As Good As It Gets

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Las Vegas 1952 would have been the place to be so a film starring the beautiful Jane Russell being the affection of not one, not two, but three men made it a place that all men would want to visit. Jane Russell who plays a former Las Vegas lounge singer named Linda Rollins and is currently married to an addictive gambler named Lloyd Rollins (played by Vincent Price) who prefers the crap tables to bedding his gorgeous wife Linda.Linda would prefer to avoid Las Vegas all together since her past memories have her in the arms of a recent army veteran named Dave Andrews (Victor Mature) who she abruptly left Las Vegas apparently never to see him again. Now Dave Matthews is a Lieutenant with the Las Vegas police department and when Linda's expensive but insured diamond necklace goes missing and the slimy Fabulous Las Vegas casino owner is found murdered, it is up to Lieutenant Dave Matthews to find the killer and he has a couple of suspects in mind which include his former lover Linda Rollins and her husband Lloyd.I chuckled when I saw Victor Mature with his overly exaggerated broad shoulders (nothing that hidden shoulder pads under his suit jacket couldn't assist with) meeting his former lover the now unhappily married Linda Rollins. There is an insurance investigator named Tom Hubler (Brad Dexter) also trailing the Rollins couple to ensure her very expensive diamond necklace stays safe but needless to say it vanishes under mysterious circumstances and the Fabulous casino owner is murdered on the floor of his own casino.The film was novel for its time having the early Las Vegas strip as the backdrop, the gorgeous lounge singer Jane Russell with her piano playing Hoagy Carmichael having one or two numbers to shine, an insurance investigator, a lieutenant of the Las Vegas police department and what film would not be complete without a despicable addicted gambler like Vincent Price?It is a decent crime/drama/romance film which holds up pretty well for being 66 years old.

Although it's ostensibly a murder mystery, "The Las Vegas Story", with its romantic sub-plot, musical interludes and action-packed finale looks more like a movie that was conceived as a "piece of entertainment" with something for everyone. This impression is reinforced by its rather breezy atmosphere which, at times, seems at odds with what's happening on-screen. If it was indeed designed to appeal to a mass audience, it clearly failed because it didn't turn out to be a commercial success but the finished product is undeniably entertaining, primarily because of its all-star cast and Hoagy Carmichael's songs.Ex-nightclub singer Linda Rollins (Jane Russell) reluctantly returns to Las Vegas at the insistence of her wealthy husband Lloyd (Vincent Price). He wants to spend a few days at the desert resort and after seeing a telegram from his Boston business associate, Monte, Linda quickly realises that Lloyd is being pressed by the trustees of his company to return some money to the business and it looks as if he's planning to do so by winning big at one of the city's casinos. To this end, Lloyd gets Linda to flaunt her $150,000 necklace at "The Fabulous" casino but the manager is still only prepared to offer him $10,000 credit.Linda's discomfort at returning to her hometown is obvious and after Lloyd encourages her to go ahead and get her past out of her system, she visits "The Last Chance" where she used to work and reminisces briefly about singing with the establishment's pianist, Happy (Hoagy Carmichael) and regularly being watched by a soldier who always sat at the same table. Her romance with the soldier , Dave Andrews (Victor Mature) had ended when he was posted abroad. She's pleased when she meets Happy again and as they play one of their old numbers together, Dave, who's now a local police detective walks in and is less than happy to see the woman who he still carries a torch for but who had also ended their relationship so cruelly.After Lloyd uses up all his credit at "The Fabulous" and is asked to leave, he uses Linda's necklace as security to get further credit at "The Last Chance" with the agreement of its owner Mr Clayton (Robert J Wilke). Lloyd's further gambling sessions only lead to more losses and Clayton refusing to extend him any more credit. Things then get worse for Lloyd on the following day when Clayton's dead body is discovered and he becomes the prime suspect.Robert Stevenson's direction is notable for its intelligent use of locations in Las Vegas and the Mojave Desert and also for the skill with which the action sequences are staged. Some of the stunts involved are surprisingly good for a movie of this vintage. A scene in which a helicopter flies through a hangar and another in which Victor Mature is seen jumping to the ground from a great height are particularly impressive and well-shot.Stevenson also contributes to the movie's overall characteristic of exploiting Jane Russell's presence to the full by drawing attention to her looks and physique at every possible opportunity. Examples of this are when she's filmed taking a shower, when she stands in a swimsuit on a diving board (with the word "Fabulous" emblazoned on a sign close to her) and in the ways in which various other scenes are set up. An example of how the script is used for the same purpose arrives early in the action when Linda is recognised on arrival in Vegas by an old acquaintance. When he mentions that he never forgets a face, Lloyd responds by saying that the guy obviously has no eye for figure.Vincent Price always excelled in roles in which he acted as a rogue and his performance in this movie is no exception. Victor Mature and Jane Russell also do well and Hoagy Carmichael's contributions, both as an affable character and for the quality of a couple of his songs ("I Get Along Without You Very Well" and "My Resistance Is Low"), adds a great deal of enjoyment and charm to the whole proceedings.

"The Las Vegas Story" is an excellent and very stylish film. It begins with a couple, Linda and Lloyd Rollins, taking a detour from their trip west to stop in at Las Vegas. Linda has no interest in the place--especially since she has a lot of old unfinished business there. However, Lloyd insists and it soon appears as if the guy has some sort of gambling problem--though it's hard to pin down exactly what this shady guy is up to.While Lloyd is fixated on gambling, Linda gets a little bored. And, after encouragement from Lloyd, she decides to look up old friends at the place she used to work. The only friend missing at the joint is Lieutenant Andrews (Victor Mature) and you soon learn that he and Linda used to be an item.Eventually, you learn that Lloyd is in serious financial straights--so bad that he sold an extremely valuable necklace that belonged to Linda. When the man who bought it refuses to advance Lloyd any more cash, Lloyd threatens him. So, when the guy is found dead later, naturally the police assume it was Lloyd. And the Lieutenant takes pleasure in booking the husband. But is he the man or not? And, what of the still smoldering relationship between Andrews and Linda? As I said above, the film is quite stylish and is also a good mystery. I also really liked the scene where Andrews and the murderer have a showdown--it's a doozy. Overall, a very good film--sort of like the ones that Jane Russell also made with Robert Mitchum--full of chemistry and snappy dialog.

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.