Mary Poppins" and "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" to lesser Disney fare like "The Gnome-Mobile" and "In Search of the Castaways," so it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that this film lacked any real creative spark. I was hoping to see lots of period footage of 1950s Vegas, but it's all sets and stock footage, so this film doesn't even offer a vintage travelogue appeal. Besides Russell, Dexter is quite good as the steely eyed villain. I've never understood the appeal of Victor Mature as a lead actor, but he's serviceable in his part. Overall, "The Last Vegas Story" does offer an exciting climax involving a helicopter chasing a car and a shootout at an airport hanger, but other than that, it's all quite bland (outside of the never bland Ms. Russell).

There's an outside chance that if I had not watched the new release Allied the day before the BBC screened this entry from 1950 the similarities to Casablance may have escaped me, but after watching Steven Knight's blatant rip-off of the Mike Curtiz classic it was difficult not to make the connection: We're in the desert, there's a casino involved, a singing piano player, a reunion between a married woman and the man she had an affair with a few years earlier; there are no letters that will ensure safe passage but there IS a diamond necklace that everyone is after, need I go on. For me, the major selling point was the Hoagy Carmichael song My Resistance Is Low, which I knew came from this movie, which I had never seen, so it was a bonus when Hoagy and Russell laid another great Carmichael number, I Get Along Without You Very Well on us. As it turned out the film itself wasn't too hard to take with, apart from the three leads - Victure Mature, Jane Russell, Vincent Price had nice turns from the likes of Will George and Brad Dexter. I'm guessing that at the time the producers figured My Resistance Is Low was going nowhere so they threw it away at the very end, even so this is well worth a look.

Apart from being another entry in my planned month-long tribute to Vincent Price, this also served as a nod to the recently-departed Jane Russell (as should be the upcoming MACAO from the same year, to be included in my other ongoing retrospective dedicated to Josef von Sternberg). Anyway, this is a minor noir effort: indeed, it is one of the sunnier of its type, in that the narrative unfolds as much by day as it does during the night; besides, for all its intended gloom, there is a healthy vein of humor running through it! It is saved, however, by the RKO production values (the studio, above any other, gave the genre its quintessential look) and the star cast (which also includes Victor Mature, Hoagy Carmichael, Brad Dexter and Jay C. Flippen).The plot involves Russell's return to the gambling capital of the world after she had spent the war years as a chanteuse there (at a club where Carmichael – who else? – is the typically laidback pianist/observer). In the meantime, she has married wealthy Price but does not know he is close to bankruptcy (before noticing a wire he received reporting the suicide of his Boston colleague)!; another old acquaintance is cop-on-the-beat Mature, bitter at her apparent desertion of him. Needless to say, Russell and Mature ultimately get to rekindle their affair, but the path runs far from smoothly: apart from their own mutual resentment, Price does not look favourably upon his wife's former conquests, while complicating things further is the expensive necklace Price uses as a guarantee in order to try his luck at one of the leading casinos (which is being closely watched by insurance investigator Dexter). Eventually, the new owner of Russell's old haunt is found murdered (after he had denied Price further credit) and the necklace stolen. Of course, Price becomes the key suspect – and Russell accuses Mature of having framed him so as to get back at her! However, it is obvious from the get-go that the real culprit is the wolfish Dexter, and the film climaxes decently with a desert helicopter chase and a shootout in an abandoned hangar. As for Price, he is ready to pay the price {sic} of his own criminal activity back home i.e. embezzlement.The film is reasonably enjoyable, with most of the expected noir elements intact – including its fair share of hard-boiled dialogue, not to mention having Russell and Carmichael warble a number of songs – but the contrived scripting (by Earl Felton and Harry Essex, who ought to have known better!), cornball attempts at comedy (mainly having to do with Sheriff Flippen betting what Mature's next move will be with respect to both solving the case and sorting out his private life!) and an incongruous sentimental streak (clearly evoking CASABLANCA {1942} in the subplot involving a couple of underage elopers!) prevent the promising mixture from rising to greater heights.

Substitute Victor Mature for the part that Robert Mitchum normally played in these RKO films of the Fifties and you've got The Las Vegas Story. Wonder what Mitch was doing at this time?Nothing terribly groundbreaking in this film. Jane Russell and Vincent Price arrive back in Las Vegas where Jane used to be a singer when she was a single gal. Also working there is ex-boyfriend Victor Mature now with the Clark County Sheriff. When casino owner Robert J. Wilke turns up dead, there's a host of suspects out there. Jane's diamond necklace also is missing which is seen quite reasonably as a motive as Price said it was in the hotel safe.Things pretty much go as they normally do in these noir films, some good action sequences a nice car chase through an atomic bomb testing site in the end.What sets The Las Vegas Story apart is the presence of that old music master Hoagy Carmichael. ANY film he either appears in and/or writes some songs for is a cut above average just for that. He and Russell end the film singing his Academy Award nominated song My Resistance Is Low.So will your's be once exposed to the talents of Hoagy Carmichael.