Reviewed by JONATHAN LEWIS:         

   

SINGAPORE. Universal Pictures, 1947. Fred MacMurray, Ava Gardner, Roland Culver, Richard Haydn, Spring Byington, Thomas Gomez. Director: John Brahm.

   Surely influenced by both The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Casablanca (1942), John Brahm’s exotic noir Singapore has neither the grit of the former, nor the enrapturing romance of the latter. But it’s certainly not without its myriad charms. Truth be told, I find myself enjoying this lesser-known, sometimes clunky, film more than I thought I would.

   Fred MacMurray portrays Matt Gordon, a pearl smuggler who returns to Singapore after the Japanese defeat in the Second World War. His goal: to recover a quarter of a million dollars worth of illicit pearls that he stashed away in his hotel room. What he doesn’t expect is to encounter his former fiancee Linda Grahame (Ava Gardner) who he presumed died in a Japanese air raid.

   As it turns out, Linda is very much alive and physically well. Except for one thing. She has amnesia and has forgotten her past, including her love for Matt. Complicating matters for the heartbroken Matt is the unfortunate fact that Linda is now married to a Dutch plantation owner. Matt has to navigate that fraught situation at the same time that he has a police officer on his back and two rival seedy criminals gunning for his pearls.

   There are plenty of saccharine, downright maudlin moments in Singapore which only serve to remind the viewer that this is a product of a different era. But I found there was enough suspense and intrigue to keep me interested throughout the comparatively short proceedings. MacMurray does a fine job with the flawed source material and takes the role seriously enough that you want to root for him to get both the girl and the pearls.

   Overall assessment: decent sentimental escapism with some nefarious characters adding some spice to the mix.