by Tony d’Ambra
Comedy melodrama. Army officer (Robert Mitchum) is framed for a robbery and sets off after the culprit in a wild car chase across Mexico with a swell girl (Jane Greer). A hoot! Directed by Don Seigel and written by Gerald Drayson Adams and Geoffrey Homes from a story by Richard Wormser.
Last year in an insightful post on Mexico and Film Noir on his mardecortesbaja.com blog, Lloydville said: “Greer and Mitchum in Out Of the Past have their romantic idyll in Mexico but can’t bring the magic of it back with them to the States. This fits in with the notion of Mexico as a lost or unattainable paradise. But sometimes the idea of Mexico went to filmmakers’ heads – they got giddy with the possibilities of it. Films that started out noir would, once they crossed south of border, turn into larks, light-hearted and feckless. Re-teamed in The Big Steal, Greer and Mitchum venture into Mexico to try to extricate themselves from typical noir predicaments involving betrayal and unjust accusation, but the dark clouds vanish almost immediately – they find love and high-spirited adventure instead of noir’s dark, impenetrable maze, and all ends well. Film noir expert Elizabeth Ward amusingly suggests that The Big Steal ought to be labelled fiesta noir…”
The Big Steal is a fun ride with a nice twist at the end that leaves you wanting more. Mitchum and Greer are magic together. There are really funny running gags with Greer delivering great lines with wit and charm: any guy with blood in his veins will fall for her in this picture.
The supporting cast is strong, with a great turn by the veteran Mexican-born actor Ramon Novarro as a wiley Mexican police inspector, who has some magic lines. The scene where Greer fabricates an elopement story for the soft-hearted foreman of a road-gang is high farce infused with a true empathy and affection for the romance of Mexico and her people. This affection permeates the whole film with a sense of true liberation. The bouncy Mexican musical soundtrack echoes this mood of fun and adventure.
Two of my favorite songs reflect this love of Mexico: Elvis singing Mexico (Tepper,Bennett) in his 1963 movie Fun In Acapulco, and James Taylor’s Mexico. Elvis sings Mexico with such joy that for as long as the song lasts his voice takes you there:
Mexico, Mexico
They’ve got muchas, mucha-chas, amigos
…Latin features, never saw such adorable creatures
…Love to dig, ooh…the nights here
We live it up and love it up amigo
Life begins when you’re in Mexico
You never order, water
When you order south of the border
…In to kiss a lovely senorita
You do the samba, la bamba
…I’ll go where you go
Life begins when you’re in Mexico
Mexico, Mexico
They’ve got muchas mucha-chas, amigos
…never saw such adorable creatures
We’ll live it up and love it up amigo
Life begins…when you’re in…MEXICO…
James Taylor’s Mexico is more plaintive and shares a longing for some mythical place:
Way down here you need a reason to move
Feel a fool running your stateside games
Lose your load, leave your mind behind, Baby James
Oh, Mexico
It sounds so simple I just got to go
The sun’s so hot I forgot to go home
Guess I’ll have to go now
Americano got the sleepy eye
But his body’s still shaking like a live wire
Sleepy Senorita with the eyes on fire
Oh, Mexico
It sounds so sweet with the sun sinking low
Moon’s so bright like to light up the night
Make everything all right
Baby’s hungry and the money’s all gone
The folks back home don’t want to talk on the phone
She gets a long letter, sends back a postcard; times are hard
Oh, down in Mexico
I never really been so I don’t really know
Oh, Mexico
I guess I’ll have to go
Oh, Mexico
I never really been but I’d sure like to go
Oh, Mexico
I guess I’ll have to go now
This love for Mexico is expressed more deeply and poetically in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road:
I was alone in my eternity at the wheel, and the road ran straight as an arrow. Not like driving across Carolina, or Texas, or Arizona, or Illinois; but like driving across the world and into the places where we would finally learn ourselves among the Fellaheen Indians of the world, the essential strain of the basic primitive, wailing humanity that stretches in a belt around the equatorial belly of the world from Malaya…to Morocco to the selfsame deserts and jungles of Mexico.
Oh Mexico…
Hi! Tony,
What another interesting review (or different perspective) of the same film that Allan, just reviewed under The Big Steal-Guilty Pleasures post.
Tony said,” The Big Steal is a fun ride with a nice twist at the end that leaves you wanting more. Mitchum and Greer are magic together. There are really funny running gags with Greer delivering great lines with wit and charm…”
I have to agree with you, there Tony, The Big Steal is the flip side (as far, as I’ am concerned) of Tourneur’s very dark and noirish 1947 film Out of the Past.
