THE BIG BLUFF
US, 1955, 71 minutes, Black and white.
John Bromfield, Martha Vickers, Eve Miller, Robert Hutton, Rosemarie Stack.
Directed by W. Lee Wilder.
The Big Bluff is an entertaining deceit thriller, quite familiar material but brought to life by a light cast and the intrigues of the bluff. The film was directed by Billy Wilder’s brother – from whom he was alienated, not flattering his brother. W. Lee Wilder made commercials and a number of B-budget films.
John Bromfield has the starring role as a sponging cad. He pretends to be a businessman at a holiday resort, is having an affair with the wife of the dancing team at the hotel, is on the lookout for easy money with a huge background story none of which is real except for his sporting exploits.
Martha Vickers is Valerie, the widow of a tycoon, who has had heart surgery and seems to have little time to live. She and her friend Marsha (Eve Miller), leave New York for a holiday to California where she falls under the spell of the cad who is able to put on an absolutely charming show. Marsha is friendly but becomes more and more suspicious, especially with the help of the local doctor who visits Valerie and who becomes attracted to Marsha (Robert Hutton).
A lot of the film is diverted to the high life, Rick taking Valerie out, her breaking her resolutions with drinking, staying out late, high dining – but eventually marries Rick. He in the meantime is double-talking the wife of the dancer (Rosemarie Stack, Robert Stack’s wife of almost 50 years).
Ultimately, he contrives a situation where he seems to clash with Valerie, sets up an alibi with his girlfriend, comes back and shoots Valerie – with quite a twist at the end when it seems that Valerie is actually died of heart attack before being shot and, when he tries to use his alibi, finds that the dancer has been murdered by her jealous husband who dies in a car crash.
Plenty of melodrama, plenty of the high life, entertaining in its familiar way.
1. Title and expectations? Familiarity of the plot, the playboy, the heiress, marriage, intentions of murder? The sympathetic friends?
2. New York settings, apartments? The contrast with California, the hotel, the resort, outings? The Californian mansion, the art dealers? Nightclubs and singers and dancers?
3. Valerie’s story, her marriages, becoming a widow, inheritance, her heart condition, the surgery, and neading rest, her friends deciding not to tell her that she has a short time to live? Her thinking she was full of energy, the decision to go to California with Marsha?
4. Peter, the friendly doctor, his examinations, his advice, wanting to sell Valerie the truth, persuaded otherwise? His growing attraction to Marsha?
5. Marsha, character, the good friend, helping Valerie? Valerie thinking she was interfering?
6. The background with Rick, the playboy, the cad, his stories? His affair with Fritzy? The meetings? The jealousy of her husband?
7. Meeting Marcia and thinking she was the heiress? Discovering the truth? His meeting Valerie, charm, the attraction, dancing, the outings? Is discovering the truth? Convenient if he marries her and she dies? The money? The explanations for Fritzie?
8. Valerie, her life, enjoyment, breaking the rules, Marsha’s concern and Valerie warning her? Her improvement in health?
9. The wedding, Rick and his charm? The honeymoon? The enjoyment, his playing up to her? The return, the mansion, the Art Gallery buying the painting and Rick’s dealings with the money?
10. The discovery that Valerie was better? Rick and his concocting the plot? Getting Fritzie to leave, the motel, the key, leaving his tie, meeting her half way from Los Angeles? His return, having set up the quarrel with Valerie? Shooting her?
11. Marsha and Peter and the suspicions, the police, testing the tablets, the alternate container, bicarbonate of soda instead of the pills?
12. The irony of the ending, the police, Valerie dying of a heart attack, the shooting after the event – his not being able to be arrested for murder? Using his alibi, the evidence of the tie, the key? And the irony that Fritzie’s husband had followed him, killed his wife crashed the car?
13. Popular and familiar ingredients in the style of the 1950s?
