Ride the Pink Horse (1947)

Very disappointing...

Great Film overall

An Exercise In Nonsense

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Weird, off-beat, and dark even by noir standards, RIDE THE PINK HORSE is the definite cultish item, a film of some other order that happens the way it does either by accident/inexperience on the filmmaker's part or from some kind of intuitive design, a basic way of saying "everyone makes films this way but what if I take out these little parts and see how it works". Knowing that Robert Montgomery helmed LADY IN THE LAKE, a Raymond Chandler adaptation shot entirely from Marlowe's POV seemingly for novelty's sake, doing something for the simple pleasure of finding out how it turns out, I'm inclined to think it's the second, with the first factoring somewhere in the process. For all Montgomery knew the result could've been a muddled incoherent mess. But it's not.For some reason, it's mysterious and elusive, oddly captivating and dreamlike even when it doesn't make a whole lot of sense (or perhaps because of it), because the characters are left incomplete and indecipherable, the way real people are most of the time, doing what they do out of some sense of personal obligation or skewed honor they can't even explain to themselves. Hollywood usually explains that motivation and in doing so turnes characters into plot devices created to move the story forward or halt it long enough for the necessary exposition to fill the gaps. Montgomery instead opens the film with his protagonist, a disillusioned former GI turned blackmailer, wandering around in a small New Mexican town the day before a fiesta and doesn't bother explaining why's there or what's he there to do until we're a good 20 minutes in.In the meantime, the movie has soaked up enough eerie smalltown atmosphere and a sense of impending doom, grinning Mexicans giving the protagonist false directions to his hotel and a weird wideyed girl giving him strange charms to ward off bad luck, that when the plot kicks into motion we've established so much mood that the story need not be anything more than a basic skeleton. The second half is not as great as the first because the potboilerish noir aspects take hold, something about a typical blackmail scheme and characters trying to outwit and deceive each other as they're wont to do when the film noir is their natural habitat while a government agent stalks in the perimeters trying to arrest the victim of the blackmail for the same crime he's being blackmailed, but thankfully it's not for too long.Soon we get dingy Mexican taverns and the fiesta pouring through the streets and a crane shot that rises to meet the ghastly Zozobra figure towering above the town; we get a great set piece in a merry-go-round from which the movie takes its bizarre title, stabbings in the back of restaurants, our knifed protagonist staggering in the dark around town automaton-like to god knows where, the government agent showing up at just the right time to bail him out or tell him things he needs to be wary off like a deus ex machina or a Campbellian mentor, rumbling monologues against flag-waving and working 9 to 5 that reveal a movie as disillusioned with the postwar American dream as its own characters, all these wrapped in a structure that has an odd mystical/mythic quality about it.And of course, we get Pancho, the merry-go-round owner, and his pearls of wisdom such as "when you're young, everyone sticks knife in you" (which I remember someone had as his sig here). A true delight for the cult movie aficionado and the film noir fan who always cared more for BLAST OF SILENCE than THE MALTESE FALCON. Great stuff.

