A Noir Different - - Ride The Pink Horse (1947, USA, B/W, 101 min) - - 7 July 2023

Strongly recommended.  . . but good luck finding it. Ride The Pink Horse is in the Criterion Collection but it’s otherwise an obscurity. Nevertheless, it’s sterling noir qualities make it an Eddie Muller favorite. The story - - adapted by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer (Kiss Of Death) and based upon fellow Lobo, Dorothy B. Hughes’s (In A Lonely Place) great novel - - is mostly set, on location, in Santa Fe, NM during the three days of the annual fiesta. Robert Montgomery (The Lady In The Lake) plays the brutal, stone-faced, Chicago mobster intent on revenge and blackmail . . . but almost humanized by the gentle kindness of carousel operator Thomas Gomez (Key Largo) in the first Oscar nominated Latino performance. Gomez is assisted by Wanda Hendrix (Sierra), as a caring Native American girl. Zozobra (Old Man Gloom) plays himself. Montgomery also directed this unique movie using the rich black-and-white camera of Russell Metty (Touch of Evil).