MGM produced its share of film noir classics despite Louis B. Mayer's aversion to subject matter he deemed downbeat and sordid. Thus in 1949's The Bribe, a potentially interesting "small" story is given a deluxe production and an all-star cast. Rugged government agent Rigby (Robert Taylor) has come to the Central American island of Los Trancos to stop a racket smuggling Army airplane engines. Who might be in on the scam?

Dockside rat J. J. Bealer (Charles Laughton) offers Rigby a hefty bribe to walk away. Is the gorgeous club singer Elizabeth Hintten (Ava Gardner) really interested in Rigby, or is she part of the conspiracy too? The big local industrialist Carwood (Vincent Price) may or may not have tried to dump Rigby into shark-infested waters during a fishing trip. Rigby seems set to betray his mission and run off with Elizabeth, but her alcoholic husband Tug (John Hodiak) makes the first move, drugging the agent so the conspirators can make their escape. Robert Taylor pouts his way through a tough-guy narration and an explanatory flashback, but we never doubt that Rigby will do the right thing. Meanwhile, various minor players are eaten by sharks, etc.

Cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg lays on the mysterioso lighting and Miklós Rósza's dynamic music must work hard to generate tension. The Hollywood Reporter was not impressed by Vincent Price and Charles Laughton's outsized performances. Behaving like Charles Dickens' Uriah Heep and complaining about his sore feet, Laughton's Bealer is too sleazy to bribe anyone. Not yet established as a film villain, Price nevertheless lays on the insincere manners and arch allusions as Carwood. Going against the noir grain, Ava Gardner is revealed to be a concerned wife, not a femme fatale. Newsweek thought the film looked overblown, especially the spectacular nighttime finish in which the un-touristy town of Los Trancos puts on a fireworks show as impressive as a Manhattan Fourth of July.

Film critics revisiting the blacklist years have rediscovered The Bribe's screenwriter Marguerite Roberts. Her burgeoning career was cut short in 1951 by HUAC, with her credit removed from MGM's superlative Robert Taylor movie Ivanhoe (1952). Seventeen years later, Roberts' fine screenplay for True Grit (1969) gave John Wayne his only Oscar win.

By Glenn Erickson