CALCUTTA: Blu-ray (Paramount, 1947) Kino Lorber

Alan Ladd was rapidly reaching the apex of his screen popularity when he made Calcutta for director, John Farrow – a picture actually shot in 1945, but not released in theaters until 1947. Reuniting the team of writer/producer, Seton I. Miller, Ladd and frequent costar, William Bendix, Calcutta unfortunately substitutes Gail Russell in a role otherwise to have gone to favorite gal/pal, Veronica Lake, and, casts June Duprez as smoldering chanteuse, Marina Tanev - the proverbial ‘good girl’ for whom Ladd’s uber-tough-guy, hotshot pilot, Neale Gordon, suffering from an unnatural aversion toward women, will likely never warm. Ladd’s popularity as a leading man is an oddity, not so much, because at 5 ft. 6 inches, he was decidedly less physically prepossessing than some of his leading ladies, who had to walk alongside him in a hand-dug trenches, just to even out their height differences, but rather as Paramount was to generally typecast Ladd as the steely-eyed and aloof loner, operating on the fringes of society, who decidedly preferred the butch company of men, doing manly things without the intervention of women.  Ladd’s Gordon reasons thus, that women ruin men by demanding stability from them. Hence, they emasculate the male initiative to be rugged creatures in their native habitat.

In hindsight, Alan Ladd is just one of those stars never quite capable of sustaining the meteoric splash he made in a pair of 1942 noir thrillers; This Gun for Hire, and, The Glass Key. 1946’s The Blue Dahlia was almost as good, and, the last time Ladd would co-star with the aforementioned Lake, whom he considered a royal pain in the ass, but whose on-screen sizzle had proven undeniably good box office. Ladd’s certification as a star took some time to mature. He had been kicking around Hollywood in bit parts and B-pictures since 1932; hired, by Universal, then fired, then, rehired by Paramount before the studio finally figured out what to do with their latest ‘find’. In his youth, Ladd possessed the undeniable providence of a ‘pretty boy’ to be considered ‘Grade-A’ star material. His height, however, was a hindrance until directors and cinematographers lit upon the idea to always shoot him from the waist up, occasionally stripped to the waist to show off his taut musculature, and always photographed from a lower angle to add to the illusion of his presence as a towering figure of masculine chic. In B&W, this worked spectacularly well. Ladd, on film, appears about 10 ft. tall and toting a pride-sized pair of kahonas, usually backed by a display of fists.

In life, however, Ladd felt this image – the grim-faced solidity, presumably, vital and alive – was more of a fraud than a glamorous illusion, one to wear heavily on his innate insecurities. These would only continue to fester with time, eroding in the mid-fifties as the illusion could no longer be entirely sustained. As he aged, the crisp lines of his square jaw became soft and jowly.  Nevertheless, Ladd’s stillness equated to stealth – a cruelly dark presence, imbued with desolate savagery. Calcutta was, I suspect, aimed to further cement Ladd’s box office appeal as the fierce young man. Indeed, his Gordon is an uncompromising heel, belting Russell’s simpering femme fatale in the chops, and really going to town on her in the movie’s penultimate moment of revelation; her tear-stained, kitten-faced viper, attempting to weave a spell of feminine wiles and afford her the opportunity for a hasty escape. Instead, Gordon slaps her around until she exposes the truth, dialing back his rage, but not his conviction, as he coldly telephones for the police to come and pick her up. Calcutta also attempts to capitalize on Hollywood’s affinity for telling adventure stories in far off lands, following the examples set by Algiers (1938) and Casablanca (1942) with more than a hint of 1941’s The Maltese Falcon and 1939’s Only Angels Have Wings thrown into the mix.

Based on an ‘original’ story by Seton Miller, Calcutta reunites Ladd and William Bendix. The boys had made beautiful music together in Two Years Before the Mast (1946). Bendix actually came to Hollywood’s attention at the age of 30 – an epoch usually reserved for the beginning of the downward swing in most stars well-established careers.  Instead, 1942 proved to be Bendix’s year, appearing as the thug muscle who pummeled Ladd’s detective in The Glass Key (1942), before doing an about-face as the empathetic and naïve innocent in Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944). In Calcutta, Bendix is at it again - his Pedro Blake, the relative simpleton to Ladd’s more aggressively intellectualizing Gordon. The men are copilots and good friends embroiled in the pursuit of a killer after one of their own, Bill Cunningham (John Whitney) is discovered murdered in an alley. Bill had a temper and was frequently known to get into barroom brawls. So, perhaps he finally came up against someone bigger and tougher. Alas, Gordon isn’t buying it. Besides, Bill was engaged to be married – devastating news to this male-exclusive entourage of daredevils flying from Chungking to Calcutta and back again. Just prior to Bill’s demise, he came to the aid of Gordon and Blake, whose plane suffered mechanical failure and had to make an emergency landing in the middle of nowhere. Now, Gordon considers it his duty to bring Bill’s killer to justice. Bill's fiancée, Virginia Moore (Gail Russell) informs Gordon and Blake on the method of Bill’s demise - strangled with a thugee knot. A wrinkle develops when nightclub torch singer, Marina Tanev lets it be known the club’s owner, Eric Lasser (Lowell Gilmore) quietly canceled Bill’s engagement party several hours before Bill turned up dead, suggesting Lasser knew all along the gathering was not to take place. Tearing from Virginia’s neck an expensive diamond necklace, Gordon makes her confess she was never in love with Bill.

