Saigon (1948)

After the end of WWII, a pilot (Alan Ladd) learns his flying buddy (Douglas Dick) is terminally ill. In order to finance one last fling for his pal, he accepts a lucrative flying job from a crooked profiteer (Morris Carnovsky). But everything goes wrong, starting with a crash landing in French Indochina (now Vietnam). Directed by Leslie Fenton (THE SAINT'S VACATION), this was the fourth and final pairing of Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake, a popular screen team at Paramount. Unlike their previous hit movies, the film was only a modest success and Lake's career began fading away while Ladd continued to be a popular star at Paramount. The film is usually derided as the weakest of the Ladd/Lake vehicles and while I can't argue that it's the least effective of their pairings, it's not a horrible film. The Ladd/Lake chemistry is still in full force but the narrative is tired and the film's exotic atmosphere (although filmed on the Paramount soundstages) can't disguise the wan screenplay. Lake looks quite fetching in her Edith Head costumes. With Luther Adler and an annoying Wally Cassell, who's there (I think) for laughs but I found him ultra irritating.