Black Jack (1950)
Directed by Julien Duvivier, José Antonio Nieves Conde

Film Review

Black Jack (a.k.a. Captain Blackjack or Jack el Negro) is among Julien Duvivier's least well-regarded films and was made at a time when the director was struggling to find his feet after a mostly unsuccessful period in Hollywood during WWII.  Duvivier's attempt to re-start his career in France with Panique (1947), his bleakest film, had been a dismal failure, and he succeeded only in further alienating himself from both critics and audiences.  Still with an eye to the international market, the director made one film in the UK - Anna Karenina (1948) - and another in Spain - Black Jack - before settling down in France and confounding his critics with an odd mix of films that ranged from the conventional and classy to the overtly modern and experimental.

Although it is heavily laced with the dark cynicism that runs through most of Duvivier's later films ("No one is what they seems", observes George Sanders, after just about every character in the film has been shown  to have a double identity), Black Jack is also a surprisingly fun film, teetering on the brink of outright film noir parody in places.  With the complicity of co-screenwriter Charles Spaak (who scripted some of his best-known films, including La Bandera and La Belle équipe), Duvivier concocts the most implausible scenario of any of his films, carelessly throwing in clichéd characters and so many twists and turns that you soon wish you'd taken a travel sickness tablet.  The only surefire way to appreciate Black Jack is to regard it as a scurrilous send-up, Duvivier's final two-fingered salute to Hollywood.  It's a shame it is somewhat spoiled by some heavy handed moralising - drugs have apparently now replaced Nazism as the greatest threat to western civilisation.

A Franco-Spanish-American production, Black Jack was filmed on location in Spain and boasts an impressive international cast that includes George Sanders, Agnes Moorehead, Marcel Dalio and Howard Vernon.  Forever renowned for playing the archetypal English cad, Sanders appears surprisingly at home in a more ambiguous role and gives a plausible imitation of someone torn between being an utter scoundrel and an honest Joe.  Alas, Sanders' is the only character in this crazy film noir pantomime that rings true.  Do we, for one second, believe that genteel Herbert Marshall is a hard-nosed narcotics agent capable of gunning down his best friend, or that Agnes Moorehead is a master criminal?   Even Marcel Dalio has difficulty making his mercenary Nikarescu convincing, and as for Patricia Roc - well, suffice it to say that she is as believable as the plot allows her to be, which is not very.

Duvivier aficionados tend (with some justification) to give Black Jack short shrift but, in addition to being a fun romp, it does have a few inspired moments - most notably the almost surreal sequence in the caves, where the director's visual flair suddenly takes us captive.  After this weird digression into Bulldog Drummond territory (the last ten minutes of which would not be out of place in a James Bond movie), Duvivier would return to more familiar ground and redeem himself with a stylish anthology film, Sous le ciel de Paris (1951).

Film Synopsis

In the guise of a wealthy American yachtsman, Mike Alexander involves himself in lucrative contraband operations with the intention of amassing a huge fortune before he returns to the United States.  Presently residing in Tangiers, he uses his yacht, Black Jack, to ferry some notables off a boat laden with political refugees, for a handsome fee.  As he does so, Mike falls for one of the refugees, an attractive young woman named Ingrid Dekker, but she flatly refuses his help.  Shortly afterwards, Ingrid is safely on the mainland, having apparently been rescued by her boat's captain, Nikarescu.  With no money and no identification, she gratefully accepts the help of a rich middle-aged woman, Emily Birk.  The latter reveals that she is in fact working for an anti-contraband agency and intends arresting Mike when he takes charge of a large consignment of drugs shipped from the Far East.  Ingrid has no choice but to assist Miss Birk in her scheme, only to discover that she is not quite what she pretends...