Tepid love story except for the exciting chase climax. Seems Mature and Russell had a marriage-bound romance in Las Vegas before they were separated by the war. Now Russell's visiting Vegas with her wheeler-dealer husband Price. Meanwhile, Mature has become a lieutenant on the Vegas police force. So what's going to happen when the former lovers meet as they must, especially when a valuable necklace disappears and a casino murder complicate things.
The movie promotes Vegas's strip at a time when the town was emerging as a gambling-vacation center. The following year, 1953, Sinatra would reinvent his career by connecting the Nevada town with glamorous Hollywood entertainers. And the rest, as they say, is history. Anyway, I expect this flick was one of the first to bring the strip to small town America.
And who better to draw in movie audiences than two of Hollywood's most physical specimens, the broad-shouldered Mature and the buxom Russell, though her attributes are downplayed here. At the time, Mature was an established star, while Russell's career was beginning to take off, especially with the following year's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953).
I doubt, however, that this rather bland narrative advanced either career. Coming from Howard Hughes' RKO and his well-known fascination with Vegas, I imagine contract player Russell had little choice. Anyway, the wryly entertaining Hoagy Carmichael injects some atmosphere, along with a slicked up Robert Wilke in a departure from his usual thuggish roles. Too bad, however, that we don't see more of the great Vincent Price who injects both spirit and style into the proceedings. Nonetheless, catch that swooping copter chase that I'm sure thrilled audiences of the time and still does.
All in all, it looks like the movie was built around Hughes's sharp eye for Vegas's emerging glitz. At the same time, the two leads furnish audience come-ons. Too bad the story itself comes across more like a pedestrian after-thought.
