Wonderful character development!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

In the chaos that followed the end of World War 11, places that fell outside the jurisdiction of international law became havens for all sorts of mysterious travellers such as, fugitives from justice, displaced persons and of course, the types of criminals who could best exploit these locations for their own purposes. The Portuguese colony of Macao, which lay to the south of Hong Kong, was one of these places and provides the setting for this movie in which adventure, romance and mistaken identities feature strongly.After recently having been involved in the murder of an undercover cop from New York City, local crime boss Vincent Halloran (Brad Dexter) expects another undercover officer to arrive in Macao to carry on where his predecessor left off. When a steamer from Hong Kong arrives at the port, corrupt police Lieutenant Sebastian (Thomas Gomez), who's on Halloran's payroll, watches with interest while three Americans have their entry documents checked. The three people in question are, Nick Cochran (Robert Mitchum), an ex-serviceman with no passport, out-of-work nightclub singer Julie Benson (Jane Russell) and travelling salesman, Lawrence C Trumble (William Bendix). Sebastian allows Nick Cochran to enter Macao despite not having a passport and reports back to Halloran about the new arrivals and his belief that Nick is the undercover detective that they've been expecting.Nick and Julie had struck up a certain rapport after having met on the steamer and so Halloran hires Julie as a singer for his casino with the intention of using her to find out more about Nick. Halloran also offers Nick money to leave Macao but he's more interested in staying to develop his relationship with Julie. The jovial Lawrence Trumble deals in a diverse range of items including nylon stockings, fertiliser and coconut oil and one day offers Nick $10,000 to sell a stolen diamond necklace to Halloran. After Halloran sees a diamond taken from the necklace, he agrees to travel to Hong Kong to complete the deal even though doing so would mean travelling through international waters where he would run the risk of being arrested.Halloran, who recognises that the necklace is one that he'd previously stolen, has Nick kidnapped. Nick then escapes with the assistance of Halloran's girlfriend Margie (Gloria Grahame) who's very bitter about Halloran's obvious attraction to Julie and a series of further complications then follow before Halloran's decision to travel to Hong Kong leads to the story's exciting conclusion.Many of the characters in "Macao" are disloyal and very readily betray any trust placed in them. Some examples involve Halloran who's disloyal to his mistress (Margie) who reciprocates by transferring her loyalty to Nick. Lieutenant Sebastian has no integrity at all and his loyalty is always ready to be transferred to the highest bidder. Similarly, Julie, who was broke when she left Hong Kong, used her looks to sucker a sleazy stranger into sponsoring her trip to Macao, but then when the arrangement started to become uncomfortable dumped him with the help of Nick, who she rewarded by stealing his money and throwing his passport and wallet into the sea!! Treachery on this scale is probably no surprise in a location that's a magnet for people who want to escape their pasts or enjoy unregulated gambling but what's more unexpected is the rather playful tone of the whole movie where banter, wisecracks and witticisms are the norm. Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell both excel in their roles but are unquestionably at their most effective and charismatic in their scenes together. Brad Dexter, Gloria Grahame and William Bendix also do well in their important supporting roles.

I am not usually a fan of Mitchum or Russell. But I enjoyed them in this film.The tone is noir-like, but light. The characters are interesting. Bendix and Grahame performed well, though a comment on this site says that Gloria Grahame intentionally overacted to get back at Hughes for making her appear in this film.But I only enjoyed the film until Grahame allows Mitchum to escape. After that, there is a foot chase that is hokey for so many reasons. (I note that one reviewer thought the chase was the highlight of the film, but we do not agree.) Why does a tin can suddenly fall off an awning when Mitchum passes beneath it? Was it really necessary to place a black cat behind Mitchum in one shot? The cat-and-mouse chase seems so contrived, because there is no continuity and the actions of the pursuers and the pursued do not seem remotely connected or real. It seems like the director was trying to mimic the style of Welles, but does not pull it off, in my opinion.

