SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

XhcnoirX Alan Ladd and William Bendix are cargo pilots in the far East. Shortly after their friend and fellow pilot John Whitney announces a surprise marriage, he's found murdered. Ladd decides to investigate the murder himself. Through nightclub singer June Duprez he tracks down the fiancée, Gail Russell, who seems very evasive. When he finds out her wedding present is a necklace Whitney could not possibly afford, he digs deeper, and slowly uncovers a smuggling ring, that might or might not involve Russell, who he is getting quite close to. The movie is a mixed bag, in almost every way. The story wants to be a mystery, relying too much on peripheral characters who seem important but aren't, such as Edith King as the owner of a jewelry store. Gail Russell's ('Moonrise') casting as a femme fatale seems like a potential goldmine, as she is one of the least likely actresses to play one. But she doesn't fully convince me, part of her appeal is her (real life) fragility and it doesn't mesh well with the more conniving aspects of her character. Duprez ('And Then There Were None') fits her role much much better, it's a shame it's such a minor role. Ladd ('This Gun For Hire') on the other hand is great, altho chances are this part was written with him in mind anyways. He could portray tough and tenacious as well as anybody else. And he has excellent chemistry with Bendix ('The Dark Corner'), who is always solid. There's a funny scene early on in the movie with Ladd and Bendix stranded after mechanical issues. Ladd is bare chested, covered in dirt and sweat (I imagine some ladies in the audience wanted this scene to go on forever), while Bendix is still wearing his shirt and is barely sweating. The movie's competently made, but director John Farrow ('The Big Clock') and DoP John F. Seitz ('Double Indemnity') have done way better and more remarkable movies. It makes the movie even more frustrating, so much talent in front of the camera as well as behind, and the end result (despite being a box office hit on release) is rather bland. Maybe if a better print surfaces I will enjoy it a bit more, but as it stands, it's only a 6/10

Robert J. Maxwell Here we have Alan Ladd investigating the death of a close friend in Calcutta when India was still part of the British Em-Pah. Assisting him are his close pal, fellow pilot William Bendix. The two men fly cargo and passengers over the hump from India to China. That close friend used to be a pilot as well but he discovered some smuggling was going on and was strangled -- in Thugee fashion, with the garrote. The deceased may also have been particeps criminis but it's not clear. The explanation of this twisted tale, when it comes, comes in a torrent and is a little hard to follow.What's not hard to follow is two of the most beautiful women of the movies of 1940, the exotic June Duprez and the girlish and vulnerable Gail Russell. Neither gets the treatment they deserve. Duprez, in love with Ladd, is "a good guy," except when he's casually boffing her. Russell, miscast as a liar and manipulator, acts and sounds as if she'd recently been snatched out of Santa Monica High School, given a few acting lessons, and thrust before the cameras, which she was.There is a scene at the end, when Ladd confronts Russell with evidence of her guilt in the smuggling scheme. They've been more or less attracted to one another and have spent at least one night together. It's a blanched echo of the similar but far more intensely moving scene at the climax of "The Maltese Falcon." Alan Ladd is not Humphrey Bogart and Gail Russell is not treacherous. And in "Falcon," the dialog consists mostly of excerpts from Dashiel Hammet's novel, while here the screenwriter, Seton I. Miller, and the director, John Farrow, have turned it leaden. Ladd slaps Russell around to get her to talk. It's unpleasant.I don't want to make the film sound like a total failure because it's not. A lot depends on individual taste. The Calcutta in which the tale takes place is Hollywood's idea of a foreign city. The "white men" wear uniforms or white suits. A few pith helmets are in evidence. We see one -- count 'em, one -- woman dressed in a sari but there are a plenitude of turbans. The streets are crowded but not full of garbage. The "white people" visit night clubs of a sophistication and decor that would be hard to find in New York City. They wear evening clothes. There are no cockroaches or mosquitoes, though there are one or two mosquito nets. I didn't see any beaded curtains and missed them terribly.The movie is a bit sluggish. As is usual in these dramas, Ladd visits (or is visited by) one colorful character after another, all of their values ambiguous. One stand-out is the fat lady dressed like Mae West who smokes cigars and evidently runs some kind of whorehouse.It's Hollywood craftsmanship. Not at its best, but at its most typical for the period. I rather enjoyed it.

juanandrichard "Calcutta" was one of Alan Ladd's most successful movies of the 1940s (even out-grossing "The Blue Dahlia") and is a fun combination of film noir and adventure. Alan Ladd and Gail Russell made a beautiful couple, and I was sorry that they made only two co-starring vehicles together.Some critics resented the fact that Gail Russell was the villainness of the story, but I have to disagree. It added irony at the end, and debunked the type-casting limitations so many stars of that period had to suffer through. She was a real beauty! As well, the supporting cast is excellent, in particular Broadway's Edith King. Without a doubt, this is a typical Alan Ladd "star vehicle" of the period -- to be enjoyed for what it is (a fun "Terry and the Pirates" type vehicle), and not to be over-analyzed.

bkoganbing The team of Alan Ladd and William Bendix, as good friends off the screen as is shown on the screen in Calcutta, is the only real reason to watch this potboiler of an adventure story. The version I saw had several minutes cut out of it that were crucial to the plot.Ladd and Bendix play a pair of pilots ferrying cargo and passengers from Chungking to Calcutta and back over the 'Hump' which is what the pilots in wartime called the Himalayas. The native people there more picturesquely called the mountain range, 'the roof of the world'. It was a dangerous run and these guys decided to keep doing it and make some money after World War II. You can see the flag of Nationalist Kuomintang China on their flight jackets.Anyway a third buddy of there's John Whitney greets them in Calcutta after a dangerous run in which cargo had to be dumped and announces he's getting married. Ladd who has a loose relationship with June Duprez, and Bendix both don't think terribly much of the idea, but congratulate him anyway.The next day Whitney is strangled in the streets of Calcutta and Ladd and Bendix like in The Blue Dahlia the previous year are on the trail of the culprit. The first stop is Whitney's fiancé, pretty Gail Russell, who knows a lot more than she's telling. Let's just say that a whole lot of pilots are being made out to be saps.Tremendous events were going in both India and China at the time that Paramount was making Calcutta on their sound-stage yet from the story you would never know it. No hint at all is made about the Communist insurgency in China and in India you would think the British Raj was going to last another hundred years. Not one word about it in this potboiler of a plot which the Films of Alan Ladd says resembles Terry And The Pirates.Probably Calcutta would have been a lot better had we seen more of Bendix in the film. That's always good for any picture. However he gets to try and earn a living for the two of them while Ladd stays in Calcutta to solve the mystery. However it's Bendix who hears something from merchant Paul Singh that he tells Ladd about that starts the whole thing to unravel. Later on Bendix runs some interference with the British police that allows Ladd to stay free and solve the case.Calcutta is so typical of the potboiler films Ladd did and carried on the strength of his personality. It hasn't much else to recommend it.