Having survived difficult times, an ex-cop gets hired by a casino boss looking for a competent but discreet investigator. The ex-cop is supposed to find the missing wife of the casino boss. He does locate her, in record time, but things do not end well. Shortly after leaving the building, he watches her plummet down to her death...
A mixed bag, this one. "One Shoe" boasts enjoyable performances from two fine actors, to wit Robert Mitchum as the ex-cop and Angie Dickinson as the Woman With A Past who latches on to him. Dickinson in particular exudes an intriguing mix of weakness, duplicity and kindness. One recognizes her immediately as one of those individuals who, impervious to good sense, go through life accumulating doomed marriages and bruising relationships. As a thriller, however, "One Shoe" isn't all that impressive. Our ex-cop protagonist seems passive and lazy, expecting the facts to walk right up to him and introduce themselves as if they were guests at a New Year's party. Near the end he identifies the murderer correctly, but this feels more like a lucky guess than the result of sustained and rigorous detective work. For all he knows (or rather, for all he ignores) the murdered woman might have inspired the enmity of scores of other people, meaning that there might be several equally plausible suspects walking around.
The movie is not helped by the fact that the murder victim remains a cypher and a void. There's just hearsay and tittle-tattle where there should have been a distinct personality.
I rather get the impression that the source novel must have been stronger. Still, there exist far worse movies out there. A score of about five stars seems just.
A mixed bag, this one. "One Shoe" boasts enjoyable performances from two fine actors, to wit Robert Mitchum as the ex-cop and Angie Dickinson as the Woman With A Past who latches on to him. Dickinson in particular exudes an intriguing mix of weakness, duplicity and kindness. One recognizes her immediately as one of those individuals who, impervious to good sense, go through life accumulating doomed marriages and bruising relationships. As a thriller, however, "One Shoe" isn't all that impressive. Our ex-cop protagonist seems passive and lazy, expecting the facts to walk right up to him and introduce themselves as if they were guests at a New Year's party. Near the end he identifies the murderer correctly, but this feels more like a lucky guess than the result of sustained and rigorous detective work. For all he knows (or rather, for all he ignores) the murdered woman might have inspired the enmity of scores of other people, meaning that there might be several equally plausible suspects walking around.
The movie is not helped by the fact that the murder victim remains a cypher and a void. There's just hearsay and tittle-tattle where there should have been a distinct personality.
I rather get the impression that the source novel must have been stronger. Still, there exist far worse movies out there. A score of about five stars seems just.