AFFAIR IN MONTE CARLO

Merle Oberon

AFFAIR IN MONTE CARLO  (1952). Director: Victor Saville.

Novelist Robert Stirling (Leo Genn of Personal Affair) tells a group of casual friends and tourists the story of a woman he knew, Linda Venning (Merle Oberon of The Price of Fear), who fell in frantic love with an unnamed young man (Richard Todd of The Hasty Heart) who loses all of his money in the casino. Linda is afraid that he is going to commit suicide and tries to help him. Although his personality is such that is hard at first to imagine why she is drawn to him despite his attractiveness, something about him eventually wins her over, even after he confesses that he bankrolled his trip by "borrowing" a necklace from an aunt. The two have an idyllic day together, but then comes the time when Linda must decide if she is going to pursue this relationship or not. But will she be able to live with her decision?

Star-crossed lovers: Todd and Oberon

Based on a novel by Stefan Zweig (as was Letter from an Unknown Woman), Affair in Monte Carlo is a lovely little picture that boasts a wonderful and sensitive performance from Oberon, an interesting musical score by Robert Gill and Philip Green, and an unexpected and satisfying conclusion. Stirling is convinced that Linda was genuinely in love with the young gambler, and not just infatuated, but the feelings can be equally mesmeric in either case. Genn is good; Todd effective if not as good as Oberon. IMDB lists the film as being 75 minutes long but the only print I can find -- on Amazon Prime and on youtube -- is ten minutes shorter, and there is an obvious gap when Oberon seems done with Todd but then there's an abrupt cut to a scene when they seem perfectly at ease with each other in a carriage.

Richard Todd

In any case, Affair in Monte Carlo is a pleasant surprise. It examines those quick but intense relationships that spring up unexpectedly and mean something to the participants even though they don't know each other very well. It also delves into those situations in which people want to dive head first into a romantic relationship even while realizing that it's probably a terrible mistake to do so. And then there's the bittersweet - sometimes awful -- knowledge of the ultimate fate of someone that you once even thought, however crazy, that you might spend your life with.

Verdict: For romantic souls only. ***. 

LETTER FROM AN UNKINOWN WOMAN (2004/CHINESE)

LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN aka
Yi ge mo sheng nu ren de lai xin (original title) (2004/Chinese). Director: Jinglei Xu.

"If you were to call me, even if I were in my tomb, I would gather my strength, get up, and go to you."

"There is nothing more terrible than to be alone with people all around."

In this adaptation of Austrian writer Stefan Zweig's story "Letter from an Unknown Woman" -- already filmed under that title by Hollywood in the 40's -- a young woman named Jiang (played by the director Jinglei Xu) develops an intense, life-long romantic obsession with a writer who lived near her when she was a girl. Although the story has moved from Austria to China and has been updated to a pre and post-WW2 period, this version is somewhat more faithful to the print source than the Hollywood version. The settings are colorful, and the production is well-served by handsome photography and a lovely musical score -- not to mention wonderful acting from the director-star and others in the cast. One problem with the movie is that, even given cultural differences, it is hard to believe that the object of the woman's obsessions, as portrayed by Wen Jiang, would inspire fantasies in pretty young girls. Jiang is not unattractive, but he's not exactly Louis Jourdan, either. Officer Huang [Haung Jiao], who romances the woman, is a bit more on the mark. [Admittedly romantic obsession often has little to do with looks.] Whatever its imperfections, this deliberately-paced movie is moving and altogether admirable. Some may even prefer it to the Hollywood version.

Verdict: A little gem from China. ***.

LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (1948)

LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN (1948). Director: Max Ophuls.

"I came to offer you my whole life -- but you didn't even remember me."

Letter from an Unknown Woman is a movie that it seems you either love passionately or feel complete dispassion for, although on previous viewings I've always held the middle ground. I've finally begun to see this as a very good picture, but it has to be taken with a grain of salt. To those people who feel that there's no such thing as a one-man woman (or vice versa) -- or that such women are mentally diseased [and they may be right] -- Letter from an Unknown Woman  may seem more of a pathological study that a moving romantic movie.

The film is based on a story of the same name by Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, which is one of the most powerful and moving studies of unrequited love and romantic obsession ever written. [It is highly recommended for any lover of the short story/novella. It also explains a lot of Lisa's decisions that have appalled the film's detractors.] This Hollywood film version changes the object of desire from a writer to a composer and makes some other changes as well -- Lisa never gets married to anyone in the story --  although the basic substance remains the same. Lisa Berndle (Joan Fontaine) has loved a neighbor Stefan Brand (Louis Jourdan) since childhood. At first she worshiped from afar, but when she becomes an adult she has an affair with Brand, and even gives birth to his son (unknown to him). Unfortunately, Brand goes away for "two weeks" and she never sees him again ... until years later. The title refers to a letter Lisa sends Brand which forms the story of the movie, told in flashback.

Jourdan is excellent as the not evil but simply unknowing Brand. Fontaine is also excellent, although she's perhaps too sophisticated in the second half of the movie to make us believe she would fall for the same old lines from Brand [once bitten, twice shy, and all that].

Letter from an Unknown Woman was remade twice, first for French television in 2001 as Lettre d'une inconnue and then in 2004 in China. I will post about these in the near future, but for now I'll say that the Chinese version, despite changes in setting and era, is a actually more faithful to Zweig's story. 

Verdict: Memorable and moving. ***1/2.