I guess that I will re-watch this film later today…Because you and Allan’s both have piqued my interest in this film again.
I must admit I’am not familiar with Jack Kerouac’s writings…I must seek out more information about him and his writings.
Thanks, for sharing!
DeeDee ;-D
Tks Dee Dee. Kerouac’s writing peak sort of tracks the classic noir cycle, and his prose when he describes cities at night is a unique envisioning of the noir city.
[...] Here is the original: The Big Steal – “Oh Mexico!” « Wonders in the Dark [...]
The Big Steal has some instances of intensity in its climactic scene, and the characters’ corruption follows one of noir’s central themes, but this film is more standard drama than full-on noir. Actually, it’s a combination chase, whodunit and screwball comedy, as Robert Mitchum is both pursuer and pursuant in a race through picturesque locations in Mexico. Directed by Don Siegel (who would later helm the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the remake of The Killers, and the first Dirty Harry film), the film doesn’t expose its plot until thirty minute in, and even then, a noir-like uncertainty clings to the character’s motivations.
Mitchum is reteamed here with Jane Greer, but the intensity of their work in 1947′s classic Out of the Past, is leavened with romantic comedy. Still, as Mr. d’Ambra notes here, they are “magic”. Siegel keeps the action tense throughout, but the film-length arc of animosity-to-love played between Mitchum and Greer keeps the characters from ever becoming truly desperate or hopeless. Some of this can be attributed to the film’s production circumstances, as explained in the commentary track on the Warner DVD by USC professor Richard Jewell. It is implied that the script that seems stripped of its original darkness. Ramon Novarro, a matinee idol from the silent era, provides a superb turn as a Mexican inspector general. I like the reference here to Kerouac too.
Of course, Ramon Navarro was one of the two co-stars of the silent BEN-HUR, a bonafide screen classic. The most appealing aspect of this film without question is the re-teaming of Mitchum and Greer, who of course were screen icons in OUT OF THE PAST. I agree with those who would be inclined to regard this as far more than a “guilty pleasure.’ I love the suggestion in the passage posted at Lloysville that this should be called “fiesta noir!” LOL! In any case the adornsments here with the Elvis song and the Kerouac are truly infectious! I love the blend here of review and celebration, Tony!
Hey Bill, very impressive there! And Dee Dee, what more can be said about your typically enthusiastic and informative opening salvo!
Fine piece, but no mention here of one of my favorite actors, William Bendix, who played the captain.
Bendix, one of my favorite actors, was unforgettable in “Kill the Umpire”, “The Babe Ruth Story”, “Lifeboat”, “The Glass Key”, and “The Blue Dahlia”.
As the talk is on Mexico, how about the film noir ‘Border Incident’ by Anthony Mann?
I am a fan of this film, but like others above I recognize it isn’t in the same league with the 1947 “masterwork” it seems to encore. Still, the setting is alluring and it does inspire some of the extras in this review, like the song lyrics and poetic passage.
As far as Mexico is concerned I would add here that my favorite films set there are Bunuel’s LOS OLVIDADOS and a little-known film titled MACARIO. But both are non-noir choices.
I enjoyed the lyrics from ‘Fun in Alcapulco’ even though I regret to say I haven’t see this noir as of yet.
………..not one of my favorite noirs, but an appealing diversion……….
I think it is unfair to compare this film with Out of the Past. It has a much lighter tone and approach, and it’s basically an entertaining thriller, without the dark elements of it’s famed predecessor. It’s too bad that Mitchum and Greer didn’t get together afterwards as they did have chemistry. I enjoyed the light-hearted approach to this review too.
I found this film as a kind of parody of noir conventions. The twist convolutions were often off the beacon track in terms of believability, but that’s all part of the fun. The director Don Siegel, is a master of the ‘society’s outsider up against authority’ theme, and it’s executed here quite admirably. Of course I agree on the star chemistry too.
I want to thank everyone here on this thread who have left their own special insights to this seemingly inexhaustible film noir.
Eric and Robert: Both of you have provided thought-provoking additions here, and David, I can’t contest your own conclusion, even if I find that this film isn’t aided by ‘comparison.’
Bobby: I am also a William Bendix fan as you know!
Let’s put it this way: “The Big Steal” is about a bunch of people chasing after each other, but in the end it matters not why they are doing it.
What matters are the way the chase unspools and the characters themselves. This review has the right focus.
Sam, I haven’t seen this film yet (but will add it to my netflix queue) but I just found an interesting excerpt that supports what Mr. Gary said, taken from Bosley Crowther’s New York Times review of July 11, 1949:
A breath-taking scenic excursion across the landscape of Mexico…through villages, on lovely open roads and over towering mountains on switchback highways at a fast and sizzling pace’.
