After the bad experience Josef von Sternberg had had while shooting "Jet Pilot" for Howard Hughes, things improved a bit with "Macao" (1952). It is an escapist divertimento, with the pleasant combination of Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell, two hot stars who projected the image of professional fun-lovers, although you never knew who had brought the grass, and who had the rolling paper. They had appeared together in the 1951 film noir, "His Kind of Woman" (very enjoyable, highly recommended, with Vincent Price in one of his finest roles ever), set in a sound stage Mexico. "Macao" offered the opportunity to travel again, to another Hollywood sound stage, in one of those "exotic" confections (mind you, probably done with a lot of grass, but not enough cash), and who better than Sternberg, who had made the Marlene Dietrich films and "The Shanghai Gesture" (with Ona Munson as the villain); who better than he to evoke the Portuguese colony of Macao in a Californian sound stage? Mitchum is at home in the story of an American who helps to catch a fellow countryman who administers a casino, sell drugs and is wanted by the law, while la Russell, well, a good friend of boss Hughes as she was, only had to sing, be herself and pass a good time in company of a fine cast that included the great Gloria Grahame (forced by Hughes to play a little part, instead of being in "A Place in the Sun"), William Bendix and Thomas Gomez. When Sternberg had already shot two thirds of the script, Hughes had a tantrum "a lo Leonardo DiCaprio" in "The Aviator", he fired Josef, and Nicholas Ray and a few more acolytes shot additional scenes. Enjoy!
