Macao had potential for me. A gritty third-world crime drama without annoying amounts of sentimentality heaped upon it, despite the presence of Jane Russell as the sultry singer whom we are continually reminded has a chip on her shoulder. Robert Mitchum is the ex-cop, whose presence threatens crook William Bendix, who in turn, is stuck in Macao due to the Hong Kong police waiting to nab him if he should ever cross more than three miles outside territorial waters, a fact referred to repeatedly throughout the film.

It's all mechanics and no heart. The characters never compelled me, and I never really cared about them. The noir angle is never capitalized upon. The intrigue isn't so intriguing, given we know most of the facts almost from the start. The singing is out of place. About all the film has going for it is the bare eighty minutes of its length. Cap it all with a seemingly interminable chase sequence, which could be added to some judicious cuts to fit within an hour - with commercials, and maybe you'd have a decent episode of a broadcast drama. Here, it's just silly.