that tacked on ending... (SPOILERS)
when the drunk/crazy/over-zealous Cardigan shanghais the police force to go save Dan...whoo boy. was a fairly respectable film up to that point.
interesting explanation in the TRIVIA section.
Yeah it suddenly sort of turns into a different film altogether come the last 1/3 of the film. Thus far, I really dug the thing, the waiting and sweating things out in Mexico (Mitchum musta been happy to be back after his memorable detour in Out Of The Past), even if it dragged a little... the rather snappy "hard-boiled" dialogue and stuff. Looked like a solid, if languid noir. But then, yeah, the final third sure didn´t remember what came before. Sure, it´s fun to see Vincent Price do his thing and some of his scenes were indeed pretty funny... but what were they doing in ´this´ movie? Ultimately, I´d rate it 6-6,5/10.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
Agreed. I read Mitchum's bio "Baby, I Don't Care", in which it was stated that the movie was sort of made up as they went along. Lots of problems due to Howard Hughes' meddling. I also remember hearing that Mitchum and Farrow created the plot over a lot, lot, of drinks and woke up the next day not really remembering much.
"No, I don't like to cook, but I have a chicken in the icebox, and you're eating it."