The Big Bluff (1955)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Fresh and Exciting

Don't Believe the Hype

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A generally annoying film from start to finish.It suffers from a wretched screenplay which is intent on assuming that the audience is either stupid or not paying attention... The acting and direction are stilted and unimaginative and sometimes just don't make sense. The awkwardly inserted stock footage of people water-skiing in Hawaii doesn't help!The story itself revolves around a rich merry widow in New York with a dodgy ticker and not much time to live... and most of the scenes are focused on a mysteriously ever-present doctor and an overly-protective close chum who cares way too much! Unfortunately, the victim herself hasn't been told she's on the way out and carries on living her life. She meets a detestable spiv in Los Angeles and incredibly decides to marry him. But this bloke is just after the cash and a silly scene in an art gallery hammers the point home. (For a bloke who is constantly in need of cash infusions, he drives a bloody nice car!)His real girlfriend (a married dancer at a nightclub) helps him to try and bump off the wife but incredibly 'er indoors seems to be actually getting better! What could have been a brilliant twist at the end is played out with such ham-fisted incompetence that it can be seen charging towards the viewer way before even the cast has time to figure it out.Dreadful mess.

Agree with the other reviewers - the sets are cheap, the music is cheesy but stay with it, it has the sort of the plot that would not be out of place in an "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" episode. At the time John Bromfield, who would soon be better known as "The Sheriff of Cochise", was the most known star - Martha Vickers was a 1940s glamour girl famous for her role in "The Big Sleep" and also for being one of Mickey Rooney's ex wives, Robert Hutton didn't have much of a career to lose in the first place.Bromfield plays slimy Rik DeVilla, the "big bluff" who sees vivacious widow Valerie Bancroft (Vickers) as the answer to his prayers. She is wealthy and, more importantly, has a heart condition and before Rik's arrival, has been going downhill fast and not expected to live!! Unfortunately for Rik, once they meet, her health picks up and she is rejuvenated by Rik's high spirits!! That is not good for his plans - he will have to do something drastic!! Not everybody thinks he is the answer to a girl's dream - Valerie's secretary, Joan, has her doubts. He initially thought she was the merry widow and so tried to wine and dine her, however once he meets the real Valerie he sticks to her like a leech!! Not only is he substituting Valerie's heart pills for plain bicarb soda, Joan is convinced he is having an affair with a luscious exotic dancer Fritzie. Rosemarie Bowe was just gorgeous and why she couldn't have had a decent career based on her beauty alone is mystifying. She reminded me of a more sultry Mary Murphy - maybe marrying Robert Stack the next year made her rethink her career.He picks a fight with both Valerie and Joan - it is all part of a vicious plan to create an alibi with Fritzie when things get sticky later on but one person they hadn't counted on was Fritzie's extremely jealous husband, who, unknown to the others, starts his own vendetta with very complicated results!! Don't judge it - just watch it!!

This is an effective noirish suspense drama. The acting, direction, and cinematography are typical of 1950s low-budget productions but there are plenty of good scenes. After a slow start, the plot evolves into a modern morality tale where a scheming villain gets his payback. The print is inferior (Classic Film Noir, Volume 2) but the soundtrack is satisfactory.John Bromfield delivers a convincing performance as an unscrupulous gold-digging gigolo who seduces and marries a wealthy widow (Martha Vickers) who is seriously ill with only a few months to live. Much to his dismay, the marriage works wonders for her health and she improves so much that he is forced to hatch a diabolically clever plan to murder her.Of course, things quickly go wrong and lead to a terrific plot twist and surprise ending. Not classic noir, but a decent little movie with redeeming features.

W. Lee Wilder's THE BIG BLUFF will never be a threat to his brother Billy's genre-defining classic, DOUBLE INDEMNITY, but on its own terms it's a nifty little quickie with a good story and a nice trick ending.When it starts, this film looks so cheap -- I mean, Ed Wood cheap -- you're tempted to hang it up, but stick with it. It improves as it goes along. The writing and cast are perfectly adequate and it's more entertaining than a lot of big budget A pictures.An unusual feature of this film is a reversal of the usual noir femme fatale dynamic. Here it's a sexy guy, an "homme fatal" if you will, who seduces a rich, love-starved widow.Maltin's book (2003) doesn't even list this film, but it's included in the inexpensive 6-CD "Ultimate Film Noir Collection", which I recommend for its intriguing line-up of public domain B-picture rarities, which range from junk to cult classic B's (DETOUR, THE HITCHHIKER) to even a couple great ones (Welles' THE STRANGER).