An odd little number: interesting premise, some good actors (including PETER LORRE), well-filmed, but overall a bit of a disappointment. (We watched it on YouTube, where the print and subtitles are far superior to our recent viewings, but with the downside of inserted ads.) It begins with poverty-stricken drifter Chuck Scott (Robert Cummings, familiar from Saboteur, one of Hitchcock's earlier and weaker US efforts, notable for a scene on the Statue of Liberty that pairs nicely with the Mount Rushmore scene in North By Northwest) with his nose pressed up against the window of a coffee shop as he watches the fry cook flip pancakes and bacon slices. He spots a wallet stuffed with cash on the sidewalk, eats a hearty breakfast,
then sets out to return it. It belongs to Eddie Roman, a very sinister (and very rich) young man (played with convincing psychopathy by Steve Cochran), with an equally sinister henchman Gino (Lorre) and a beautiful French wife, Lorna. We see immediate signs that Eddie is a bad egg in the way he treats the women giving him a haircut and a manicure as Chuck arrives.
However, Chuck doesn't get to see this and accepts Eddie's offer of employment as a chauffeur, as, despite being a decorated ex-sailor, he is currently unemployed. We first see him have cause to regret this when they're out on a drive when suddenly he finds he can't control the speed of the car. Turns out Eddie's car is equipped with a gizmo that transfers all controls except the steering to the back seat, and he ups the speed to 110 MPH as they hurtle towards a railway crossing.
Realizing at the last minute that they won't make it, Eddie slams on the brakes. He's pretty impressed with Chuck's comparative sang froid, though, and this increases his trust.
Later evidence of Eddie's evil is seen in his dealings with a corpulent business rival, who gets dispatched in the wine cellar by a particularly large and vicious dog. All in all, it's unsurprising that Lorna is a bit unhappy, and seeks relief in daily drives to a seaside pier where she gazes out into the Atlantic
(one assumes this takes place in Florida - it probably says, but I wasn't paying that close attention), until one day she outright propositions Chuck with the idea of paying him $1000 to escape to Havana (this being pre-revolution). He accepts without missing a beat - he's got nothing going on, she's gorgeous, and Eddie's evil. He takes care of buying two tickets on a boat for tonight, but is seen by a character wearing a distinctive hat, which obscures his face from our sight.
Also a bad sign: Eddie starts asking questions about where he and Lorna go on their daily drives and even demands to be shown the pier. Has the man in the hat been talking to him? Apparently not, because the two manage to escape before Gino discovers Chuck missing and relays the information to Eddie, lounging listening to loud opera on a gramophone. "What's our next move?" asks Gino. "Play the other side," drawls Eddie languidly.
Cut to the escaping lovers on the boat where at first they are unsure of themselves and Lorna insults Chuck by giving him the $1000, but then as definitely a besotted couple in the bustling streets of Havana. However, the first signs of something amiss crop up when their buggy driver strangely refuses to return them to their ship (their ultimate destination is South America) and even departs without taking his fare. They repair to a nightclub, where they are jostled by nasty-looking characters and then [stop reading now if you plan to watch it] Lorna is stabbed!
Dead! And Chuck is arrested for it! And when he tries to prove his innocence (she was stabbed with a jade-handled knife like one he'd just bought, but he swears his had a monkey covering its eyes, whereas the murder weapon had a monkey covering its ears) it looks like he's being framed. He escapes from the cops, however, only to run into Gino... who shoots him!
And then, in a truly Earth-shaking twist [no really, stop reading now] he wakes up back in his little room on the day of their escape, with the two tickets to Havana still in his pocket, and Lorna very much alive. And then he calls up somebody on the phone and says "it's happened again!" The person is his old Navy doctor, and they meet in a nightclub to discuss his problem, which is definitely amnesia-related, because he knows there's something he should be doing at a certain time, but can't remember what. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the same nightclub, Gino and Eddie are meeting with the man in the hat (Eddie having already found Lorna, distraught at Chuck's disappearance, writing a "goodbye" note, and beaten her and locked her in her room) who is another corpulent associate who relays the purchase of the two tickets (he'd recognized Eddie's car that Chuck was driving). Chuck remembers, rescues Lorna, heads for the Harbor. Eddie and Gino follow in Eddie's special car, Gino steering, Eddie handling the pedals from the back seat. And Eddie again cannot resist a race for the railroad crossing...
As I describe it, I realize it had a lot of memorable scenes and really should be better than it was. Something about it didn't hang together. But apparently it did very well at Cannes.
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