Unlike other WWII-exiled directors who left Hollywood ways behind on returning to post-war Europe, Anatole Litvak kept one foot in both camps. A commercially adept move on his previous film (AIMEZ-VOUS BRAHMS?/’61 - Ingrid Bergman; Anthony Perkins; Yves Montaud), less so in this off-kilter suspenser, again with Perkins, now with Sophia Loren. If anything, it’s the smoother production, but didn’t catch on and is now forgotten. Perkins a stumbling block in both films; overdoing coltish passion in the first film, here unable to find a line on his intriguing bifurcated character, a psychopathic charmer juggling a series of lies to collect an insurance payout when he secretly survives a plane crash.* But will wife Loren report him or aid & abet? A tricky proposition as she’d just given notice on their troubled marriage. Then again, maybe this tainted windfall is a perfect ending to an imperfect union. Or would be if only Perkins hadn’t such an unstable personality; smart enough to implicate Sophia in all his lies. You’re never sure where you stand in this one, which is good. But Litvak can’t find the right tone to play it in, which is not so good. Still, worth the look, with ‘shifting-sands’ alliances between the couple, their inconsistent friends, and Gig Young as a new admirer who can’t figure this woman out.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *Charles Boyer, back in his GASLIGHT/’44 heyday, would have known just how to play this guy. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2010/05/gaslight-1944.html
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