Soldier of Fortune

This 20th Century Fox film starred Clark G table in one of this first films away from MGM, and gorgeous Susan Hayward. Ms. Hayward was involved in a nasty custody battle with her ex husband Jess Barker over custody of their Twin Sons. Susan Hayward's scenes were done either on the sound stages of 20th oe proves shots with the background being Hong Kong. This is a great action adventure and see it most of al for two real Movie Stars.

Fiery Jane Hoyt, played by Susan Hayward of the blazing red hair, arrives in the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong in search of her husband, Louis, a photographer who disappeared while on a shoot in Mainland China. Louis, played by Gene Barry, entered China illegally without a visa and has been detained by the Communist authorities. Hayward enlists the aid of a shipping magnate with connections, Clark Gable, to locate her husband and bring him out. While the chemistry between Hayward and Gable is lukewarm at best, an on-screen romance ensues, which undercuts the credibility of Hayward's portrayal of a loving faithful wife in search of her missing husband. The gruff mature Gable, who incongruously has adopted three Asian children, makes the moves on Hayward, who stoically receives his kisses and allows him to hold her hand across a table. Actually, the coolness between Gable and Hayward is a torrid fire compared to the freeze between Barry and Hayward. Thus, both the motivation for Hayward's journey to Hong Kong in search of her missing husband and her attraction to Gable are undercut by the lack of warmth between the actors; what the script says and what the performers suggest are miles apart. When not being pursued by Gable or other wolves on the prowl, Hayward searches the city for information on her husband. The search brings her into contact with a number of supporting players, including Michael Rennie, Alex D'Arcy, and Tom Tully, and several distracting subplots, which only serve to remind viewers that the film was adapted from a novel by Ernest K Gann, who also wrote the script. Director Edward Dmytryk keeps the action scenes going at a decent pace, and Hayward's search is initially intriguing. However, even Dmytryk can do little with the unconvincing love affair or the lack of chemistry between his three stars, who acquit themselves professionally, but no more. Leo Tover's colorful cinematography captures an exotic, but now bygone, Hong Kong of junks, sampans, and stunning vistas of mountains and bays. Set in the 1950's, "Soldier of Fortune" would make an ideal double bill with "Love is a Many Splendored Thing," a more successful romantic film that shares both location and period with the Gable-Hayward vehicle. The Dmytryk film has much in its favor: an exotic locale, fine cinematography, two top stars, an able supporting cast, and a fairly good story. Unfortunately, "Soldier of Fortune" is one of those movies that is worth seeing, but less than the sum of its parts.

Normally, with Hugo Friedhofer as orchestrator and Lionel Newman as conductor, I'd expect the music to be the most wonderful part of the movie. I could pay that compliment to Soldier of Fortune, except there was no wonderful aspect of this movie at all. The music could have had a pleasant theme if it were scored for The Best of Everything or Imitation of Life, but for a pseudo-mystery, pseudo-foreign intrigue drama, it didn't really fit. With two powerhouse actors taking the lead, I'd expect wonderful romantic tension and great performances of a dramatic story. Ernest K. Gann's adaptation of his novel didn't translate very well on the screen, and while Clark Gable isn't given anything to do, Susan Hayward is given the wrong things to do. She plays a woman whose husband has gone missing, and she travels to his last known location, Hong Kong, to find him. From the second she makes her entrance, she doesn't act like a woman afraid for her husband's safety, or even wanting him to come back! She saunters into the room with her famous strut, capturing the eyes of every man, and calmly asks for information from bartenders, hotel clerks, and shopkeepers. When they're not helpful, she smiles and calmly thanks them. Also, she flirts with several men, not just Clark Gable. This is not the behavior of a woman concerned about her missing husband! If ever you're in the mood for an incredibly boring, poorly acted, poorly written, boring drama that doesn't really cut it in the mystery genre, you can rent Soldier of Fortune. Otherwise, stick with Clark and Suzy's finest hours. This one's just painful to sit through.

The 50s was Hollywood's probably worst-ever decade, the highlights of that period very ironically being mostly low-budget, so-bad-they're-good sci-fi and monster movies. Even though SOF isn't by any means a brilliant exception to the rule, it does offer something that a number of 50s big-studio movies did have: beautiful women (in this case one woman) and great Technicolor visuals. Susan Hayward has never looked better: she is quite simply stunning. The coastal night scenes are visually impeccable. The story isn't too cheesy for that period and refreshingly presents communists as the bad guys. (The movie was made post-McCarthy-clean-up so there was a pleasant hiatus that lasted several years regarding left-wing propaganda films that glorified communists or at least tried to soften the brutality of such regimes.) Clark Gable, if a little old, in the lead role can't hurt either. Compare 40s/50s beauties like Liz Taylor, Olivia de Havilland, and Susan Hayward to modern-day wrecks like Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston and Cameron Diaz. Sad...

