Rent Deported (1950)

Unusual - Deported review by sb

FILM & REVIEW Robert Siodmak is famous for making dark Noirs with a particularly bleak take on the human condition. This then is quite a departure - Chandler plays Vic who was born in Italy but has spend most of his life in New York. He has recently served 5 years for a 100 grand heist and has now been deported back to Italy. The money was never recovered and his partner follows looking for his share…..Vic refuses saying having done the time and never squealed the full amount is his. He travels back to his home town and gets taken in by his kindly Uncle who thinks he’s something big in the US Govt a fiction Vic is only too glad to maintain. He also meets and woos a widowed Countess who provides for the poor and this sparks an idea. He cannot have the cash sent from New York as the cops are watching so he arranges for all the money to spent on food and shipped over. Once it arrives he plans to steal it and sell it on the black market and convert it back into cash…..but by now he has fallen in love with town , the people and in particular the Countess…… FIlmed entirely on location making great use of the Italian landscape with Chandler as the rugged anti- hero and Toren as his romantic foil. As I say its miles from the normal Siodmak stuff but works just fine on its own terms - 4/5