Second Chance (1953 film)

Infobox Film
name = Second Chance


image_size = 150px
caption = Theatrical poster
director = Rudolph Maté
producer = Executive Producer: Howard Hughes Edmund Grainger Producer: Sam Wiesenthal
writer = Sydney Boehm D.M. Marshman Jr. Oscar Millard Robert Presnell Sr.
narrator =
starring = Robert Mitchum Jack Palance
Linda Darnell
music = Roy Webb
cinematography = William E. Snyder
editing = Robert Ford Albrecht Joseph
distributor = RKO Radio
released = July 18 1953
runtime = 82 minutes
country = United States
language = English
budget =
gross =
amg_id = 1:43409
imdb_id = 0046288

"Second Chance" is an American color film noir, directed by Rudolph Maté and released in 1953. The picture, shot on location in Mexico in 3-Dimension, features Robert Mitchum, Jack Palance, and Linda Darnell. [imdb title|id=0046288|title=Second Chance.]

The story tells of Russ Lambert (Robert Mitchum), a prizefighter with a lethal right-handed punch, who through no fault of his own, killed a fighter in the ring. Since the fight his life has gone downhill.

Plot

To forget the tragedy Lambert heads to South America (the exact country is never mentioned). Heading there as well is singer Clare Shepperd, using the alias Clare Sinclair (Linda Darnell). She's running away as well--not from her memories--but from her boyfriend Vic Spilato, a vicious gangster who just had his bookkeeper Edward Dawson (Milburn Stone) murdered and is under investigation by the U.S. Senate.

Lambert takes up fighting once again and, as he prepares to fight his south-of-the-border challenger named Rivera, Shepperd seeks out her boss, a bar owner Felipe, and sells him a valuable pair of earrings. She then watches as Lambert wins the match.

Newly arrived to South America is Cappy Gordon (Jack Palance), Spilato's cold-blooded button-man looking for Clare. When he finds her he expresses his love and tells her that he'll spare her life if she runs off with him. Instead, Clare jets and heads for Felipe's bar. By threatening to expose Felipe to Cappy, Clare convinces him to persuade Lambert to meet her at the secluded "Posado de Don Pascual." There, Clare encourages Lambert's romantic interest, but does not tell him about Cappy nor Spilato.

They take a tramway to "La Cumbre," an isolated mountaintop village, and the couple enjoy a stroll through the town, unaware that Cappy knows their whereabouts. They watch a sexually provocative dance, performed by a young man and woman, whose older husband Vasco (Rodolfo Hoyos Jr.) drags her off in a jealous rage and kills her. Upset by the event, Clare and Lambert head toward the hotel where they spend the night, and in the moonlight, he kisses her. Lambert reveals that he's aware of Spilato and Clare confesses that she's attracted to him but isn't free of her past.

The climax of the movie takes place on an aerial cable car high above a deep abyss which malfunctions midway through its journey, threatening to send Lambert, Shepperd, and Gordon smashing into the rocks below.

Background

"Second Chance" is RKO Radio's first foray into the world of 3-D film, a prevalent cinema fad in the 1950s, and it featured their top stars. Bad guy Jack Palance is fresh from his critically well-regarded work on "Shane" (1953). The picture is also the first Hollywood 3-D feature shot on a foreign location. [ [http://www.3dfilmfest.com/Second_Chance.html World 3-D Film Expo II] web site, September 9, 2006. Last accessed: December 7, 2007.]

Critic Jeff Stafford believes the 3-D format was often unjustly maligned and in the early 1950s, was on the verge of "moving beyond the exploitable 'in your face' aspects" into more creative uses of the technology when the fad died. He makes the case that the final scenes of "Second Chance" were "much more intense in 3-D when the depth of field and spatial relationships create [d] a genuine sense of vertigo." [ [http://www.tcm.com/movienews/index/?cid=145515 Stafford, Jeff] . "Turner Classic Movies," "3-D Festival Reports from The Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles," September 13, 1996. Last accessed: December 8, 2007.]

According to critic Bosley Crowther, the screenplay was inspired by an aerial tramway accident that occurred in Rio de Janeiro circa 1951. Crowther wrote, "Except for one man being killed in an attempt to go for help via a rope and the slugging "melee" on the platform, this could almost be the Rio episode." [ [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9907E7D81231E53BBC4B51DFB1668388649EDE Crowther, Bosley] . "The New York Times," film review, July 23, 1953. Last accessed: December 7, 2007.]

Filming locations
The film was shot entirely in Mexico, including: Cuernavaca, Morelos and Taxco, Guerrero.

Cast

* Robert Mitchum as Russ Lambert
* Linda Darnell as Clare Shepperd, alias Clare Sinclair
* Jack Palance as Cappy Gordon, alias Cappy Walters
* Roy Roberts as Charley Malloy
* Dan Seymour as Felipe, manager of bar
* Fortunio Bonanova as Mandy, hotel owner
* Sandro Giglio as Cable Car Conductor
* Reginald Sheffield as Mr. Woburn, English tourist
* Margaret Brewster as Mrs. Woburn, English tourist
* Rodolfo Hoyos Jr. as Vasco, murderous husband
* Richard Vera as Pablo, Vasco's son
* Maurice Jara as Fernando, groom
* Judy Walsh as Maria, bride
* Salvador Baguez as Officer Hernandez
* Milburn Stone as Edward Dawson, Vic Spilato's Bookkeeper
* Abel Fernández as Rivera, as fighter in Bullring

Critical reception

Bosley Crowther, film critic for the "The New York Times," was not impressed with the film's underlying story but was captured by the film's thrilling ending, writing, "The build-up to the aerial adventure is not only synthetic but slow...the development of a romance between Mr. Mitchum and Linda Darnell...is mechanical and routine. But once they get aboard that tramway—-Mr. Mitchum and Miss Darnell, coming down off the mountain and trailed by Mr. Palance—-the drama begins to crackle. And once that cable snaps, the picture becomes a welter of cliff-hanging terror and suspense. Every little movement of the tramway, hanging up there by a thread, causes the acrophobe to tremble. And there is plenty of movement, indeed." [Crowther, Bosley. Ibid.]

The staff at "Time" magazine, while calling 3-D "a novel gimmick" lauded the performance of Jack Palance, writing, "This man Palance keeps the show as well as Linda on the move. A rivet-eyed, onetime prelim fighter from the Pennsylvania coal country, Palance ("né" Palahnuik) ["sic"] gave terrifying performances in "Shane" (1953) and "Sudden Fear," (1952) has since become the hottest heavy in Hollywood. His face alone, as thin and cruel as a rust-pitted spade, is enough to-frighten a strong man; and to make matters worse, he seems to emit hostile energy, like something left overnight in a plutonium pile." [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,936142-2,00.html "Time"] magazine film review, July 27, 1953. Last Accessed: December 7, 2007.]

Memorable quotes

* Russ: Which do you suppose came first, the hotel or all this atmosphere?
* Russ: Spilato is something we used to step on in Chicago when it came crawling out of the woodwork.

References

External links

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* [http://www.3dfilmfest.com/Second_Chance.html "Second Chance"] trailer at World 3-D Film Expo II