The real-life 1951 Sugarloaf cable car accident in Rio de Janeiro provided the main inspiration for this enjoyable thriller which, unusually for a film noir, was a Technicolor, 3-D production that also featured stereophonic sound. Its story about a couple who fall in love whilst also trying to escape from their pasts and earn a second chance for a better future, ambles along without creating too much excitement until the eventful cable car incident which provides the movie with its tense, dangerous and very well-directed finale.
Having recently dumped her lover, gangster's moll Clare Shepperd (Linda Darnell) is on the run and trying to get as far away as possible from notorious mobster Vic Spilato who has ordered his hit man, Cappy Gordon (Jack Palance), to bump her off to ensure that she can't turn State's evidence and spill the beans on everything she knows about his criminal business. Cappy is a cold-blooded killer who, as soon as he arrives in Mexico, shoots and kills Spilato's bookkeeper who the gangster believes has betrayed him.
In a small town called San Cristobal, Clare (who uses the surname "Sinclair") catches sight of Cappy and as part of her efforts to avoid him, stops off at a local bullfight arena where she watches American boxer Russ Lambert (Robert Mitchum) take on a local fighter called Rivera (Abel Fernandez). She's very impressed by the victorious American and soon pressures one of her connections in the town to play cupid. Before she's able to meet Russ, however, Cappy catches up with her but instead of just completing his contract, tells Clare that he's in love with her and offers to spare her life if she'll agree to go off with him. Clare though, manages to escape and goes on to keep her rendezvous with Russ.
The couple decide to use the nearby cable car service to travel up to the beautiful village called La Cumbre, which is located high up on a mountain top. There they attend a fiesta where a jealous husband murders his wife and Cappy, who's still tailing Clare, again attempts to persuade her to leave the village with him instead of Russ. Clare, who pretends to play ball with Cappy, spends the night at the local hotel with Russ before, next day, they start their way back to San Cristobal on the 1.00pm cable car service out of the village. With Cappy and the fiesta murderer among the other passengers on board, their journey begins routinely but suddenly becomes very dangerous when one of the overhead cables breaks and the car is left dangling precariously high above the rocky valley below. The spectacular action that follows includes acts of heroism, cowardice and violence as everyone tries to bring their plight to a successful conclusion.
Robert Mitchum is well cast as the talented and heroic pugilist whose career in the States had gone south when he'd accidentally killed an opponent in the ring and Linda Darnell is good as Clare. Jack Palance is terrific as he brings some real bite and venom to his role as the villain of the piece and Sandro Giglio is a real star as the cable car conductor who's well versed in his company's rules, has a huge sense of responsibility and whose larger-than-life antics are often heroic as well as being hilarious to watch.
From its rather routine beginning, "Second Chance" ultimately develops into something far better and more entertaining than initially seems likely.
Having recently dumped her lover, gangster's moll Clare Shepperd (Linda Darnell) is on the run and trying to get as far away as possible from notorious mobster Vic Spilato who has ordered his hit man, Cappy Gordon (Jack Palance), to bump her off to ensure that she can't turn State's evidence and spill the beans on everything she knows about his criminal business. Cappy is a cold-blooded killer who, as soon as he arrives in Mexico, shoots and kills Spilato's bookkeeper who the gangster believes has betrayed him.
In a small town called San Cristobal, Clare (who uses the surname "Sinclair") catches sight of Cappy and as part of her efforts to avoid him, stops off at a local bullfight arena where she watches American boxer Russ Lambert (Robert Mitchum) take on a local fighter called Rivera (Abel Fernandez). She's very impressed by the victorious American and soon pressures one of her connections in the town to play cupid. Before she's able to meet Russ, however, Cappy catches up with her but instead of just completing his contract, tells Clare that he's in love with her and offers to spare her life if she'll agree to go off with him. Clare though, manages to escape and goes on to keep her rendezvous with Russ.
The couple decide to use the nearby cable car service to travel up to the beautiful village called La Cumbre, which is located high up on a mountain top. There they attend a fiesta where a jealous husband murders his wife and Cappy, who's still tailing Clare, again attempts to persuade her to leave the village with him instead of Russ. Clare, who pretends to play ball with Cappy, spends the night at the local hotel with Russ before, next day, they start their way back to San Cristobal on the 1.00pm cable car service out of the village. With Cappy and the fiesta murderer among the other passengers on board, their journey begins routinely but suddenly becomes very dangerous when one of the overhead cables breaks and the car is left dangling precariously high above the rocky valley below. The spectacular action that follows includes acts of heroism, cowardice and violence as everyone tries to bring their plight to a successful conclusion.
Robert Mitchum is well cast as the talented and heroic pugilist whose career in the States had gone south when he'd accidentally killed an opponent in the ring and Linda Darnell is good as Clare. Jack Palance is terrific as he brings some real bite and venom to his role as the villain of the piece and Sandro Giglio is a real star as the cable car conductor who's well versed in his company's rules, has a huge sense of responsibility and whose larger-than-life antics are often heroic as well as being hilarious to watch.
From its rather routine beginning, "Second Chance" ultimately develops into something far better and more entertaining than initially seems likely.