Captain Carey, U.S.A. Blu-ray Review
The Fourth Man.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, August 15, 2012
Alan Ladd was perhaps one of the more unlikely major stars of the Golden Era in Hollywood. Not especially good
looking or even overly charismatic, and not known for any
bravura acting chops, Ladd was additionally so
famously small and short that legends still persist of directors having to stage scenes with the actor standing on a box
or his leading lady standing in a specially dug trench so that Ladd would appear to be appropriately taller than his co-
star. Ladd seemed to single handedly elevate the gangster film idiom beyond its scowling Edward G. Robinson and
Jimmy Cagney roots, and the actor also brought the same taciturn coolness to his depictions of frankly gangster-like
private eyes. His films with his fellow Paramount contract player Veronica Lake were among the most popular films of
the forties, but by the time Ladd's film
Captain Carey U.S.A. came along in 1950, the actor had probably passed
his peak prime (though one of his most iconic roles, the title character in
Shane, was still a couple of years in the
offing). There's little doubt that
Captain Carey U.S.A. wants to trade in at least a little on the memory of one of
Ladd's more popular films from the immediate post-World War II era,
O.S.S.. Ladd is indeed a former Office of
Strategic Services operative, the title character of the film, who returns to a still devastated Italy after the conflict to
seek out a traitor whose efforts led to the deaths of several of Captain Carey's cohorts during the war. The film has
largely been forgotten since its release, though its legacy includes one of the best remembered songs ever to grace a
film, the beautiful Ray Evans – Jay Livingston standard "Mona Lisa", which became a signature tune for Nat King Cole
and which in fact won the Best Song Academy Award that year.
Somewhat ironically considering the fact that "Mona Lisa" is arguably the best remembered thing about
Captain
Carey
U.S.A., the song and its legendary writing team receive no on screen credit, and in fact the song itself is used within
the film as a sort of musical semaphore to warn Italian freedom fighters that Nazi troops are approaching. The first part
of
Captain Carey U.S.A. takes place during actual wartime, when Carey (Alan Ladd) spearheads a small force in a
picturesque Italian enclave that includes a rather opulent castle on its own private island, a hideaway where Carey and
his cohort have set up shop. Not so coincidentally Carey has also started a passionate romance with Giulia (Wanda
Hendrix), the granddaughter of the palace's imperious Countess, Francesca di Cresci (Celia Lovsky). This prelude comes
to
an abrupt end when an invading squad of Nazis shows up, obviously having been tipped off about the Americans'
hideout.
In the ensuing melée, Carey is seriously wounded, his OSS buddy is killed, and it sounds like Guilia has been shot
"offstage".
The bulk of the film actually takes place a couple of years after the war. Carey is back in the United States with an
erstwhile new girlfriend when he sees a painting in an art dealer's window. He's intrigued, as it's a painting of the
island palace, a painting that had been stashed away in a secret alcove in the palace, a hiding place that Carey
deduces would have only been known to him, his now dead buddy, Giulia and whoever betrayed them. He decides to
return to Italy to track down who secreted the painting out of Italy, thinking that that person will be the traitor who got
his buddy and Giulia killed, as well as led to Carey's own personal version of post traumatic stress disorder.
Carey soon finds himself swept up in a series of post-War subterfuges that are quite reminiscent in their own way of
the trials faced by Holly Martins as he attempts to track down Harry Lime in Carol Reed's legendary
The Third
Man. Carey finds himself a pariah of sorts, and he can't quite figure out why. Adding to the shock of his treatment
is the fact that Giulia is actually alive and has married a kind of suave, but obviously slimy, Baron (Francis Lederer).
Carey soon becomes a suspect in not one, but two, murders, murders accomplished with an old OSS knife.
Captain Carey U.S.A. is fitfully effective, though it never really rises to the levels of tension that it might have,
due to its emphasis on the star-crossed love affair between Carey and Giulia. The film actually builds to an interesting
climax, when various villagers start to realize that at least some inhabitants of the palace have been Nazi and Fascist
collaborators during the war, and they end up storming the battlements just as Carey is uncovering who was actually
behind the initial betrayal as well as the subsequent murders for which he's been blamed.
While Ladd is marginally effective in this role, the character of Carey never gives him to opportunity to really strut his
stuff like some of his more iconic forties roles did. The real color here is a rather eclectic supporting cast. In addition to
the winsome Wanda Hendrix (who bears a rather startling resemblance to another ex-Paramount player, Frances
Farmer), Celia Lovsky is excellent as the imperious dowager whose attempts to marry her granddaughter into a
politically ambitious family may have backfired. Joseph Calleia is also quite good as a doctor Carey befriends. Lederer
oozes a smarmy charm as the Baron, though that very proclivity makes identifying at least one of the culprits not much
of a mystery.
Captain Carey, U.S.A. Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation
I had the real privilege of meeting Ray Evans many years ago and of actually performing a little remembered tune that he
and his partner Jay Livingston wrote with Percy Faith for the stinkeroo
The Oscar. Ray was incredibly kind, going
out of his way to praise my piano playing, and he later was even kinder in giving me a beautiful little blurb for a song I had
written which had then just recently won an international songwriting contest. I couldn't help but feel a little nostalgic
hearing the dulcet tones of "Mona Lisa" wafting out of the speakers as I watched
Captain Carey U.S.A.. But there's
a reason that that legendary song is by far the best remembered thing about this largely forgotten film. This really could
have been another desperately cynical post-World War II exposé a la
The Third Man, but it settles into a
comfortable conformity that makes it more of a romance with thriller elements. Everything here is okay, but one can't help
but think it could have been a lot better. This is one of the few problematic transfers we've seen from Olive, one that
seems to point to ineffective archival care of the original elements. Still, the film is watchable and curious fans won't be
disappointed given reasonable expectations.
