CRISIS --- a timeless political statement, and great 'noir'

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CRISIS (1950) political "noir" to the max!

James Ellroy's summation of a "film noir" is: You (the hero) are *beep*

This film is a "noir" experience, beautifully produced (even the titles are stunning).....perfect sets, casting, production values are usually at odds with the gut-wrenching "noir" mood, but in CRISIS it works just right.

Cary Grant undergoes every "noir" torture in his elegant, cool, well-dressed persona. He has no way out of a vacation in hell. He is at the mercy of vicious, fanatical, whining revolutionaries, as well as a vicious, well-dressed, narcissistic gang of military elites, which includes a "Saddam Hussein" clone (played by Jose Ferrer) and even an Eva Peron-like Signe Hasso. The only American around is an oil-company "tool", played by Leon Ames.

Cary Grant, Jose Ferrer, Signe Hasso, and even the cute vicious revolutionary woman Teresa Celli, are great.

Poor Paula Raymond, playing Grant's wife, is promoted in film's trailer (a complete pack of lies), but is the real-life victim of this film---she never gets to wear the elegant dress shown in the movie's poster. Her wardrobe looks like a military uniform, and she is subjected to two kidnappings, both times without food, hot water, or a change of clothes--in between these events, she is all alone in the middle of street riots, screaming for her life. Who wouldn't be?
To imagine that the wife of a famous brain surgeon (Grant) would put up with such treatment without raising hell is weird. But her suffering as an actress in this film, and as her character, works well to skew our expectations----because that is what this film gives us---no heroes, no answers, no simple characters, and no reassurances whatsoever. It is real life - It is NOIR.

"He DIED laughing-in a strait jacket" - THE MUMMY