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Singapore
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price:
$14.98
Asia Trips Trips Price: $19.95
Subject To Change Without Notice
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
Starring: Fred MacMurray, Ava Gardner, Roland Culver, Richard Haydn, Spring Byington
Directed By: John Brahm
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786303964850
Format: Black & White
ISBN: 6303964850
Label: Universal Studios
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Universal Studios
Release Date: 1996-03-26
Running Time: 79
Studio: Universal Studios
Theatrical Release Date: 1947-08-13
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Undying love
Comment: This is one of my all-time favorites. I watch it over and over and wish it would come out on dvd. MacMurray was always under rated which I do not understand because he was one of the most versatile actors during the golden age of Hollywood. He was in great demand during this period and made a lot of movies which are not out on dvd. He was an expert at comedy roles and perhaps that is why he did so many. However, this movie is a super chic flick romantic drama. I will have to get another vhs as mine is getting heavy wear.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Good entertainment, with special thanks to Roland Culver, Thomas Gomez and Richard Haydn
Comment: Not quite a melodrama; not quite a suspense thriller. Not quite an A movie but certainly not a B-level. Singapore takes place, of course, in Singapore, just as the Japanese are invading and then just after the end of WWII. It's a reasonably solid, efficient story of three people: Matt Gordon (Fred MacMurray), a suave and slightly sardonic smuggler of pearls. Gordon is an honest man at heart, but usually can't resist easy money and the kind of gambles necessary to win it; Michael Van Leyden (Roland Culver), a wealthy planter who spent most of the wars years in a Japanese-run prison camp. He's a brisk, authoritative man with one great weakness. He loves his wife; and Linda Grahame (Ava Gardiner), a beautiful, sultry young woman, perhaps something of an adventuress. She and Gordon fall in love and are to be married. Then the Japanese invade, bombs fall, and when Gordon leaves Linda for a moment to retrieve pearls he had hidden in his hotel room, he returns without the pearls to burning waterfront ruins and no sign of Linda. He searches desperately and then must leave in his boat, which is crowded with refugees. We can imagine his surprise five years later when he returns to Singapore after the war and sees in a posh nightclub a beautiful young woman who looks exactly like Linda. She is dancing with Van Leyden...and when she is introduced to Matt Gordon, he learns she is Ann Van Leyden, Michael's wife. Yes, that most useful of plot devices is established...amnesia.
Matt Gordon is determined to do two things. He is certain that if Ann Van Leyden can only recover her memory she will remember him and their love. He is almost equally determined to recover the pearls he had hidden in his hotel room before the war. Van Leyden is determined to keep his wife, whom he loves dearly, by his side. They had met in that prison camp during the war. Van Leyden saved Ann many times. He will do almost anything, except cause her unhappiness, to save her again. And Ann...or is it Linda? What does she want? See the movie.
Hovering in the background is the shady Mr. Mauribus (Thomas Gomez), a large-figured and often sweaty crook who has a claim to Gordon's pearls. While Mauribus won't stoop to physical violence himself, his assistant, Sascha, is all too eager to be let off the leash. It's no spoiler to say that everyone except Mr. Mauribus and Sascha eventually act with honor. A happy ending is in the cards at the start of the movie when Matt Gordon enters the old hotel, pauses in the lobby and then tells a bellhop to take his luggage to his room. He looks around the deserted bar and then walks to a small table for two, partly hidden by palm fronds. When the waiter arrives, Gordon orders two gin slings. Yes, that was what he and Linda always drank here, hidden away in their own world.
For Fred MacMurray, a reliable and versatile leading man, this is one more of the many lead roles he took where his personality and competence made a career for him. If he didn't set many sparks off, he also didn't make many duds. For Ava Gardner, however, this was one of her early starring roles where the studio was deliberately building her up for bigger and better things. She looks great, acts a bit, and has a sympathetic character to play. For me, the joy and interest in the movie, however, rests with three character actors. There's Richard Haydn playing deputy commissioner Hewitt. It's a straight, honest role and Haydn does it just fine. The fun is remembering all those comic roles Haydn worked his way into, where he deliberately unleashed his adenoids. Watch him as the butler in And Then There Were None (1945)And Then There Were None. Few people could play oozy, greasy opportunists, cowards and villains as well as Thomas Gomez. Given a chance, he also could do just fine in sympathetic parts. Watch him as John Garfield's older brother in Force of Evil (1948)Force of Evil.
