Movie Details
| Title: | Ride the Pink Horse | |
| Director: | Robert Montgomery | |
| Year: | 1947 | |
| Genre: | Noir | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 11.11.17 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (1)
- Lady in the Lake
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 11.11.17 | Blu-ray | This Screening is part of event: DVRfest 2017 Next up is stack 3, film 6: Ride the Pink Horse. Noir has long been one of my favorite genres but I kind of blanketed the usual suspect films in the early 2000s (I think juuust before starting this blog) and haven't really kept up with plumbing the lower depths looking for minor hits and forgotten gems like my buddy Micah has. Still, it's near and dear to my heart so anything remotely noir-ish that Criterion puts out gets an automatic purchase from me. I'm always interested to see what actors do when they finally get the clout/opportunity to direct their own material. Many times it fizzles but in some cases, such as Charles Laughton's Night of the Hunter or Ray Milland with Panic in Year Zero, you end up with something really unique and interesting. After looking up Montgomery's filmography I remember liking his Lady in the Lake although the whole first-person gimmick wore thin by the end. This is a more conventionally-shot revenge story of a guy down in fake-mexico to get revent for the death of his brother, or buddy, or someone I dunno. Surprisingly, the title isn't some euphemism for drugs or gay sex. Instead there's a literal pink horse (on a carousel) that the girl rides during a sort-of romantic scene. It's both quaint and painful to see all the fake-mexican stuff here, although the guy who plays Pancho is legit great. My favorite scenes are when Montgomery is drinking with Pancho and the tough guy act breaks down. When he's really playing it up, he seems kinda goofy and jowly. But still, there's some kind of bizarre stuff in here for a hard case crime movie, like when Momtgomery explains fruit salad to the female lead, who I guess is playing a Mexican by way of Mars. Still, there's plenty of bite in the Ben Hecht/Charles Lederer script and I found it very refreshing that Montgomery really goes down for the count after being stabbed in a fight. No tough guy act there. So this was pretty good... Always up for Noir... Let's see what's next. |