The grim, enigmatic, but compelling Universal-International Pictures release "Ride the Pink Horse" ranks as a robust, first-rate, post-World War II, film noir melodrama. A hard-boiled former serviceman sets out to blackmail a wealthy, white-collar crook that had one of his war-time pals murdered. The action unfolds in a small, anonymous, New Mexico town named San Pablo during an annual festival, but it is fairly obvious that lenser Russell Metty photographed the action on a Universal backlot. Interestingly enough, the studio imported the carousel that figures prominently in the film title. The setting lends a decidedly Hispanic quality to the film so that it resembles a contemporary western. Later, after our hero runs afoul of the villains, he has to rely on Mexicans to conceal him from the villain's thugs, kind of like Clint Eastwood had to do in "A Fistful of Dollars." Our roughshod hero is named Gagin; in Dorothy B. Hughes' novel, she simply referred to him as Sailor. Gagin (Robert Montgomery of "Night Must Fall") climbs off a Greyhound bus, stashes a canceled $100-thousand check in a bus station pay locker, hides the key, and then tracks down the villain at the local hotel. The first scene when he arrives in town and conceals the check in the locker is brilliantly done in one long, unbroken take that follows Gagin inside and back outside without any physical cuts. Gagin folds a blank piece of stationary, stuffs it into an envelope, and then scrawls the villain's name on it. After he hands the letter to the hotel desk clerk, Gagin watches as the clerk inserts the letter into a numbered slot where mail is place. Eventually, Gagin will demand $30-thousand in exchange for the infamous check. He packs an automatic pistol, and he is pretty savvy until he tries to play the game according to the villain's rules. Along the way, Gagin befriends a cheerful, tubby Mexican, Pancho (Thomas (Gomez in an Oscar nominated role), who operates a carousel. Pancho treats Gagin as a friend and even lets him sleep in his bed when our hero cannot find a hotel room in town. Hugo (Fred C. Clark in a non-comedic role) is the chief villain, and he is accustoming to getting anything that he wants. He smokes cigars and wears a hearing aid. We're never told anything about this gizmo, but in some ways it makes Hugo seem like even more sinister. If villains are supposed to look abnormal, then the hearing aid serves to characterize Hugo as a bad guy. Hugo—it seems--was a war-profiteer who has made a fortune. Hugo isn't easily frightened by Gagin, who spent time in New Guinea, and speaks derisively about Shorty who he had hired as a bodyguard. "Too bad your pal Shorty turned out to be a crook. Got himself all crumbed up reaching for easy money." A friendly but inquisitive Federal agent, Retz (a fatherly Art Smith), knows what Gagin is looking for and tries to talk in out of blackmailing Hugo. Eventually, some forty-two minutes into the film, Gagin gets to sit down with Hugo in his hotel room and discuss his blackmail proposition. Hugo They reach an agreement to meet later in the evening, and Hugo will hand over thirty grand in currency for the check in a local restaurant. Meantime, one of Hugo's seductive associates, Marjorie Lundeen (Andrea King), tries to convince Gagin to ask for $100-thousand and entrust the check to an attorney. Gagin refuses to follow Marjorie's shrewd advice. At the restaurant, Marjorie confronts Gagin, and this devious dame lures him outside in the shadows to smoke a cigarette. Actually, she sets Gagin up so they will be standing together alone in the shadows where nobody can see them. Andrea King's presence as a duplicitous woman is about as close as "Ride the Pink Horse" gets to being a film noir. Two of Hugo's stealthy hoodlums assault and stab Gagin while the treacherous Marjorie watches without emotion. Our resourceful hero kills one of them and leaves the other one face down in the street. Retz finds the dead and the wounded man and informs Hugo that Gagin has effectively thwarted him. The last thing applies to the femme fatale that plays with vigor. Gagin isn't really a hero, but you like him because he is squaring off against an affluent, ruthless adversary. Montgomery plays Gagin as part hard head and part hero. He doesn't really behave like a straight-up, clean-cut, churchgoer. The neatest touch in the entire film occurs when Montgomery does a lap dissolve from Hugo chewing on a steak to a monstrous doll, the symbol of bad luck, being paraded through the town as part of the fiesta. Incidentally, for people who love details, the San Pablo festival takes place in September."Ride the Pink Horse" was based on a Dorothy B. Hughes novel and Hollywood heavyweights Ben "The Front Page" Hecht penned the script with Charles Lederer. Thomas Gomez makes quite an impression as the affable Pancho. The film derives its title from Pancho's merry-go around, and at one point our battered hero has to ride it. Wanda Hendrix gives a very good performance as Pila, a helpful Mexican flaquita who comes to Gagin's aid. She learns something about life from the abrasive Gagin. He teaches her what a dame or a babe is: a woman with a heart like a cold fish that cares about nothing but herself. Andrea King stands out as a semi-femme fatale. A neat little scene occurs in the latter half of the film when Pila hides Gagin on the merry-go around while Pancho takes a beating from two of Hugo's hoods. The camera is focused on the foreground with Pila hiding Gagin while in the background we catch a glimpse of the strong arm guys giving it to Pancho.Criterion has done an exceptional job putting "Ride the Pink Horse" on Blu-Ray/DVD.

This is a classic pseudo film noir. It means to emulate, but not necessarily be, a true film noir.Robert Montgomery is excellent and believable as a man driven to revenge the death of his war time pal.The scenes with Wanda Hendrix as, in turns, a guileless teen, a knowing friend and a woman who 'sees things' are taut and dramatic. There are a few moments of humor there too.Mr Montgomery's direction is both intelligent and convincing. There are moments of drama. Moments of near pathos. Moments of comedy. Moments of boredom - from the characters, not the audience.The 'Fed' and 'Pancho' the carousel owner are interesting and engaging characters. Not hollow or cardboard cutouts that one might see in some films.All in all it is a very enjoyable film and a must see for those that appreciate both the acting skills and the directorial skills of Mr. Robert Montgomery.

I was in the process of reading this book and then started watching a movie without knowing what the movie was. It was deja vu all of the sudden. It turned out to be this movie. I think that Robert Montgomery did a great job of capturing the character that was in the book. Tough but naive at the same time. A very good noir film that should get more play and recognition.The dark atmosphere,the craziness of the music and the partying in the background all the time as the story unfolds. Maybe I had a leg up reading the book almost first. It's very rare when I think a movie based on a book is just as good as the book. I felt sympathy for Robert Montgomery's character. All the time thinking he was going to lose to the cheats. He had his own principals and stuck to them.Can't say enough.Good movie.