Laddie and the Ladies - SAIGON (Excerpts)

Here are a few excerpts from SAIGON (1948) with Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake.

Story: After WWII, three army buddies take a job to fly a man out of Shanghai, who unbeknownst to them is a crook. But only his secretary, who is carrying his money, makes it to the flight. The plane has to crash land near Saigon. One of the men is terminally ill, but his friends have not told him, wanting to make his last days as pleasant as possible. The dying man falls in love with the secretary ... Hence, for a change, in this one Ladd is a good guy, if still rather rough around the edges, and Lake is the one in need of redemption.

Contextual information for the excerpts: After the plane crash, the running gag is that Lake is always complaining about not having fresh clothes to wear, with which Ladd has no sympathy whatsoever, so the fact that he sends up a dress for her is a pivotal gesture.

It's a typical post-war intrigue in an exotic setting that provides occasions to wear white dinner jackets (the caption of one publicity picture read, "Alan Ladd dressed to kill." LOL). But it is strange how unbecomingly Lake is styled and photographed here (except for the famous evening gown by Edith Head). Probably not the best of the Ladd & Lake movies, but still much too good not to be available on DVD. Sorry about the poor picture quality.

Some further dialogue:

Lake (about Ladd to his buddies): Tell him to stop making innuendos.
Ladd: Oh, I try to. I say to myself, Larry, stop making innuendos. But I go right on making innuendos.

Ladd (to Lake): Look, baby, I don't apologize easy. And you're not helping.

[Ladd and Lake in a scene where he tries to convince her to be kind to his friend, but without revealing that he is dying:]

Lake: The war is over, and if I concerned myself with every maladjusted GI ...
Ladd [grabbing her angrily]: One more crack like that out of you, baby, and Ill slap some decency into you!
Lake: Your friend tried it once. If you do, Ill kill you!
Ladd: Im sorry, baby. Is this where he hit you? [Lightly indicating the spot on her cheek, and then suddenly planting a tiny kiss on it.] There, it doesnt hurt anymore! [mockingly, while moving away] Well, now that we understand each other, we wont have to show this to the police [referring to her police card]. Arent you glad we kissed and made up?
Lake: On your way out you can tell the captain to send in a bottle of disinfectant.

Carnovsky (to Ladd): We were just talking about you.
Ladd: My favorite subject.

Carnovsky (to Ladd): You have an unfortunate way of irritating people, Major. Everyone seems to want to strike you.

Ladd (to Lake): Sorry you can't join us in a glass of rat poison.

No copyright abuse intended, but if the owners mind, the video will be deleted, of course.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Alan Ladd
• Veronica Lake