Stars: Robert Montgomery, Thomas Gomez, Wanda Hendrix, Andrea King, Fred Clark
Director: Robert Montgomery
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Supporting Actor-Thomas Gomez)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars
Throughout the Month of June, as a birthday present to myself, we'll be profiling 15 famous film noir movies I've never seen (my favorite film genre). Look at the bottom of this review for some of the other movies we've profiled.
One of the best things about getting below-the-surface this month and catching a few noir films that, while famous, aren't necessarily ones that are ingrained in our society (like Double Indemnity or The Third Man) is that you discover a flick like Ride the Pink Horse. Directed by and starring Robert Montgomery, famous for his dapper comedies but here the complete antithesis as a greedy, snarky blackmailer, Ride the Pink Horse is really good...and kind of weird. The film, taking place in a border town between Mexico and New Mexico (an unusual setting for the urban film noir genre), is pretty violent, but also brutal in its cynicism. The film has a great desperation, a ticking clock that puts a genuine sense of urgency and question around how the movie itself is going to end.(Spoilers Ahead) The picture focuses on Gagin (Montgomery) a man in town trying to avenge his friend who has incriminating evidence against a crime boss named Hugo (Clark). Initially, we're meant to assume that Gagin is altruistic, the sort of Gary Cooper-esque figure that comes to town to collect the debts of his fallen comrade (it's hard to watch this film and not assume that High Noon wasn't heavily borrowing from the picture), but as the film progresses it becomes clear that altruism is not Gagin's intention-he just saw a chance to blackmail a wealthy man, and in an era noted for soldiers trying to understand their place in the world after the war, he's someone that wants a fast answer to a complicated problem-"where is my life headed?"
The film takes Gagin through the underbelly of this small town, and along the way he befriends Pila (Hendrix), a young woman who helps him out despite him mocking her (it's meant to be a love-hate situation as the film progresses, but I read it more as a father-daughter relationship considering the 24-year age gap between Hendrix & Montgomery in real life), as well as a carnival operator named Pancho (Gomez), which is where the strange title comes in-in one crucial scene Pila rides a pink horse around on the carousel.
The film is strange in part because of its setting-we're not used to seeing noir in the country, but Ride the Pink Horse plays this to its advantage. While in New York or Los Angeles it'd be easy for Gagin to hide from Hugo as he tries to hunt him down and get the evidence (to destroy it before the police get access to it), in this small village there's only so many places to go, and the locals (other than Pila & Pancho) are reluctant to help such a man until he finally (this is a Hollywood picture) does start to become the altruistic good guy more concerned with protecting Pancho & Pila than gaining access to the money. As a result, though, we get a pretty desperate, dark film (the entire subplot with Andrea King's Marjorie is fascinating as someone who is willing to double-cross both Hugo & Gagin, and I left wishing I could have watched the entire film from her perspective), but an under-sung film noir classic. The movie won Gomez an Oscar nomination, which isn't surprising if you see the film-he has that sort of boisterous scene-stealer vibe here that the Academy loved to go for in the 1940's, though most of his work is surface-level. Pancho doesn't really exist anywhere other than to be noble in helping Gagin, and to some degree Pila, and one wonders if this is the sort of "longtime character actor gets his 15 minutes" sort of citation that the Academy still does in the supporting fields.
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