Singapore | |
---|---|
Directed by | John Brahm |
Produced by | Jerry Bresler |
Screenplay by |
Seton I. Miller Robert Thoeren |
Story by | Seton I. Miller |
Starring |
Fred MacMurray Ava Gardner Roland Culver Richard Haydn |
Music by | Daniele Amfitheatrof |
Cinematography | Maury Gertsman |
Edited by | William Hornbeck |
Production
company |
Universal Pictures
|
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date
|
|
Running time
|
79 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Singapore is a 1947 American film noir crime romance film directed by John Brahm starring Fred MacMurray and Ava Gardner. The film was remade as Istanbul (1957) with the location moved to Turkey, and Errol Flynn and Cornell Borchers in the starring roles.
Pearl smuggler Matt Gordon (Fred MacMurray) finds romance with Linda Grahame (Ava Gardner) just before the start of World War II. He proposes to her, and she accepts. However, when the Japanese attack Singapore, the church where she is waiting to marry him is bombed; Gordon searches frantically in the wreckage, but cannot find her. He is forced to sail away on his schooner.
With the end of the war, Gordon returns after five years and is met by Deputy Commissioner Hewitt (Richard Haydn), who is convinced he has returned for a hidden cache of pearls. So are Gordon's old criminal associates, Mr. Mauribus (Thomas Gomez) and his underling Sascha Barda (George Lloyd). Mauribus offers to buy the pearls, but Gordon denies he has any.
Then, to his shock, Gordon sees Linda, but she does not remember him or anything prior to waking up in a hospital during the war. After spending years together in a prison camp with plantation owner Michael Van Leyden (Roland Culver), and now known as Ann, she married him. Gordon tries to help her remember her past, but to no avail. She does, however, go to see Linda's pre-war servant, Ming Ling (Maylia). Ming Ling recognizes her, but Linda's memories are still blocked.
Giving up, Gordon retrieves the pearls from his old hotel room and hides them in the luggage of the current occupants, American tourists Mr. and Mrs. Bellows (Porter Hall and Spring Byington). Hewitt questions and searches him after seeing him exit the room, but discovers nothing. However, he informs Gordon that Ann Van Leyden is missing.