Malaga (1960) Poster

(1960)

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6/10
Who can you trust?
ulicknormanowen30 November 2020
Statuesque Dorothy Dandridge's follow-up to "Porgy and Bess", it's a return to the forties film noir ;aka "Malaga" where part of the action takes place ,it takes us from England to Spain .

The first fifteen minutes are almost silent in the darkness of a luxury house.The screenplay is deriivative but the Dandrige/Howard / Purdom acting is effective and gives the movie substance :;the main question ,all along the movie ,even when there are only two of them is :who can be trusted ? Once a betrayer ,always a betrayer ,they might say . Howard is first a macho ,who does not put his trust in women ,but little by little , he discovers that all are not necessarily femmes fatales.

It's a pity Miss Dandridge 's career was short-lived ,becaused she had already three good movies under her belt (" Porgy and Bess" plus "Carmen Jones " and "Tamango" ,both based on French writer Prosper Mérimée's short stories.)
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6/10
Looks like a losing situation for everybody.
mark.waltz12 April 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Meeting up in the exotic Malaga is the end of the line of two jewel thieves, Trevor Howard and Edmund Purdom, as well as Purdom's girlfriend, Dorothy Dandridge in her last film. She looks pretty exhausted after making "Porgy and Bess" the year before, and that world-weary appearance is perfect for her role as the frustrated tool in and they do for Howard and purdum who has robbed in London safe of its jewelry, with Purdom rushing off to Spain and Howard and Dandridge following because he has left her penniless and left Howard without his share of the sale of the jewels. The exotic locations are not served well in black and white so you have to rely on the story to get you involved.

This is definitely going to be a curiosity for fans of Dandridge, photographed to look caucasian and playing Howard and purdum against each other throughout so you're never quite sure of her motives. Neither men obviously trust each other, and it's apparent that their machinations against each other will destroy them, and possibly Dandridge whose character seems tired of life anyway. It's a tense and ugly situation where Dandridge really has no chemistry with other man, but her character seems to be desperate for any man to look after her. Michael Hordern is seen briefly as the London detective questioning Howard. An interesting low budget curiosity that would have been a lot better in color.
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10/10
Dorothy's last movie
carmenjones41126 April 2005
Dorothy finished up her film career with this great film about two drifters trying to find a jewel thief who has wronged them, Dorothy is very effective playing this world weary woman, because she herself was weary in her own life, she plays the part with no make-up and a not so becoming wig, but manages to look breath-taking none the less, i think her character Gianna is the best she ever played, even more than Carmen because the line between fact and fiction blurred in this, the rest of cast is also effective, Dorothy and Trevor worked well together, and should have been paired in another film.this is a hard to find film, but worth it to see Dorothy in her last film role.
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1/10
So So
samtrak12044 February 2013
Dorothy Dandridge is the only reason to see this awful film. The plot sucks. The dialog is really stupid. The film is racist because Dorothy and Trevor are not allowed to touch even though they share the same bed. This was Dorothy's last film and the desperation shows.

After her Oscar nominated role as "Carmen Jones" in 1954 Dandridge was offered only one more starring role in a big production movie because Hollywood didn't know what to do with a beautiful black leading lady...thus relegating the star to whatever low budget B or foreign films her devoted manager could scrounge up.

"Porgy and Bess" followed five years after "Carmen" but was universally panned or boycotted by blacks resenting the mammy images and blatant racial stereotypes created by producer Otto Preminger, Dorothy's back door white lover.

Actually Trevor Howard is much too ugly to kiss beautiful Dorothy Dandridge...race aside. She should have been given a handsome leading man like her lightweight boyfriend in this film. Still I would love to see legitimate quality copies of MALAGA, MURDER MEN, and PORGY & BESSS released on DVD.
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10/10
Dorothy Dandridge in the performance of a lifetime!
normbong11 July 2007
Forget Carmen Jones! This is Dorothy Dandridge's greatest performance on film, bar none. Her disillusioned, world-weary, but still hopeful Gianna is the essence of film noir. The parallels to her life are eerie. She says to Johnny (Trevor Howard), "No, with us, Johnny, it has to be everything -- or nothing." "Everything and Nothing" would be the title of her posthumously-published autobiography a few years later. She says, "London was my Mexico. There isn't any Mexico for anybody, anywhere." The day she died, she was to return to Mexico to do some television and film work.

Forget the drivel published in most movie-listing books. Watch this film for yourself (if you can find a way to do so). This is a master actress giving everything she has to a role. I would love to see a brand-new director's cut with the outtakes replaced. The haunting music is by Matyas Seiber, who studied composition under Bela Bartok. This film is new every time you watch it.
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10/10
A man and a woman set out to find a former friend who betrayed them after a jewel heist which takes them to Spain.
carolscott56425 December 2007
I remembered this film as a child when it would come on Channel 7 movie. I could not believe this was Ms. Dandridge's last film role because she was so good. Hopefully this movie will be on DVD. The cast was so good and due to Jim Crow they could show kissing between black and whites in films like they can now. I've always liked Trevor Howard and he was quite good in Malaga. After Carmen Jones Ms. Dandridge did other films such as Island in The Sun Porgy and Bess, The Decks Ran Red and Tamango and except for Porgy and Bess she always seem to be lusted after by white men. But Ms. Dandridge to me was our Marilyn Monroe! This movie is rarely shown on TV whether cable or not! For Black History month certain stations would mostly show Sidney Poitier movies as if that is what Black History is all about. Some people never heard of Dorothy Dandridge until Halle Berry portrayed on HBO! They say you're as good as last film and this film would be the last for Ms. Dandridge and we will never know what other film roles she would have done.
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