Mon 21 Mar 2011
A Movie Review by David L. Vineyard: SOLDIER OF FORTUNE (1955).
Posted by Steve under Action Adventure movies , Reviews[10] Comments
SOLDIER OF FORTUNE. 20th-Century Fox, 1955. Clark Gable, Susan Hayward, Michael Rennie, Gene Barry, Alexander D’Arcy, Tom Tully, Anna Sten, Russell Collins, Leo Gordon, Richard Loo, Jack Kruschen. Screenplay by Ernest K. Gann based on his novel. Director: Edward Dmytryk.
Jane Hoyt (Susan Hayward) comes to Hong Kong at the height of the Cold War with only one hope, an expatriate American adventurer, pirate, smuggler, and businessman, Hank Lee (Clark Gable).
Inspector Merryweather (Michael Rennie) of the Hong Kong police tries to warn her off, but she’s determined — her husband, photo journalist Louis Hoyt (Gene Barry), is being held by the Red Chinese on espionage charges, and neither the Americans or the British have any intention of rocking the boat to get him out.
Her only hope is someone like Hank Lee.
But Hank Lee sees through Jane Hoyt even as he is attracted to her. Guilt as much as love is what makes her so desperate to save her husband. Lee wants no part of her or her husband, but she’s determined and he’s attracted. (There are some obvious parallels to Hayward’s role in Henry Hathaway’s western The Garden of Evil.)
There are no surprises from this well made film and the well written novel it was based on. It’s an old fashioned adventure served up by Ernest K. Gann, a writer who knew his way around suspense, adventure, and action in best selling novels like The High and the Mighty, Island in the Sky, Fiddler’s Green (The Raging Tide), and Twilight of the Gods — all of which were successful films too.
Soldier of fortune, Lee may be, but he is also a family man with adopted Chinese children, and for all his criminal activities a man of honor. He and Merryweather have a grudging respect for each other — both men enjoy the game they are playing, though Merryweather will soon enough put him away if he catches him. Lee, for his part, is thinking of getting out of the criminal end of his enterprises before it costs him his comfortable life and family.
Jane Hoyt has shown up at just the wrong time in his life.
Or is it just the right time?
Once Jane convinces him to rescue Hoyt, Lee enlists a small army of reprobates (D’Arcy, Gordon, Collins, and Tully) and sets plans to sail to the china coast in one of his fleet of Chinese junks and land, hitting the coastal facility where Chinese general Richard Loo is holding Hoyt.
But Merryweather is closing in and Lee is falling for Jane Hoyt, and is only willing to rescue Hoyt because his shadow would be harder to fight than the man for Jane’s love.
The film was shot in technicolor and on wide screen with gorgeous Hong Kong locations and plenty of local color. Gable may have been a bit old at this point, but he could still play these roles with ease, and in this one a strong supporting cast, script, and fiery Susan Hayward as the romantic interest all contribute to the fun.
Rennie is very good as Merryweather and Barry scores well as Hoyt, a character who isn’t all that sympathetic, but who Barry at least makes believable and ultimately even a bit noble.
The finale is a well done shoot out at sea with the Red Chinese in hot pursuit of Lee’s junk.
No one wrote better about distant shores, the romance of flight, or the poetry of ships the sea, and the men who spent their lives in them than Gann, himself a pilot, sailor, and former newsreel photographer.
His novels have a poetic almost lyrical quality to them that attracted Hollywood again and again — among those filmed, the ones named above plus The Aviator, Blaze of Noon, Fate is the Hunter (non-fiction), Band of Brothers, The Antagonists (as Masada), The Adventures of Sadie, and The Last Flight of Noah’s Ark (story).
Soldier of Fortune is a slick big name Hollywood adventure film as handsome to look at and painless as the well written novel it is based on. Just how cinematic Gann’s prose was becomes obvious when you compare the two. Good book and good film, both deceptively simple and damn entertaining, with the movie made with professionals who might well have stepped out of the pages of one of Gann’s novels.
March 22nd, 2011 at 6:21 am
Haven’t seen this in 50 years, but I stil remember bits & pieces of it quite fondly. Wonder why it never shows onthe Fox Movie Channel ?
March 22nd, 2011 at 8:22 am
I enjoyed this film when I first saw it in the theater a million years ago. Thanks for the great review. Netflix has it so I think I’ll line it up. I am also a very BIG fan of Michael Rennie. We were ‘oohing and ahing’ about him recently in THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL.
