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. ***. 

EVERGREEN

Just a guppie: Jessie Matthews

EVERGREEN (1934). