''The Las Vegas Story'' is a 1952 American

suspense Suspense is a state of mental uncertainty, anxiety, being undecided, or being doubtful. In a dramatic work, suspense is the anticipation of the outcome of a plot or of the solution to an uncertainty, puzzle, or mystery, particularly as it aff ...

film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...

starring

Jane Russell Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell (June 21, 1921 – February 28, 2011) was an American actress, singer, and model. She was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s. She starred in more than 20 films. Russell moved from th ...

and

Victor Mature Victor John Mature (January 29, 1913 – August 4, 1999) was an American stage, film, and television actor who was a leading man in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s. His best known film roles include ''One Million B.C.'' (1940), '' My Darlin ...

, directed by

Robert Stevenson Robert Stevenson may refer to: * Robert Stevenson (actor and politician) (1915–1975), American actor and politician * Robert Stevenson (civil engineer) (1772–1850), Scottish lighthouse engineer * Robert Stevenson (director) (1905–1986), Engl ...

and produced by Robert Sparks and

Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in th ...

with

Samuel Bischoff Samuel Bischoff (August 11, 1890 – May 21, 1975) was an American film producer who was responsible for more than 400 full-length films, two-reel comedies, and serials between 1922 and 1964. Life Born to a Jewish family in Hartford, Connec ...

as the executive producer. The story linking the scenes is narrated by

Hoagy Carmichael Hoagland Howard Carmichael (November 22, 1899 – December 27, 1981) was an American musician, composer, songwriter, actor and lawyer. Carmichael was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s, and was among the first ...

Plot

Happy (

), is the piano player at the "Last Chance Casino" in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

. He wonders what split up Linda Rollins (

) and Dave Andrews (

). He ruminates that "something quick and sudden must have happened to them". Linda reluctantly returns to Las Vegas by train when her loser husband Lloyd Rollins (

Vincent Price Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, art historian, art collector and gourmet cook. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price has two stars on the Hollywood Wal ...

) insists on vacationing there. When the couple disembarks, fellow passenger Tom Hubler (

Brad Dexter Brad Dexter (born Boris Michel Soso; April 9, 1917 – December 12, 2002) was an American actor and film producer. He is known for tough-guy and western roles, including the 1960 film ''The Magnificent Seven'' (1960), and producing several fil ...

) hurriedly does as well. Upon checking into The Fabulous Hotel & Casino, Rollins requests a line of credit and Linda discovers that her husband is in some kind of financial trouble, possibly criminal as well, and suspects he is trying to raise money by gambling. The first night, Rollins insists she wears her necklace, appraised at $150,000, when they go out. Later, Linda encounters Dave, now a lieutenant with the Sheriff's Department, who is initially none too pleased to see her again. They heatedly discuss what it had been that ended their relationship. The next day, Hubler tries to become friendly with Linda at the hotel pool, but she brushes him off. He later informs Lloyd that he has been assigned by his insurance company to watch him and the necklace. Later, Mr. Drucker, The Fabulous' Managing Director, discovers Rollins is a fraud and confronts him and tells him he is no longer welcome at The Fabulous. Rollins then obtains $10,000 credit with Clayton, owner of the appropriately named Last Chance casino, by putting up Linda's necklace, but inevitably loses it all gambling. He tries to get Clayton to advance him more credit, but Clayton turns him down, telling him he will sell him the necklace back for the $10,000. Early the next morning, Clayton is found stabbed to death, and the necklace is missing. Dave assumes the murderer took the necklace. Dave arrests Rollins. Rollins tries to get his wife to provide him an alibi but she cannot, as she was with Dave at his home at the time, the two have reconnected. For unknown reasons, with a suspect in custody, Hubler returns to the scene of the crime with Linda and has her reenact her steps the night before, thereby implicating himself. Dave, figures out the real killer's identity when Happy tells Dave of Hubler's actions with Linda and Dave realizes Hubler slipped up and revealed the actual location of the stabbing. After the murderer left, the dying Clayton had managed to crawl toward a telephone and Hubler didn't know that. Dave phones Linda to warn her, but Hubler, who has been after the necklace for himself the whole time, deduces the situation and, again, for unknown reasons, kidnaps Linda. With roadblocks set up on all major highways and a description of his rented car, he steals another car, killing the owner. Dave engages a helicopter and spots the speeding vehicle. He and the pilot manage to force Hubler to leave the car at an abandoned base. Hubler wounds the pilot and forces Dave to throw out his gun by threatening to kill Linda but, after a chase and a fight, Dave is able to retrieve a gun and shoot Hubler dead. Back in Las Vegas, Linda decides to break up with her husband and remain in Las Vegas. Lloyd, who has been released from the murder charge, is quickly re-arrested on embezzlement and other charges. The film ends with the main surviving characters standing at the piano with Happy singing "

My Resistance Is Low "My Resistance Is Low" is a 1951 song by American singer, songwriter and band leader Hoagy Carmichael, with later lyrics by Harold Adamson. Creation Carmichael had the melody, and then recorded it backed by the Gordon Jenkins Chorus and Orchestr ...

Cast

as Linda Rollins *

as Dave Andrews *

as Lloyd Rollins *

as Happy *

as Tom Hubler *

Gordon Oliver Gordon Oliver (April 27, 1910 – January 26, 1995) was an American actor and film producer. He appeared in more than 40 films and television shows between 1933 and 1972. Biography Oliver began working in films in 1936, eventually working ...

as Mr. Drucker *

Jay C. Flippen Jay C. Flippen (March 6, 1899 – February 3, 1971) was an American character actor who often played crusty sergeants, police officers or weary criminals in many films of the 1940s and 1950s. Before his motion-picture career he was a leading va ...

as Captain H. A. Harris, Dave's boss * Will Wright as Mike Fogarty *

Bill Welsh Bill Welsh (April 25, 1911 – February 27, 2000) was a radio and television announcer. Early years Welsh born in Greeley, Colorado, the son of Mr. and Mrs. W.H. Welsh. He attended the Colorado State College of Education. Career Welsh's car ...

as Mr. Martin * Ray Montgomery as Desk Clerk *

Colleen Miller Colleen Joy Miller (born November 10, 1932) is an American actress. She starred in several films, such as the Westerns '' Gunfight at Comanche Creek'' (1963) and '' Four Guns to the Border'' (1954). Early life The daughter of Elias and Lillian ...

as Mary *

Robert J. Wilke Robert Joseph Wilke (May 18, 1914 – March 28, 1989) was an American film and television actor noted primarily for his roles as villains, mostly in Westerns. Early years Wilke was a native of Cincinnati. Before going into acting, he h ...

as Clayton *

Paul Frees Solomon Hersh "Paul" Frees (June 22, 1920November 2, 1986) was an American actor, comedian, impressionist, and vaudevillian. He is known for his work on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Walter Lantz, Rankin/Bass, and Walt Disney theatrical cartoons during ...

as the District Attorney (uncredited)

Production

The movie was originally called ''The Miami Story''. It was from a story by Jay Dratner and was supposed to star Robert Ryan. However then it was changed to a vehicle for Victor Mature and Jane Russell, with Sam Bischoff to produce. Filming was to have started in December 1950 but the start date was pushed back to March 1951, by which time the title had been changed to ''The Las Vegas Story''. Filming took place at RKO and on location in Las Vegas (also, the

Mojave Airport The Mojave Air and Space Port at Rutan Field is in Mojave, California, United States, at an elevation of . It is the first facility to be licensed in the United States for horizontal launches of reusable spacecraft, being certified as a sp ...

). Filming finished by June.

Jarrico Lawsuit

Howard Hughes ordered that the credit of writer

Paul Jarrico Paul Jarrico (January 12, 1915 – October 28, 1997) was an American screenwriter and film producer who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses during the era of McCarthyism. Biography Early years Paul Jarrico was born in Los ...

be removed because of his communist affiliations. Jarrico took this to court but lost because it was held he had voided his morals clause. This opened the floodgates for producers to employ blacklisted writers during the

McCarthy Era McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner. The term origina ...

without having to credit them.

Reception

Box-office

The film lost an estimated $600,000.Richard B. Jewell, ''Slow Fade to Black: The Decline of RKO Radio Pictures'', Uni of California, 2016

Critical response

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...

, the film critic for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', gave the film a mixed review, writing, "''The Las Vegas Story'' at the Paramount is one of those jukebox gambling films that gives the impression of being made up as it goes along ... For the simple fact is that Miss Russell is slightly grotesque to look upon in the tacky costumes and pinched-in get-ups with which she is cheaply adorned, and for the rest she contributes to the drama nothing more than a petulant pout and a twangy whine. But, then, the scriptwriters, Earl Felton and Harry Essex, have not made demands in their loose-jointed, tabloid-tinted fiction for more than the lady gives. And the rest of the cast does not embarrass her by playing above her head. The best to be said on behalf of this hit-or-miss R. K. O. film is that, in throwing side glances at the sap-traps of Las Vegas, it points its own indeterminate moral: patrons proceed at their own risk; the odds are in favor of the house." In their film review, '' Time Out'' magazine discussed the background of the studio that produced the film, writing, "A minor RKO gem showing all the preferences of its then owner

(aeroplanes, brunettes, breasts and disenchanted heroes)...It all finishes with a perfunctory nod toward family values (by marrying off an irrelevant young couple), but the film wears its intentions on its sleeve with the final shot: Hoagy looks first at the seductive Russell, then winks at us as he sings, ''

''". Film critic Dennis Schwartz liked the film and wrote, "Robert Stevenson (''My Forbidden Past'') walks out a winner in this pulpish crime drama that he directed with panache. It's mainly scripted by Paul Jarrico who received no screen credit because of his pro-communist sympathies that met with the disapproval of nutty right-wing RKO boss Howard Hughes, who decided to take on the powerful

Screen Writers Guild The Screen Writers Guild was an organization of Hollywood screenplay authors, formed as a union in 1933. In 1954, it became two different organizations: Writers Guild of America, West and the Writers Guild of America, East. Founding Screenwriter ...

. This prompted a civil suit by Jarrico, who later suffered from a blacklist by

HUAC The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

over his politics. Hughes lost $600,000 on this B-film gem, probably the best film he ever produced...The exciting climax has for the first time a car/helicopter chase sequence on film ... It ends with a playful Happy and a divorce-minded Linda working together again and singing a duette with lyrics such as "Keep your distance, my resistance is low", which might explain what this appealing oddball story was all about." RKO announced plans to reteam Mature and Russell in ''Split Second'', but neither ended up appearing in that film.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Las Vegas Story, The 1952 films 1952 crime drama films American black-and-white films 1950s English-language films Film noir Films based on short fiction Films directed by Robert Stevenson Films set in the Las Vegas Valley Gambling films American crime drama films Films produced by Howard Hughes Films produced by Samuel Bischoff Films scored by Leigh Harline RKO Pictures films 1950s American films