‘Seems that a certain tricky fellow, whom Patric Knowles suavely enacts, is trying to escape into the interior of Mexico from Vera Cruz with a load of swag. Seems that his stubborn pursuer is a curious laconic gent played by Robert Mitchum who is accompanied by a lady, prettily played by Jane Greer. Seems that another desperate party, William Bendix is after both and a Mexican police inspector, Ramon Novarro is tailing the lot’.
‘Just where and why they are fleeing is rather loosely and unsatisfactorily explained but obviously they are not friendly people for whenever any of them get together they usually fight. But that is not important and we casually advise that you try not to follow too closely the involution of the plot’.
And I also found this:
http://darkshootinglessons.blogspot.com/2009/03/bonus-noir-big-steal-1949-don-siegel.html
Thanks very much for those links Peter!
And thanks for making your debut here Mark with that most-insightful conclusion.
It’s great to see how fantastically-well all three of Tony’s film noir revivals have done here at WitD. It’s a continuing tribute to his stellar presentations.
It would be fun to figured out just how many noir titles begin with ‘The Big ____’
Now that’s an interesting challenge.
Well John, off the top of my head I do know of four:
The Big Sleep
The Big Heat
The Big Combo
The Big Steal.
I’ll have to think of more.
I found three more. The Big Risk, The Big Clock, The Big Knife.
The Big City.
Also:
The Big Carnival
The Big Night
Who’s first to nominate The Big Lebowski?
I’ll take any opportunity for anything involving The Big Lebowski and/or Walter Sobchak!
Well, this is proof that there are always more, and I never for a second gave THE BIG LEBOWSKI any thought! Great work, Dave, Peter and Joe!
By the way, Sam, I have to add another film with the word “Big” in the title…. ….actor Richard Conte in the hard-to-find The Big-Tip Off ….Which I just watched for the first-time yesterday.
What a very interesting little film that is considered a noir, but my only problem with this film is that it could have been….
….but the director decided to….Well, I want discuss the film any further just in case other readers want to watch this film.
DeeDee
Speaking of Luis Bunuel. Yesterday I was looking up the movie Mexican Spitfire (from and RKO b-comedy series of movies from the early 40s ala Mexicana) in Scheuer (I know Allan but the movie I will mention later is not in Halliwell or Time Out), and I discovered that Bunuel during his Mexico period in 1951 was so infected with fiesta that he made a light-hearted comedy (!) titled Subida al cielo (Mexican Bus Ride) where a newlywed finds temptation on a bus-ride to Mexico City. Viva Mexico!
Three more…
The Big House, USA (1951)
The Big Gamble (Starring actress Drew Barrymore’s father John) and
The Big Frame (aka The Lost Hour) 1952
DeeDee
Dee Dee: Excellent additions there!!! And to be honest, I never have heard of THE BIG-TIP OFF, even though I think highly of Richard Conete!!! But as I knew you would you have come up with FOUR more titles with the word BIG!!! Amazing!!!
Nick (Tony) I thought I knew every Bunuel title but I don’t know MEXICAN BUS RIDE. I don’t think this this title has ever been out on DVD, but I must check.
Sam said, ” I love the blend here of review and celebration, Tony!”
I have to second your motion there
Sam Juliano…when it comes to Tony’s review
segueing into a Mexico fiesta!….“very clever”
Sam Juliano, check your email…because I just sended you some infor(mation) about the film
The Big-Tip Off.
Typo correction: “Because you, (Tony) and Allan both have piqued my interest in this film again. (or aleast your reviews
have “piqued” my interest in this film again!”
DeeDee
Hi! Tony, Sam and WitD readers,
Here goes….1 more film with the word “Big” in the title.
Tony, yes, this film along with the 3 previous films that I mentioned are in author Arthur Lyons’ book Death on the Cheap: The Lost “B” Movies of Film Noir!….and it’s …
….The Big Bluff released in (1955) and
Starring actress Martha Vickers (The former Mrs. Mickey Rooney), John Bromfield and Robert Hutton.
Here goes a little trivia…for Tony D’Ambra,
Tony, What famous director’s brother directed this film?
DeeDee
….The Big Punch (1948),
The Big Chase (1954),
The Big Boodle,
The Big Caper,
The Big Chance….all 3 films release in 1957
and The Big Operator (1959) Starring none other than actor Mickey Rooney.
DeeDee
William Bendix is a descendant of Felix Mendelsson! Therefore, he might be an extremely distant cousin of Karl Heinrich Marx!