Better Late Then Never

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Beautifully photographed on many actual Mexican locations by Jack Draper, this is a fascinating, fast-moving little noir mystery thriller from director Robert Wise. The stars, William Lundigan and Jacqueline White, are excellent. In a difficult role, Lundigan never gave a more personable, skillful performance, while Jacqueline White is so charming and so delightfully animated, it's hard to believe that she was nearing the end of her movie career. The villain here is played by Ricardo Cortez with nothing like the same subtlety as Lundigan and White lend to their characters. Outstanding support players it was also good to see include sexy Jacqueline Dalya in a suitably flashy role as Dolores, and burly Eduardo Casado, who contributes a nice bit of business to his part as the police commandant. In her only movie appearance, Thalia Draper, the daughter of ace Mexican-based photographer, Jack Draper, can be glimpsed as Floracita.

There's intrigue in the area surrounding Mexico City when an American singer (Jacqueline White) arrives to try to find her missing brother. She's unaware that the friendly masher (William Lundigan) sitting next to her is an American detective, and after her ice melts, sparks fly. But she gets more than she bargained for and ends up singing in the very same club where her own brother was working undercover.A complex plot is helped by the direction of a former film editor (Robert Wise) who would rise to greater things after an inauspicious beginning. The normally overly enthusiastic characterization of the Mexicans usually seen in American films is replaced by a more realistic approach, and the film is fraught with tension. The problem is occasional slow pacing that takes an already short film down to a frequent snail's pace but is effective in its darker sequences. Jacqueline Dalva adds some spice to a typical Mexican Spitefire character who brings her fiery persona a bit more down to earth. Ricardo Cortrez is wasted as a nightclub promoter.

William Lundigan complained about always being given and accepting lousy parts;it was not always true : "follow me quietly" by Richard Fleischer he made the following year is a really good thriller and he had a truly great director.In "mystery in Mexico " he 's got Robert Wise !Wise retained flair for film noir ("the captive city" "odds against tomorrow" and "the set -up");it shows in the very first sequence and in the Mexican family's house in the final scenes;the rest of the movie ,unfortunately,fluctuates between comedy (Lundigan and the supporting cast do not seem to take the story seriously;Jacqueline White has different ways to give "short cuts" );and we don't care about the necklace (probably bought in a dime store).All in all,this is pretty entertaining stuff if you do not ask too much and the actors have a certain spontaneity,particularly the lead himself.

An early film from Robert Wise, the much acclaimed director of different science fiction and musical films, this is quite different stuff to what he would later be best known for, and in all honestly it is noticeably inferior too. It is far from being a poor film, but the production is far off being great too, with a quite lifeless, underdeveloped central romance and not too much to get excited over in terms of the mystery plot and technical credits. To fans of its director, the film will certainly be of some interest, but to other viewers it might well sit as mediocre: neither really good nor really bad.