It seems odd for a film noir to be set on a small peninsula off the coast of China, but 'Macao (1952)' nonetheless fits the bill, in a similar vein to Howard Hawks' 'To Have and Have Not (1944).' Robert Mitchum wanders in off a ferry, looking as weary as always, and is immediately suspected by the city's resident American crime boss (Brad Dexter) to be a dangerous detective from the States. Cochran, actually a vagrant fugitive traversing the globe, accepts these accusations without batting an eyelid, thus joining the ranks of film noir "innocents" who find themselves unwittingly entangled in a messy affair in which they have no rightful business. Meanwhile, Jane Russell, with a spiteful glare that suggests utter contempt for anything that moves, works hard to avoid falling for Cochran; but on whom the sultry singer will ultimately bestow her affection is never in doubt. This film was made purely to bring together its two big stars again, but fortunately it also works as a exotic adventure thriller.According to the opening credits, 'Macao' was directed by Josef von Sternberg. In actuality, producer Howard Hughes dismissed Sternberg before production wrapped up, and so the film was completed by an uncredited Nicholas Ray. Audiences have always loved to see their favourite stars dispatched to exotic locations – however short distance they were required to travel from the studio back-lot – and the obscure Asian peninsula of Macao adds a spark of Oriental charm to an already-outlandish locale. This is a city where dangerous criminals take sanctuary and open seedy gambling joints, where mysterious Asian henchmen kill their victims with knives rather than guns. Normal societal formalities hold no sway here: Mitchum gets a luscious kiss out of his leading lady within a minute of their meeting, and, incidentally, she gets his wallet. That the screenplay is completely predictable becomes irrelevant next to the strong characterisations and seedy, mysterious atmosphere. This being my first Sternberg film, I'm unsure of his particular directing style, but the dark foot-chases along the sleazy Macao docks struck me as being characteristic of Nicholas Ray's work.Though Mitchum and Russell carry the film pretty well – and, indeed, are the only reason for the film's existence – an unfortunately-underused supporting cast also does a good job. William Bendix, playing a likable character for once, is a friendly travelling salesman to whom there may be more than meets the eye. Brad Dexter is serviceable as the primary villain, but he's not particularly sinister or intimidating, and his spur-of-the-moment decision to leave the Three-Mile Limit, especially after learning of a plot to capture him, seems utterly contrived. Gloria Grahame (Ray's then-wife, though not for much longer) has a disappointingly-brief role as the villain's shunted lover; early in the film, she and Russell exchange glares than communicate pure mutual contempt. Overall, despite an all-too-familiar storyline, the Oriental-flavoured setting and enjoyable performances make for a film with a fair amount of suspense and intrigue, with just enough laconic humour to keep the story moving along nicely {Mitchum himself reportedly wrote a few scenes to bridge the otherwise-muddled screenplay}. If this one ever comes up on the TV schedule, it's worth a gander.

This begins with a chase scene: a man in a white suit and white hat running, being chased by some thugs and a sinister Chinese guy with a knife. The man stops and looks back, forgetting Satchel Paige's dictum: "Don't look back, something might be gaining on you." They are in fact only dozen yards or so behind. But he starts running again and miraculously they are now further behind! (Typical chase scene camera work resulting in illogic. But never mind.) He ducks around a corner and hides. One of the thugs pauses, turns and sees him, which gives the man in the white suit a chance to knock him off his feet with a swift uppercut. Then he runs off in the direction he had turned. I was thinking how much he would be ahead of everybody by now if he had just kept running.Chase scene ends with a knife thrown at him landing in the middle of his back. He's a cop from New York. Dead. Somehow this scene reminded me of something from Bud Abbott and Lou Costello.Next scene is much better. Jane Russell as Julie Benson is in a cabin room on a passenger ship with a touristy kind of guy who's dancing, if you can call it that. He wants more than dancing. Julie pushes him away. He won't take no for an answer. She takes off a high heel and throws it at him. He ducks and the high heel flies out the window and hits Robert Mitchum who's playing an adventurer named Nick Cochran who just happened to be walking by. Boy meets girl, cute.After a fashion he rescues the lady in distress. She's a hard talking, sultry babe with attitude. He wants to continue the party after knocking the masher out, but Julie isn't interested. So he takes her and kisses her. Very manly. She still isn't interested and tells him to beat it.He does, but some time later he notices that his wallet is missing. We see her take out the dough and toss the wallet overboard. A few minutes later she meets up with William Bendix playing a global traveling salesman named Lawrence C. Trumble. Of course we know this is an elaborate disguise and he is somebody other than who he pretends to be. The "C" stands for Cicero, he later tells Nick, "but don't tell anybody." Trumble makes with the pleasantries, but Julie brushes him off. He tells her what he's selling. One thing she likes is nylons. He gives her a free pair, "no strings attached." She takes off her old nylons right there on the deck, tossing them overboard, one by one. Nick manages to be passing on the deck beneath and catches one of them as she puts on the new nylons. Later she asks, "Did you get a nice view?" It's Macao, 36 miles from Hong Kong. It's hot. People are smoking and smuggling and gambling, and ex-pats who are stranded tend to make friends quickly. Naturally there's romance with Julie falling for Nick and vice versa, but some misunderstandings come between them. One has to do with Margie, played by the always intriguing Gloria Grahame, who, unlike Jane Russell, actually has an Oscar statue for her work in The Bad and the Beautiful from 1952, which, alas, I haven't seen. Seems that Margie would like to get her mitts on Nick and so manages at the urging of her boss, who owns a gambling nightclub, to make it seem like Nick bedded her down, or vice-versa, as you like.This reminded me a bit of Casablanca (1942) and To Have and Have Not (1944) in that we have an American in an exotic locale with a dame in a joint amid some nefarious goings-on. As in To Have and Have Not, Jane Russell, like Lauren Becall, does some singing. One of the numbers is "Make It One for My Baby and One More for the Road," which she does very well. Russell hails from a time when movies featured full-figured babes, and she was one of the best. Sexy, shapely and not a bad actress, Russell melted a few hearts in her time.In a way "Macao" is almost a parody of Far Eastern intrigue films, which might account for the slight Abbott and Costello feel. I think this may come from the fact that Josef von Sternberg began as director, but Howard Hughes fired him and had Nicholas Ray finish up. Anyway, this moves right along and there is some nice chemistry between the two stars. Personally I got a kick out of seeing them both again after all these years.Bottom line: a kind of film noir done with atmosphere and a lot of snappy one-liners. Definitely worth seeing.(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)