The cynical neo-noir Saint Jack is set in Vietnam War-era Singapore and features great performances by Ben Gazzara and Denholm Elliott, and the only movie appearance by Monika Subramaniam. Director Peter Bogdanovich shot the film guerilla-style, pretending to the local authorities that he was following a more politically acceptable script. After years of being very hard to find, Saint Jack is finally available to stream.
Gazzara plays Jack Flowers, a charming rascal of an American expat who has a Get Rich Quick idea – to open a huge brothel in Singapore to service thousands of US troops being flown in from Vietnam for short Rest and Recreation junkets. Sure, he’s dealing with the US military and the CIA, and he’s taking profits away from the scary local underworld, but what could possibly go wrong?
Saint Jack reflects the cynicism of 1979 America about the Vietnam War – the folly of waging an counterinsurgency war on industrial scale, including sex vacations for the troops, and the hypocrisy of the “plausible denial”. The story based on a Paul Theroux novel.
In the fine TCM podcast The Plot Thickens, Bogdanovich relates how they shot the movie in subterfuge to evade the Singaporean authorities. Bogdanovich wryly omitted thanking the government in his closing credits: “We thank the people of the Republic of Singapore, on whose island this picture was filmed.“
The vivid tropical colors, including the garish nighttime, belie the noir core of Saint Jack – the little guy trying to play a game that’s been fixed against him. Jack Flowers, relying on his guile and audacity, thinks he has an angle. But, of course, he is overreaching, seeking to out-maneuver forces far more powerful than he.
How do we feel about the film’s hero being a pimp? Differently than in 1979, that’s for sure. Since this movie was made (by men), most of us have learned more about the exploitation of sex workers, and we’ve come to understand that pimps are usually physically and sexually abusive, althogh Gazzara’s character of Jack is not. I think it’s OK to watch Saint Jack with the understanding that the benign brothel owner Jack is grossly unrepresentative.
Ben Gazzara’s title character is simultaneously good-hearted and cynical. Here and in The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Gazzara excelled in playing very cool dudes from grimy environments who become entangled in desperation. Gazzara is on my very short list of the most perpetually cool humans to ever walk the planet, along with Dean Martin, Jean Gabin, Joan Jett and Barack Obama.
Denholm Elliot contributes a wonderful – and heartbreaking – supporting performance. Elliot plays William Leigh, a British accountant who has found himself in steamy Asia but is nostalgic for the English countryside. Leigh also finds himself seduced by the more high energy Jack and pulled into Jack’s world.
In her first and only cinematic performance, Monika Subramaniam’s sparkling charisma is inedible. Not for the first time, and not for the last, Bogdanovich had an intimate relationship with his female lead. After the shoot, Bogdanovich brought Subramaniam back to live with him in the US. In The Plot Thickens, Subramaniam gets to tell about her experience in coming to California and which of Bogdanovich’s exes was so nice to her.
Saint Jack is the best movie (out of 512) that Roger Corman has produced, Corman had given Bogdanovich his start with Targets, and in the intervening 12 years Bogdanovich’s star had risen (The Last Picture Show, What’s Up Doc?, Paper Moon) and fallen (Daisy Miller).
Peter Bogdanovich was a genius director and an unsurpassed raconteur. One of my own greatest moviegoing experiences was sitting next to Bogdanovich (yes, in the immediately adjacent seat) during a rare screening of They All Laughed. Another was being in the audience when the Roxie Theater screened The Last Picture Show and Saint Jack – with Bogdanovich in attendance for two Q&A sessions.
Saint Jack can be streamed on Amazon (included with Prime) and AppleTV.