Saigon

Possibly you've got to go back as far as Bill Hart for a name that meant so much at the box office, independently of the picture in which he might be presented at the moment, as that of Alan Ladd to the present generation. In a wide variety of vehicles and roles, Mr. Ladd - who ranked fifth in this publication's Stars of Tomorrow poll as lately as 1942 - has won his way to Top Ten placement in the Motion PictureHerald-Fame poll of 1947 by what even his studio recognizes as sheer weight of personal popularity. And so the essential news about "Saigon" is that Mr. Ladd is its star and that it and he conform to precedent. It can hardly miss. Opposite Mr. Ladd is Veronica Lake, in an oddly devised role, and his most effective support is provided by Wally Cassell, who capitalizes brilliantly on the element of humor stitched into the loose fabric of the melodrama. The script, by producer P. J. Wolfson and Arthur Sheekman, from a story by Julian Zimet, opens with Ladd and two buddies, on discharge from the Army, taking on a highly-paid assignment to fly a glib gentleman of means into Saigon for reasons they do not inquire about. The gentleman's secretary, played by Miss Lake, makes the trip with them instead, carrying a portfolio which turns out to contain $500,000 of somehow improperly acquired war profits, and when the plane makes a forced landing, the fliers, the secretary, the local police executive, and finally the original employer, engage in various melodramatically fashioned activities hinging upon the presence of the money and the fact that one of the fliers is destined to die shortly of a war injury, but doesn't know it. What happens, and the picture in whole, recalls "Calcutta" more directly than any of the other Ladd pictures, and "Calcutta" was a Box Office Champion for three successive months.