This isn't one of the worst all time films, but it has nothing going for it. The heroine is a pale, lackluster sort, and it's strange that hero Clark Gable, surrounded by gorgeous Asians, would even glance at her, but he does. She searches for husband Gene Barry, who is a prisoner. Surprisingly, it is this meager, incredulous love triangle that is the only thing even remotely interesting in this movie. There is an attempt at action, and a lot of fist fighting and tough talk, but it is all very boring. No one cares. Plus, the lack of motivation makes it even more boring. This was "Fight Club" half a century earlier. There are also attempts at grand scenery, and over the top characters. One is supposed to think that the characters of the film hold the attention of everyone in the continent of Asia, all the time. No one knows why. No one cares. The grandeur and splendor is all hum drum and very weak.

Or Grand Hotel. Nah, just the '50s run amuck. At least no Bogart-like type today to remake this one as with so many others. Technicals, as stated, are strong. Color, camera work, costumes all forceful. Just a limp biscut at heart. Yakky yakky. Worth it for period piece is all. And I do like the principals in other films - esp M.R. Designed for big movie palace time. Not for today's time pressured crowd. Way over lite tho.

This film is better than its reputation. Susan Hayward and Clark Gable have been complained about as an unsatisfactory pair, their romance isn't convincing, and so forth, and there definitely is something stilted about their relationship, Clark goes too hard on her, and she is too much Susan Hayward to be convincing in her stiffness. The main asset of the film is the fantastic presentation of Hongkong in the 50s, with the zampans, the street life, the strange life of the Europeans and their difficulty to adapt to China, the Chinese general adds a touch of timeless tragedy to the ethnic panorama, and the Australian pub with its Russian cabaret lady adds some necessary comedy. As usual in Edward Dmytryk's films, it's a great story, and the actors are all perfect. Maybe it's a bit over-varnished, especially Clark Gable's galanterie, he is made a bit unnecessarily to overdo it, while Susan Hayward's American stupidity and duplicity goes a bit too far with her - she is too intelligent an actress to play stupid. Hongkong is the main character of the film, that's what you will remember of it, while you are content with letting Clark Gable and Susan Hayward just have their way and leave them.

Miss Susan Hayward was a feminist heroine: tough, smart, edgy, beautiful beyond measure. Caught in a court fight with her estranged husband, 20th was forced to shoot Miss Hayward's scenes at the studio in Beverly Hills...no problem. They could have been shot on Mars because Susan Hayward plays this part to the hilt. Miss Hayward and her co star Clark Gable were natural stars and natural actor..together they work magic... The ending is particularly modern: Miss Hayward meets up with Clark Gable and instead of clinching and saying they love each other...well just see the movie, likely one of the most adult endings of all time.

Ernest K. Gann wrote this novel in 1954, and the movie was adapted and produced in 1955. Maybe at that time and in that era, the novel and the movie would be recognized as romantic and adventurous, but if viewed through the eyes of a more modern guy nowadays, the novel actually sucks big time and the movie, just terrible and laughable. What made a wife came to Hong Kong looking for her missing husband? And how could it possible this faithful wife become an unfaithful and fickle woman and fell for the other guy so quickly, start flirting and even kissing willingly? All the expatriate foreigners with different nationalities seemed to become a bunch of mean and worthless lowlifes, and there was only one guy who by the description of the novel and the movie, a black market smuggler/gangster, an underworld darkside person wearing white suits, living high and luxurious on the hill of Hong Kong, yet at the same time gave off an irresistible charming aura so strong that would turn this faithful wife into an opposite one immediately. Love at first sight? This movie only got about 3% of several nice ingredients, 97% were just garbage. The scenes of Hong Kong in 1954 or 1955 were documented nicely and worth keeping, Susan Hayward was beautiful and sexy as usual, Clark Gable, on the other hand, aging so old with blurry eyes but still tried very hard to give off his charm. And that 3% of the goodness is just about it. Laughable screenplay and unbelievable scenario, cartoon-like supporting actors all looked like clowns and jerks, if without these totally unnecessary figures, this film would have nothing to patch up between the ridiculous rescue and the laughable sudden change of heart romance.

Based on the novel of the same name by Ernest Gann, "Soldier of Fortune" has Clark Gable taking on the type of role that made him one of the early kings of Hollywood. As Hank Lee, Gable has many connections in Hong Kong, and mainland China during the 50's. Susan Hayward has learned of her husband's capture on trumped-up charges from the Chinese gov't, and is willing to use any means possible to rescue him. This means even recruiting the mysterious Hank Lee, a rogue, a bandit, a smuggler, and those are his good qualities, according to the British crown, represented by Michael Rennie. When all is said and done, Gable finally accepts the challenge, and how he pulls the rescue off makes the story. Downtown Hong Kong has many memorable shots, and the film utilizes each of them to the fullest potential.