Rent Singapore (1947)

Forties Noir - Singapore review by Steve

Foreign intrigue from Universal which principally looks good today for Ava Gardner’s studio era glamour just before she became a major star. This sort of exotic melodrama was better made in the 1930s, but at least we get a classic period film noir look.

And there are the usual generic signifiers of the far east with the white colonial suits, the rickshaws and the gin slings. And the vagabond rogues, far from home. Fred MacMurray is a smuggler of pearls about to marry Ava, who he assumes is dead after a Japanese air raid.

Only, when he returns from wartime heroics to pick up a stash of contraband, he discovers his lost love is alive and married to Roland Culver. But has scriptwriter’s amnesia. The plot is quite engaging, though John Brahms doesn’t generate enough suspense.

There are constant evocations of Casablanca (1942), which is fine. Naturally, the stars don’t create as much chemistry. Fred just isn’t a convincing romantic hero. There’s a decent support cast playing colourful scoundrels… It’s just a minor programmer, but with plenty of the old studio gloss.