Ride the Pink Horse **** (1947, Robert Montgomery, Wanda Hendrix, Andrea King, Thomas Gomez, Fred Clark, Art Smith) – Classic Movie Review 11,698

Directors Robert Montgomery’s 1947 Universal Studios black and white film noir crime film Ride the Pink Horse is based on the 1946 novel by Dorothy B Hughes, and stars Robert Montgomery, Wanda Hendrix, Andrea King, Thomas Gomez, Fred Clark, and Art Smith.

An all-pervading mood of impending violence hangs in the air of the fiesta-fuelled streets of San Pablo, a small town south of the border in New Mexico, where a World War Two army veteran known only as Lucky Gagin (Montgomery) plans to wreak vengeance on his double-crossing boss, mobster Frank Hugo (Fred Clark), in the matter of the death of his wartime buddy. FBI agent Bill Retz (Art Smith) also wants Hugo but tries to keep Gagin out of trouble.

Montgomery, outstanding as both lead and director, has stamped a very individual viewpoint on to this exceptional little melodrama, which equals the best of film noir for its dark sense of deep cynicism.

He is ably supported by Wanda Hendrix as the romantic interest Pila, along with Andrea King, Thomas Gomez, Fred Clark, Art Smith, Richard Gaines and Martin Garralaga, and the black and white cinematography by Russell Metty (Spartacus, The Misfits) is both stylish and inventive.

Thomas Gomez, who plays Pancho, was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

The engrossing screenplay is by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer.

Ride the Pink Horse is partly filmed at the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe.

The Tio Vivo Carousel, built in 1882 in Taos, New Mexico, was bought by the producers and shipped to the Universal set.

Robert Montgomery (left) directs James Cagney in The Gallant Hours.

The cast are Robert Montgomery as Gagin, Wanda Hendrix as Pila, Thomas Gomez as Pancho, Andrea King as Marjorie, Fred Clark as Frank Hugo, Art Smith as Bill Retz, Martin Garralaga as Barkeeper, Rita Conde as Carla, Iris Flores as Maria, Grandon Rhodes as Mr Edison, Tito Rebaldo as Bellboy, Richard Gaines as Jonathan Edward Earle as Locke, Harold Goodwin as Red, Maria Cortez as Elevator Girl, Edward Earle, and Jack Worth.

Films directed by Robert Montgomery: Lady in the Lake (1947), Ride the Pink Horse (1947), Once More, My Darling (1949), Your Witness (1950) and The Gallant Hours (1960).

Thomas Gomez made his first film Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror in 1942 and appeared in 60 films till his final film Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970). He was the first Spanish-American to be nominated for an Academy Award. Ride the Pink Horse was later used as the basis for an episode of the Robert Montgomery Presents TV series in which Gomez reprised his role.

 © Derek Winnert 2021  Classic Movie Review 11,698

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