Singapore: its all about Ava

Singapore (1947), Dir. John Brahm, 80 mins, Blu-ray

The third film in Indicator’s Universal Noir Vol. 2 box and this one’s a doozy, certainly the most noir film of the set so far. I must say, I was very much surprised by how enjoyable this film was, considering my low expectations from the poster (Fred MacMurray as a sailor? Sorry, but give me a break!). I expected an escapist Hollywood romance/drama set in exotic, foreign climes – Affair in Trinidad springs to mind, but obviously there’s more than a few nods to the classic Casablanca, and while the latter is true, the film turned out be to much more than that. Mainly because of Ava. To suggest that for me she steals the film from everyone else is some kind of understatement. It’s not that she acts everyone else off the screen, more just a matter of sheer screen magnetism and presence.

Regards MacMurray, I’ve become resigned to the fact that whenever i see him in a film, I’m always predisposed to have a dislike/distrust of whatever character he is playing, simply because my first experience of watching him was in Billy Wilder’s The Apartment, in which he played an adulterer, cheat and utter bastard with such consummate finesse it proved wholly definitive. I suppose in that sense, his casting here was rather perfect (actually it dates just three years after his similarly impressive turn in Wilder’s Double Indemnity) as he’s playing a character with some dubiety. He’s not a wholesome character here, rather a guy with a shady past who’s always trying to keep one step ahead of the authorities, but also someone who might be redeemed by the love a good woman.

As far as the plot is concerned, its fairly conventional, albeit enlivened by a few twists and turns that make it far more interesting than I had expected. Shortly after WW2, Matt Gordon (Fred MacMurray) returns to Singapore after having fled five years before when the Japanese invaded. He returns to the hotel he used to stay at, intending to retrieve a fortune in pearls he was smuggling out and had stashed in there when the war breaking out upset his plans. Seeing a table and chairs in the bar/restaurant he slips into a reverie and voiceover, the film fading to a flashback from five years before, when he was about to get married to Linda Grahame (Ava Gardner) after a whirlwind romance. Before they could get married, they became separated during the Japanese bombardment when  Gordon attempted (and failed) to retrieve the pearls, only returning to the church to see it burned to the ground and Linda presumably killed. Despondent, Gordon fled Singapore to join the war effort.

The complications of course are what makes this interesting- the film returning back to the ‘present’ of 1947, Gordon is being watched by both Deputy Commissioner Hewitt (Richard Haydn) who is well aware of Gordon’s criminal past and suspects he has returned to retrieve the pearls, and likewise mobster/fence Mauribus (Thomas Gomez) who wants the pearls himself, presumably from some deal the two had years ago.  So far, so routine-thriller as Gordon attempts to outwit both the law and the criminal fraternity, but then he suddenly sees Linda… alive. But now she’s Ann Van Leyden, devoted wife of plantation owner Michael Van Leyden (Roland Culver), with no knowledge of Gordon at all, or of a woman named Linda Grahame.  Is it Linda, or just some woman who uncannily looks like her? There’s a few more twists yet, but the real pleasure of the film is undoubtedly Ava.

Ava Gardner; one of the most beautiful actresses who ever appeared in film, she has this relationship with the camera that is like some kind of sorcery- the camera just loves some women, there is this spark… other examples include Marilyn Monroe, Kim Novak.. but here its just… well, she steals every scene she’s in. The plot, the other actors in the scene, they all kind of fall away… Its not even how beautiful she is, its some kind of energy in that relationship between actress and camera that defines screen icons…

A featurette on the Indicator disc goes into some general detail regards Ava’s life and career. I found it fascinating, a little disturbing and rather enchanting. I was left to idly imagine her life, being as beautiful as she was, that whole 1940s/1950s Golden Age Hollywood era, fame, fortune.  I’ve not seen many films featuring Ava- the last one I saw her in was On the Beach, released in 1959, some twelve years after Singapore but seemingly many years more than that – too much living , maybe, taking its toll on her? Certainly she was on her third divorce by then. She was a strong woman who seemed to suffer men,  famously uninhibited for the time which seemed scandalous to many (she was blamed for ending Frank Sinatra’s marriage in a scandal that threatened both of their careers): frankly, its the stuff of a Hollywood movie all in itself, glamour, drinks, affairs, betrayal, divorce… She certainly lived.

I thoroughly enjoyed Singapore, but have to admit its mostly from being so bewitched by Ava’s presence in it. I suppose this might be surprising because she’s not playing a femme fatale, certainly its a very different character to the one she played in The Killers. I think that’s some reflection of how much of her impact here stems from her sheer presence, her relationship with the camera, rather than something doubled upon by the script or outrageous (for the time) clothing etc. Instead she’s beautiful and sensual while being largely restrained- maybe that’s why having seen both The Killers and On the Beach, its seeing her in this – undoubtedly a lesser film- which has me finally bowled over by her and looking to see her in more features.