FILMOGRAPHY: MOVIE LISTINGS

Here's a review of SAIGON.

SAIGON , was unfortunately the last Ladd/Lake film made. Over the years it seems to have become regarded as inferior to their earlier work and whilst it isn't quite THIS GUN FOR HIRE or THE BLUE DAHLIA , it stands up really well.

What is interesting to see is just how well Ladd and Lake worked together when placed outside of the "film noir" genre. A shame that were apparently reluctant to be regarded as a double act. I've always felt the closing svene with Veronica's final words somehow sums up what would happen to these two people subsequently in real life. Go see.....

Lake and Ladd shine in their last screen pairing.

I was pleasantly surprised by this film. I heard rumours that it's excellent so I was glad to finally see it. I was only disappointed by the poor quality of my tape. Someone please restore this film! It's so frustrating to see such a worthy film languish in decay!

I enjoyed everything about this film. The performances are uniformly excellent and the story is interesting. Veronica was finally given a decent script after several bombs and she makes the most of it in her performance. Moreover, Alan Ladd makes a welcome return to her side so that helps as well. As usual they share an uncanny chemistry with an interesting tension existing between the two throughout the film. I also would like to note the fine performances of Luther Adler as Lieutenant Keon and Morris Carnovsky as Zlex Maris. Veronica praises their performances in her book and it's quite evident why. Adler is the perfect nosey police inspector and Carnovsky plays quite a dynamic and interesting bad guy. Douglas Dick and Wally Cassell are very convincing as Ladd's buddies as well.

The story is basically centred around the fact that Douglas Dick's character is terminally ill and his buddies efforts to ensure that his last days are good ones. In the process of trying to do that Ladd's character accepts a deal to fly Carnovsky's character in a plane to Saigon. The payment will be suspiciously high, but the mission is a good reason for the 3 friends and former aviators to stick together a little longer. The trip takes some unexpected turns and the rest is very interesting. I don't want to give the story away so I will stop here. I will only say that it is quite worth it to try to obtain a copy of this film. Veronica's performance is excellent throughout the film and as usual she looks lovely.

Lake and Ladd hit it off without the Noir backdrop.

I've only just seen this film and I was taken aback at how well Lake and Ladd work together outside the film Noir circle. Lake pulls of a convincing tough girl character and Ladd equals it with a handsome and surly (but with a good heart) guy role.

All the way through you want to see them get it together but the characters stay true to type throughout, which always makes a change.

One aspect that I was left with after the film was that I had seen it before... I think much of that was owed to similarities in the the script with "The Blue Dahlia". The characters, the situation all kinda felt familiar.

What a great movie.. Watch it.