Soldier of Fortune (1955)

So much average

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I agree with just about everything Greg said about the film. Perhaps I am wistful about the old Hollywood and the way movies were made back then. The teaming of Gable and Hayward is perfect. She could hold her own against any male lead. Gable was still in his prime and chews up the scenery. Susan Hayward, so strong and yet so vulnerable, was elegant in her circa 1954 wardrobe. The photography is splendid with so many great Hong Kong locations. It reminds me of "Love is a Many Splendored Thing," also from 1955. But, as Greg pointed out, it is the majestic, sweeping score by Hugo Friedhofer that lingers in my mind. I want that soundtrack! Overall, I loved the movie. It was exciting and had a Hollywood happy ending. They just don't make them like they used to!

Saw this as a boy on Saturday afternoon. The DVD has all the lush, superb photography and stunning music that Cinemascope knocked you out with. It placed Hong Kong in my mind as the "exotic" place in China, with a sober overtone of British discipline at the time. The plot is necessarily contrived, but believable enough. Characters veer to stereotypes but the acting rescues them from going over the cliff and its satisfying to see the very professional, sometimes charismatic cast bring vitality to even the smallest part - the "defrocked" Magistrate still reading the Wedding vows being one. Gable, admittedly looking very worn, but fir for all of that, and Haywood dominate the film, but Rennie is dignified and shows the right touch of understatement, typifying the type of decent and selfless Englishmen who were the British Empire's backbone and now long departed the scene. Action, locale and dialogue are mixed deftly by the director. It is a blessed relief to be carried along by a film without the current use of manic editing of current film makers. Sit back and let this classic piece of adventure and visual entertainment wash over you. If the final scene on the Peak Tram Staion, Friedhoffer's atmospheric score overwhelming your reason and old Hong Kong spread seductively below,when Gable gets the girl, does not tingle your every movie nerve, nothing ever will

The film in which "The Brooklyn Bombshell," Susan Hayward, met "The King of Hollywood," Clark Gable, 1955's "Soldier of Fortune" is a middling adventure that should have been much better. In this one, Hayward journeys to Hong Kong to begin her search for her missing husband, a journalist being held prisoner in mainland China, and enlists the aid of junk-fleet smuggler Gable as a last resort. If this scenario of a journalist being held captive by an Asian Communist country strikes anyone as being implausible, just consider what is happening in North Korea today, and the plight of newswomen Ling and Lee! Anyway, with old pros like Gable and Hayward, the film is certainly well acted and interesting, and the two, in their only screen pairing, DO have a nice chemistry. They are ably abetted by Gene Barry (as Susan's husband) and Michael Rennie (as a sympathetic British police officer), and the scenery of mid-century Hong Kong is at least as spectacular as that shown in "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing" and "The World of Suzie Wong." Unfortunately, the picture has its problems. Despite being scripted by Ernest K. Gann, from his novel, the story seems inadequately fleshed out, and several subplots (that bar wedding, the Chinese ex-general) peter out and seem pointless (maybe they are there simply to add color?). Perhaps worst of all, the rescue of Barry from his jail on the mainland is accomplished waaay too easily; if only WE could send some can-do guys into North Korea to conk a few heads and waltz those women out! Hayward did not go to Hong Kong during the filming of this picture, and though director Edward Dmytryk (who would make another movie based in China that same year, "The Left Hand of God") & Co. work their magic, this fact is sometimes distractingly obvious. I must add that I enjoyed "Soldier of Fortune" more during a repeat viewing, with lowered expectations. But then again, I can watch Susan Hayward in anything....

Gable and Hayward are great to watch and Hong Kong is the uncredited star of this flick. Admittedly, Gable was not in his prime but he had the charm and sex appeal to keep viewers, especially females, interested. There is one scene between Gable and Hayward showing the harbor entrance of a typhoon that is sexier than any current movie showing actual sex. My only complaint with Susan Hayward was her hair. Her stylist really goofed on this one. Her hair was parted in such a way that she looked like she had a "comb-over" from the back. Her clothes were perfect for her neat, compact figure. She really was an adorable woman and I'm glad that she had a happy second marriage. Richard Loo was marvelous as the anti-communist, expatriate general. His comments are as relevant today as they were in 1955. Michael Rennie was as usual the superb Brit that we all loved to watch and listen to in the '50s. But the music has always been the real hook for me. I watch this movie again and again to enjoy the wonderful music. I think David Raksin of "Laura" fame wrote the score.