Well, ya ain’t said yes… but ya ain’t said no. – Charles Laughton as J.J. Bealer
For a film with a cast featuring such heavyweights as Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, Charles Laughton and Vincent Price, 1949’s The Bribe should feature high on anyone’s list of the best films of 1949. But on closer inspection, The Bribe is a bit of a misstep in spite of some strong building blocks.
Robert Taylor is Rigby, an undercover cop sent to a mysterious Central American island to investigate illegal sales of aircraft engines. He’s prepped ahead of time that the leading suspects are Elizabeth and Tug Hintten (Ava Gardner and John Hodiak). She’s a lounge singer (with one of Ava’s many dubbed vocal exercises) and Tug’s a pilot on what today we’d call disability due to a bad heart.
After a flight down during which he meets a mining executive named Carwood (Vincent Price), Rigby finally gets to the island. This is where things begin to go sideways. Though you’d expect that the film wasn’t filmed on location, it’s almost as if the entire budget for the picture was spent on the cast as little was evidently spent on sets. One of the weaknesses of The Bribe is that not for a moment (even if you squint) do you buy for a second that you’re on an island. Frequent use of some really poor rear projection shots further weaken an already shaky presentation.
On the island Rigby meets the secret star of the picture in Charles Laughton. Here he is J.J. Bealer, a chronically unkempt (and that’s being polite) gentleman complete with severely wrinkled linen suit, awash in his own sweat and constantly rubbing his poor feet. Only later does it come out that he’s the local eyes for the smuggling ring, though in truth it’s clear to the audience from the first scene that he’s up to no good. He’s excellent both in playing for leverage against Rigby to get him to go away and also with Carwood playing to gain a bit of the same for himself.
The story is really rather simple and some strong characterizations would have dramatically helped punch up the action, as outside the final fireworks scene the only action of any sort is Rigby getting pulled off a fishing boat by a marlin (with an assist from Carwood). Great dialogue and performances could overcome the lack of action, but here we hit another more deadly hurdle.
That hurdle is Robert Taylor. Even by his standards his level of emoting is extremely limited. Perhaps in an attempt to counter this, he narrates much of the goings on; a much more effective technique would have been to actually act it out. As a result the narration is sometimes redundant and often abrasive. Taylor’s often derided by critics by his rather wooden performances and sometimes unjustly. This isn’t one of those times, Taylor himself cited The Bribe as one of his least favorite of his films.
Gardner is exquisite though her acting still isn’t at the peak it would reach later in The Night of the Iguana. In only her second large role it’s hard not to enjoy her performance. As one of the many bribes that Rigby is offered she finds herself falling for him in spite of herself and her marriage to Tug. It’s a good dynamic that could have been better with a different co-star.
John Hodiak as her husband is adequate though perhaps overly duped even though he plays the dupe. Vincent Price starts the picture so over the top that he’s almost off-putting. This changes thankfully ones he emerges as the brains behind the operation and Price comes into his own.
Director Robert Leonard does wonders what he can with the limited sets and the picture is well shot with lots of dark contrasts. The score from Miklos Rosza is also equally mysterious and effective. Overall The Bribe is an enjoyable hour. Unfortunately the film runs an hour and a half.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaXgQMjLz3g[/embedyt]