Most of, there's Roland Culver, a superb, highly skilled British actor who spent some time in Hollywood but returned to England. He was at his very best playing highly competent men of the world. He was as much at home in sophisticated comedy as he was in serious drama. For the sophisticated comedy part, you can't do better than to watch him in On Approval (1944)On Approval. And to prove he hadn't lost his edge in old age, watch him as the elderly and irascible Duke of Omnium in The Pallisers (1974)The Pallisers - The Complete Collection.
As far as I know Singapore has only been released in VHS format. The tape I saw looked very good.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Small Table and Two Gin Slings
Comment: An exotic setting, glamorous sets, a young and beautiful Ava Gardner, Maury Gertsman's great cinematography, a lovely score from Daniele Amfitheatrof and an exciting ending all combine to overcome the liesurely first hour of this film and give it that something extra. It is a glossy crime and romance film with a romantic feel that doesn't quite have the bite to be real noir, but entertains in a "Casablanca Light" kind of way.
Fred MacMurray portrays Matt Gordon, returning to the Hotel Singapore now that the war is over hoping to retrieve a fortune in pearls he hid in his room. There are memories everywhere for Gordon of his romance with Linda Grahame (Ava Gardner). A small cafe table and two gin slings only remind him of the great love he lost just before they could be married when the Japanese bombed Singapore and she was killed in an air raid.
Deputy Hewitt (Richard Hayden) has a long memory as well, and puts Gordon on notice that he knows about the pearls and will be keeping a close eye on Gordon. They have sort of a cordial cop-crook repore and their relationship sort of mirrors the Rains--Bogart one in Casablanca.
Everything changes for Gordon, however, when he sees a ghost, a very beautiful ghost. There are only two problems: she's married to a rich plantation owner who loves her, and she has amnesia, with no memory of anything before the air raid. Hewitt's cops help her track down her pretty servant from before the war, Ming Ling (Maylia), who tells her of their love even though she can't remember.
The relationship of Linda and her wealthy husband Michael (Roland Culver) sort of mirrors the Bergman--Lukas one in Casablanca in one more similarity to that film. Thomas Gomez is the smarmy Sydney Greenstreet type who decides to rough up Linda a bit in order to discover where Matt hid the pearls.
This is when the film takes off. Matt goes after Linda in order to save her, even if it may be for someone else. When the bullets are flying she is knocked out and Matt takes her back to Michael where she can get medical help. Matt has managed to get the pearls but has a change of heart and leaves his fate in Hewitt's hands. But his fate may be in Michael's hands also, as that knock on the head has brought back Linda's memories of her past, and her love for Matt.
Spring Byington and Porter Hall add some humor as vacationers Mr. and Mrs. Bellows. What is probably a three star film for the first hour gets a big boost if you enjoy those great Hollywood endings of the 1940's. This one involves pearls, police, a plane and a pretty girl. It's hard to go wrong with all that, especially when the pretty girl is Ava Gardner.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Realizing Fred MacMurray
Comment: I didn't see this movie until 2000. In fact every time I saw Fred MacMurray's name come up I avoided him. I always thought of him as a "my three sons" type of guy. This film all changed that in a big way and led me in search of other films with him in the lead roll. (i.e. "Double Indemnity")A love story set during WWII. The Japanese invade Singapore and the couple is separated for years. Stolen jewels, crooked police etc. etc. I won't spoil the plot and more than that. Cool film noir-ish( not quite a film noir in my humble opinion) script which was somewhat typical in 1947. Nice plot and some really nice filming technics. An underrated film (also my humble opinion) Where's the DVD? I'll be one of the first to pick it up.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Classic Worth Watching
Comment: This is a great movie with romance and mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The acting by Fred MacMurray and Ava Gardner is superb, and it's one of those movies that you hardly notice is in B & W as it is so engrossing. There is a romantic Christmas scene as well. I must admit though, that I gasped when Ava's character said she was born in New York on September 11th (aak)!! Anyway, I'd recommend this movie and wish it was available on DVD.
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