ROBERT MITCHUM, WILLIAM BENDIX & JANE GREER 'THE BIG STEAL'

Year: 1949 Rating: **1/2

In one scene towards the end of director Don Siegel's THE BIG STEAL, Robert Mitchum and reunited OUT OF THE PAST starlet Jane Greer are pulled over in their Mexico-traipsing vehicle, and have some snappy dialogue with some Spanish locales... and there's finally some chemistry between the two leads... 

Otherwise STEAL... which is only a film noir in that Mitchum's wrong man American lieutenant is falsely accused of murder,... s more of an action crime caper that, while semi-decently flowing from one fast-paced scene to the next and featuring William Bendix as a cop following Mitchum's cop, has way too many distracting (and cheap-looking) rear-projection scenes during perpetual car chases... 

Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer in THE BIG STEAL

Mostly taking the viewer out of what's another of offbeat multi-millionaire Howard Hughes RKO-owned Robert Mitchum-starring production that seems like a bunch of odd action pieces pieced together...

Never completely allowing the ensemble to blend with the story, or allowing otherwise effectively likable local cop Ramon Novarro enough input, seeming the most game to Siegel's attempt at a snappy comedy thriller... perhaps had he played Bendix's otherwise tacked-on role as Mitchum's dogged competitor (and upped sophisticated villain Patric Knowles's game), STEAL would have felt less piecemeal and more complete.

Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer in THE BIG STEAL with Roman Novarro and Don Alvarado

Robert Mitchum in THE BIG STEAL

Patric Knowles in THE BIG STEAL

Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer in THE BIG STEAL

Patric Knowles, John Qualen and William Bendix in THE BIG STEAL