OVP: Fate is the Hunter (1964)

Film: Fate is the Hunter (1964)
Stars: Glenn Ford, Nancy Kwan, Rod Taylor, Suzanne Pleshette, Jane Russell
Director: Ralph Nelson
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Cinematography)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2020 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different actress known as an iconic "film sex symbol."  This month, our focus is on Nancy Kwan-click here to learn more about Ms. Kwan (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Most discussion of Nancy Kwan's career begin with The World of Suzie Wong and end with Flower Drum Song.  Despite only being 22 when Flower Drum Song was released, and thus really at the beginning of a potentially promising career, Kwan would never have another role that would match these two, either in terms of confidence from the studios in giving her a big part in a movie, or in terms of simple pop culture importance-those were two prominent films, ones that were lauded for awards and major backing from the studios.  But in 1961, despite the fact that the Hays Code no longer had a miscegenation rule (it was removed in 1956), and the fact that Sayonara, South Pacific, and Suzie Wong had proven there was money in showing interracial relationships and hiring Asian actors in prominent roles in movies, Kwan, like her Flower Drum Song costar James Shigeta, was not afforded the kind of high-profile roles we'd normally expect for attractive young stars who had been featured in hot studio properties.  However, we have three more Saturdays, and Kwan continued to make movies where she received prominent billing, for today and the following two weeks we're going to look at three of her other films, all of which were released by major studios.  Today we will start that peak into the forgotten films of her career with 20th Century Fox's Fate is the Hunter.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is unusual in that it kills off one of the above-the-line stars of the film within the first 15 minutes, but not in a Psycho way.  Rod Taylor plays Jack Savage, a cocky, good-hearted pilot who moments after takeoff has an engine go out on him while trying to land a plane.  The other engine soon goes out as well, and while it seems like he's successfully landed the plane on a beach, it hits a pier, and explodes, killing everyone onboard save for a flight attendant named Martha (Pleshette).  Glenn Ford's Sam McBane works for the airline and is an old friend of Jack's from the War (it's not entirely clear to me if we're talking World War II or Korea here-it's not the kind of movie that gets bogged down in such details).  He tries to clear Jack's good name, as the press are blaming him for killing 53 people.  Along the way, he meets Jack's ex-fiance (Dorothy Malone in an uncredited cameo), and Sally Fraser (Kwan), his new girlfriend, who ponders whether it was fate that caused the plane to crash.  Going with this line of thinking, Sam clears Jack's name by recreating the flight, and learning that a glitch in the plane caused the wiring to short circuit thanks to some spilled coffee.  Sally, Sam, and Martha all leave, knowing that they proved the innocence of their friend.

The movie is, and I cannot stress this enough, mind-numbingly boring.  For a movie that kills 50 people before the credits role, it cannot be stressed enough how dull and listless the film is.  I've talked about my mild allergy to Glenn Ford on this blog before, but he's usually saved by a charming actress as his costar (principally Rita Hayworth).  Here, though, his most prominent costar is Rod Taylor in flashbacks, and they don't have chemistry, and we keep seeing the same song from every person that Taylor interviews (save his ex-wife)-that Jack was the best man they ever met, and therefore he didn't cause the flight to crash.  No one really comments on the fact that the two aren't connected-honorable people make mistakes all the time, sometimes tragically, and someone being a "good guy" is not a logical reason why he couldn't accidentally crash a plane.

The best parts of the movie are the cameos from Malone & Jane Russell (she's credited as "Guest Star" but it's to be assumed she's playing Jane Russell)-Malone adds a texture to Jack that the script isn't willing to indulge, and Russell hams it up in a movie that could use some flavor.  Nancy Kwan doesn't show up until 55 minutes in; you get the impression that if Pleshette were a bigger name she'd have gotten Kwan's billing, as she has the bigger part.  Kwan plays an ichthyologist whose main role is to introduce the title scene of "fate" to Sam, but again-this doesn't make logical sense (there's very little else in the script that reads as fate rather than just "coincidence").  Her performance lacks the spark she had in our two previous entries, and while she's magnetic by comparison to Ford & Taylor, this isn't high praise as everyone else is just dragging in a bloated disaster film with little logic to its story.