We confess that we haven't seen The Las Vegas Story and if the reviews are anything to go by, it doesn't sound like we've missed that much. Here's what we were able to glean about this 1952 film noir, however.
The plot revolves around an investment broker, played by Vincent Price, who insists that his wife Linda, played by Jane Russell, accompany him on a trip to Las Vegas. While Lloyd Rollins, the husband, gambles heavily, Linda, who's an ex-Vegas lounge singer, runs into the former love of her life, a policeman named Dave Andrews, who's played by Victor Mature. From synopses we've read, we gather that Lloyd has secretly hocked a valuable necklace of his wife's to the owner of the Last Chance casino, her former workplace, who subsequently winds up dead.
Insurance investigator Tom Hubler, played by Brad Dexter, deduces the identity of the killer, who then takes Linda hostage and flees into the desert. This, we gather, leads to a car and helicopter chase that's acknowledged as one of the few high points of the film and was the first such chase of its kind in movie history. We won't spoil the ending for anyone who hasn't seen it.
We understand that the film was partially shot in Las Vegas, including scenes at McCarran Field (the former name of what's now McCarran International Airport), plus some "local casinos," but we were unable to find out which ones. If anyone who's seen the movie can shed any light on that, we'll post it as an "Update" to this answer.
As far as contemporary reviews go, The New York Times described this movie from RKO, which was then owned by Howard Hughes, as "one of those jukebox gambling films that gives the impression of being made up as it goes along...For the simple fact is that Miss Russell is slightly grotesque to look upon in the tacky costumes and pinched-in get-ups with which she is cheaply adorned, and for the rest she contributes to the drama nothing more than a petulant pout and a twangy whine." The scriptwriters fare no better, earning criticism for their "loose-jointed, tabloid-tinted fiction."
It seems the movie-going public concurred: The film posted a loss of $600,000.
It appears there was more drama off-screen than on, with Howard Hughes refusing to give principal writer Paul Jarrico a screen credit because of the latter's alleged pro-communist sympathies. As a result, Jarrico sued Hughes and RKO, leading to one of the more notorious cases of the Blacklist era.
In addition, we read on imdb.com that the night before the Las Vegas premiere of The Las Vegas Story, Jane Russell got into a fight with her husband Robert Waterfield, during which he punched her in the face several times, leaving it visibly bruised and swollen. But the studio didn't want to cancel the premiere, so the star was obliged to appear on the red carpet with a beaten-up visage. The less-than-plausible official story given to the press was that a car door had slammed into her face during a windstorm the previous night.
And that's about all we can tell you about The Las Vegas Story, but we'd love to hear the opinions of any of you who've seen it.
