"Santiago" (1956)

In many ways, the Alan Ladd adventure film Santiago (1956) feels like a kind of a remake of Ladd's earlier war picture, China (1943).  It's not really a true remake -- Santiago is based on a book by Martin Rackin, who also co-wrote the screenplay and produced the film, not on the screenplay for China.  But there are an awful lot of similarities.

For instance, what?  Well, in Santiago, Alan Ladd plays a cynical gun-runner who sells his goods to the highest bidder and prides himself on not taking sides in the conflict in Cuba.  In China, Alan Ladd plays a cynical oil salesman who sells his goods to the highest bidder and prides himself on not taking sides in the conflict in China.

You can say, so what?  Alan Ladd built a career playing cynical anti-heroes.  "Guy who starts out cynical, selfish, mean, and alone learns to care about other people and put their needs ahead of his own" is the character arc for the vast majority of the people he played.  With good reason -- he pulls off that arc beautifully, and why not let him have repeated shots at warming our hearts?

But there are more similarities.  In both films, his character is approached by a lovely, fresh, patriotic woman who tries to convince him to join her cause.  In both films, he refuses to pick a side until someone young and innocent is brutally killed by the opposing side.  Then, and only then, he joins the rebellion.

You've also got a burly and likeable side character who serves as a sort of Jiminy Cricket-style conscience for Ladd's character in both pictures.  In China that's played by William Bendix, while here, it's a job for Chill Wills.  You also have someone who makes the ultimate sacrifice in an explosive way to eliminate as many of the enemy as possible at one time.

Now, obviously, there are quite a few differences.  Santiago takes place in during the Cuban war for independence from Spain in 1868, while China takes place during World War II.  Much of the action in Santiago takes place aboard a paddlewheel boat, while most of China happens in and around a truck.  And Ladd's character doesn't really have a romance with the girl in Santiago.

The first time I watched Santiago, I didn't really notice the similarities, probably because I hadn't seen China umpteen times yet.  But I have now, and man, did I notice a lot of things that echoed that earlier film!

Anyway, in Santiago, Alan Ladd plays Caleb "Cash" Adams, a dishonorably discharged U.S. Cavalry officer who now makes a living selling guns illegally to whoever wants them.  Adams takes a job smuggling guns to the Cuban revolutionaries past the Spanish blockade, which takes him aboard a paddlewheel boat captained by an ex-Confederate naval officer, "Sidewheel" Jones (Chill Wills).

Cash Adams's wartime experiences have turned him bitter, selfish, and cynical.  Sidewheel Jones is the opposite -- he's mellow, kind, and honorable.  The two of them get along oddly well, considering that they were on opposite sides of a war a few years earlier, though that's mostly because Jones is the easygoing sort of guy who gets along with most people unless they endanger his beloved boat.  

Also aboard that boat are the beautiful revolutionary Doña Isabella (Rossana Podestà), whose family is financing the smuggling operation, and a whole lot of mean hombres led by a skunk (Lloyd Nolan) who doesn't want Adams to get the money owed him for those guns.  Much tension ensues, and continues after everyone gets to Cuba.  They can't land the guns close to the revolutionaries, so they have to take them overland, which means there's a pretty big risk of Spanish troops finding them.

Of course, Spanish troops do find them.  Fighting ensues, and quite a few characters die before it's all over.  By the end of it all, Cash Adams is a staunch friend of the Cuban revolutionaries, ready to fight for their independence rather than just pursue money for the rest of his life.

I particularly love that George J. Lewis gets to play a Cuban revolutionary in this.  Lewis was a friend of Ladd's and appeared in small parts in many of Ladd's movies.  He has a tendency to surprise me when he crops up in a Ladd movie because I won't recognize his face, but I'll recognize his voice, sorta -- I'm used to him using what I assume is a variation of his native Mexican accent while playing Don Alejandra de la Vega in the Disney TV series Zorro (1957-61).  It always takes me a while to recognize him without either the beard or the accent.  But he uses the same accent here, and I knew who he is immediately :-D

Is this movie family friendly?  Yeah. There's some violence, but little blood.  The worst thing is that a boy is beaten very badly off-screen, though we know the beating is bad because of how adults react to him, not because of blood and bruises shown to the audience.

It's Alan Ladd's birthday today, just so you know :-)  This review is my annual salute to him.  He was about my age when he made this picture, and in much better shape than I am!  He even got to do a bit of diving and swimming on screen, which I'm sure made him happy :-)