SINGAPORE (1947)

Credit vet Hollywood scripter Seton I. Miller with the idea of ‘borrowing’ characters from Warner Bros. CASABLANCA/’42 for a new story of WWII international intrigue.  And it almost works.  Here’s the lineup: Fred MacMurray in for Bogart; Roland Culver doing Paul Henreid; Richard Haydn as Claude Rains; unknown George Lloyd in his sole film credit covering Peter Lorre*; and fatman Thomas Gomez for fatman Sydney Greenstreet.  Wisely, Seton avoids linking fast-rising, inexperienced Ava Gardner to CASABLANCA’s Ingrid Bergman.  And no letters of transit either; instead, the paperwork’s for smuggled pearls, a million bucks worth hidden by MacMurray just as war broke out and fiancée Gardner went missing after a Japanese bomb run.  Now, post-war, he’s back to collect those pearls and hunt up the bride-to-be only to find the lady married (with amnesia) and a gang of thieves hot on his trail.  Ace B-pic megger John Brahm, at his best in superior noir programmers like THE LODGER/’44 and HANGOVER SQUARE/’45, does what he can on a Universal budget, but is stuck with that amnesia storyline.  He also can’t get a rise out of dour MacMurray who seems aware that gorgeous Ava was moving up fast.  His future more in line with his last film, THE EGG AND I/’47, a major hit, but now remembered for introducing Ma & Pa Kettle.  Still, unlike SINGAPORE, at least it’s remembered.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Who is this mysterious George Lloyd?  Possibly the same George Lloyd who has a few ‘40s credits on B’way, he bears more than a passing resemblance to character actor Norman Lloyd, now 104 and still telling tales about regular working pal Alfred Hitchcock.  Were they brothers?

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: You could say HIS KIND OF WOMAN/’51 and MACAO/’52 (both with Jane Russell) find Robert Mitchum pulling this kind of thing off in his sleep.  But that sleepwalking gag is pretty tired.  (No pun intended.)  Nothing sleepy about Bob in either one.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/05/his-kind-of-woman-1951.html   https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/07/macao-1952.html