Calcutta (1947 film)
| Calcutta | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | John Farrow |
| Produced by | Seton I. Miller |
| Screenplay by | Seton I. Miller |
| Starring |
Alan Ladd Gail Russell William Bendix |
| Music by | Victor Young |
| Cinematography | John F. Seitz |
| Edited by | Archie Marshek |
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Production
company |
Paramount Pictures
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| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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83 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $2.8 million (US rentals) 1,220,580 admissions (France) |
Calcutta is a 1947 American film noir crime film directed by John Farrow, and written and produced by Seton I. Miller. The drama features Alan Ladd, Gail Russell and William Bendix.
In postwar Asia, three American pilots, Neale Gordon (Alan Ladd), Bill Cunningham (John Whitney) and Pedro Blake (William Bendix) fly from Chungking, China to Calcutta, India. They live at the Hotel Imperial in Calcutta. When Neale and Pedro's aircraft is forced down in a mountainous area, Bill comes to the rescue.
Bill's fiancée, Virginia Moore (Gail Russell), at an engagement party tells Neale and Pedro that Bill has been strangled. Nightclub singer Marina Tanev (June Duprez) says Eric Lasser (Lowell Gilmore), the nightclub owner, cancels the engagement party on the night Bill was killed. Tearing an expensive diamond necklace from her neck, Neale confronts Virginia making her confess she was not in love with Bill.
During a flight to Chungking, Pedro meets Indian merchant Mul Raj Malik (Paul Singh) who tells him to visit him at his import-export shop. In Calcutta, Mrs. Smith (Edith King), a jewellery merchant reveals Bill bought Virginia's necklace and deposited a $7,000 check before he died. Neale is still wary of Virginia's involvement in his friends death and when he discovers a bag of jewels in the floorboards of one of their aircraft, he has to fight for his life.
Giving the jewels to Pedro, Neale returns to the hotel, hoping to catch the smugglers but Malik confronts him but is shot as he leaves the room. When Neale shows a jewelled brooch to Marina, she warns that Virginia knows more about the night Bill died. Going to her room, Neale finds it has been ransacked and Virginia is missing.
British police officers led by Inspector Hendricks (Gavin Muir) arrive to arrest Neale for Malik's murder. Pedro claims the gun that was used in Malik's murder was his. Neale is released and he pledges that he will find the real killer. Virginia contacts Neale, and tells him she loves him, but he is still suspicious of her motives. When the hotel desk clerk (Benson Fong) who was there the night Bill was murdered, contradicts Virginia's story, Neale wrings the truth out of her. She was part of the smuggling ring, with her role to get close to the pilots who were flying in and out of Calcutta, until Bill got wise to the scheme. She held a gun to Bill's temple but it was Lasser who strangled him.
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