Meanwhile, while on a routine flight to Chungking, Pedro is introduced to Indian merchant, Mul Raj Malik (Paul Singh) who instructs him to visit his import-export shop. In Calcutta, Mrs. Smith (Edith King), a jewelry merchant reveals Bill bought Virginia the diamond necklace and deposited a $7,000 check before he died. Suspicious of Virginia's complicity in Bill’s death, Gordon discovers a bag of jewels hidden in the floorboards of one of their aircraft. Giving the jewels to Blake for safe keeping, Gordon plots to catch the smugglers. Instead, Malik confronts Gordon and is mortally shot as he leaves the room. Testing his theory, Gordon shows a jeweled brooch to Marina who warns him Virginia knows more about the night Bill died. Arriving at Virginia’s hotel suite, Gordon finds it ransacked and Virginia missing. Now, Inspector Hendricks (Gavin Muir) arrives to arrest Gordon for Malik's murder. Blake suggests the gun used was his and momentarily takes the rap. Released from jail, Gordon now vows to track down the real killer. Virginia feigns being in love with Gordon. But he is not buying it. Hence, when the hotel’s desk clerk (Benson Fong) contradicts Virginia's story about Bill’s murder, Gordon decides to beat the truth out of her once and for all. Under duress, Virginia explains she was a part of the smuggling ring until Bill learned of her scheme. Holding Bill at gunpoint, Virginia watched as Lasser strangled him to death. Now, Lasser confronts Virginia and Gordon. In the ensuing struggle, Gordon shoots Lasser dead. Believing she has skillfully dodged her own fate Virginia cruelly stiffens when Gordon explains he has no intention of letting her off the hook. Sometime later, Marina arrives at the airport, informing Gordon the mountains are safer than his dealings with women. The couple embraces. Perhaps Gordon is finally able to trust at least one woman with his life.

Calcutta is a slightly mangled affair in that it cannot decide whether it wants to be an adventure yarn, a melodrama or a noir-styled whodunit. All of these conflicting elements are in play for much of the picture’s modest hour-and-a-half run time. Alan Ladd is in his prime as beefcake; the aloof and hardened guy’s guy. Alas, he is saddled with two ineffectual leading ladies – Gail Russell, who lacks the slink and slither of a bona fide femme fatale, and, June Duprez who, barely represented, seems to come out of nowhere to offer a few choice tidbits, aiding in Ladd’s Gordon piece work of the clues. Otherwise, Duprez serves no romantic purpose right up until the tacked on ‘happy’ ending. Thanks mostly to John F. Seitz’s cinematography and Victor Young’s score, Calcutta is a very atmospheric and exotic escapism – never to have left the confines of the Paramount backlot. Regrettably, ambiance alone does not a great picture make, and Calcutta lacks the essential ingredients of on-screen chemistry and excellent repartee to link all of its disparate elements together into one cohesive narrative. Ladd’s performance is more stock than sexy, treading all-too-familiar territory, of the rapidly paced but creaky adventure yarn ilk, and, coming up with a potboiler. Even the character’s aversion to women seems out of whack – perhaps to hide Gordon’s ‘gay’ subtext. Whatever the case, Calcutta is just an odd duck in Ladd’s canon. It ought to have been better, and likely could have been, had a bit more care in the writing prevailed, with Ladd afforded more formidable female co-stars off of whom to spark and spar.

Calcutta arrives on Blu-ray via Kino Lorber’s alliance with Universal Home Video. The B&W image is thicker than anticipated and with blown out contrast levels. In spots, the image looks incredibly faded. Our introduction to June Duprez, warbling Bernie Wayne and Ben Raleigh’s pop ditty, ‘This is Madness’ – in French, lacks refinement – the image, softly focused, grain-riddled and wan. Age-related artifacts are everywhere and frequently draw attention to themselves. Honestly, with just a bit more care, contrast balancing and marginal digital clean-up, this one could have looked a lot better. The DTS 1.0 mono audio is adequate with no hiss or pop. Aside: it has always been a curiosity for me that movie studios invest more time refining old movie soundtracks while leaving the ravages of time baked into the actual image on display. So, the movie sounds better than it looks. Dumb! Critic, Nick Pinkerton rattles off a litany of facts about virtually all of the participants in this movie, his audio commentary, fairly comprehensive, but rather dry.  We also get trailers for other Uni product Kino is trying to peddle. Bottom line: Calcutta is second-tier Alan Ladd. It’s an above average flick given short shrift in hi-def by Universal’s short-sightedness where catalog releases are concerned. At present, Calcutta is only available as part of Kino's Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema IV. Regrets.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

3

VIDEO/AUDIO

3

EXTRAS

1