March 22nd, 2011 at 9:22 am
I’m sure I taped this off TCM many years ago, but it may have been AMC back when AMC was worth watching.
Whether I did or didn’t or from where, it doesn’t matter, since I’ve never seen it, and I don’t know why.
It is available on DVD, in a set along with two other Gable films, so why it’s not shown on the Fox channel, I don’t know.
The other films in the DVD set are CALL OF THE WILD and THE TALL MEN. I’ll put it on my wish list!
March 22nd, 2011 at 9:24 am
Tuesday’s Overlooked Film and/or Other A/V: 22 March 2011
Follow the link to direct links to each of the following:
Bill Crider: Daredevils of the Red Circle
Brian Arnold: Hear My Song and…
Chuck Esola: Americathon
Eric Peterson: Pink Nights
Evan Lewis: “Carrotblanca”
James Reasoner: The Dead Don’t Dream
Jerry House: Mr. and Mrs. North: “Comic Strip Tease”…and “Spring Man and the SS”
Randy Johnson: The Tall T
Scott Cupp: Allegro non Troppo
from Mystery*File: Steve Lewis: The Crimson Canary and David L. Vineyard: Soldier of Fortune (1955)
Todd Mason: For One Night Only: The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, et seq.
and of related interest:
George Kelley: Inside Job and Stephen Sondheim: Finishing the Hat
Howard Hopkins: The Snoop Sisters
Jack Seabrook: Fredric Brown on Television (part 2)
Paul Bishop: Iambik Audio’s Complete Crime Collection No. 1
March 22nd, 2011 at 5:37 pm
Thanks, Steve…and apologies all around that I’ve not really had an opportunity for serious comment on anyone’s contribution so far on this Ridiculously busy day…
And since this was posted, MIKE DETECTIVE and a few other items have been added…and thanks as always for (all of) your continuing contributions.
March 22nd, 2011 at 9:41 pm
SOLDIER OF FORTUNE was shown both on AMC and later TCM — which may be why it hasn’t been on Fox Movie Channel.
It’s a good action film of the old fashioned all star variety. Probably a bit slow and too much character development for today’s ADD viewers, but if you can function without Ritalin you may enjoy it for a strong cast of pros all in fine form, a solid director, and a good example of how to adapt a screenplay from a novel.
I agree about Rennie, I was a fan of THE THIRD MAN television series and many of his movie roles. He’s quite good in THE RAINS OF RANCHIPUR,ISLAND IN THE SUN, and HOTEL in more complex roles than usual and as the British agent after James Mason in FIVE FINGERS. He also frequently worked as a narrator, notably for THE DESERT FOX.
October 21st, 2011 at 11:45 pm
Saw this as a boy on Saturday afternoon. The DVD has all the lush, superb photography and stunning music that Cinemascope knocked you out with. It placed Hong Kong in my mind as the “exotic” place in China, with a sober overtone of British discipline at the time. Sit back and let this classic piece of adventure and visual entertainment wash over you. If the final scene on the Peak Tram Station, Friedhoffer’s atmospheric score overwhelming your reason and old Hong Kong spread seductively below,when Gable gets the girl, does not tingle your every movie nerve, nothing ever will.
September 24th, 2012 at 10:20 pm
Henry Lee, Gable’s character is ruthless and dangerous, although played mildly by the star. Right choice because this is a man who inspires fear. Jane Hoyt (Susan Hayward) calls him an old fashioned gangster at one point. Well observed. Think Al Capone or Bugsy Siegel. Dangerous men capable apparently of some warmth and kindness. But at heart, killers. Read Gable’s character this way and picture takes on a new dimension.
January 11th, 2019 at 11:09 pm
Just finished watching Soldier of Fortune and enjoyed it immensely. A great classic Hollywood romance set in an exotic land going through turmoil. Gable fans know this was a stable of his in such films as Strange Cargo and Mogambo.
Gable has an unapologetic masculinity that is sorely missing from movies today which is inhabited by too many she males. I love the scene where Gable kisses Hayward and then carries her upstairs.
I found some Casablanca type references in the love triangle but with a twist.
The last line of the movie has real poignancy. The lush cinematography and art direction is first rate.
March 24th, 2019 at 2:50 pm
Just now watching this movie again
greatly enjoyed it. I miss him-
here is great star and one of a kind.
yes this is good film and exotic.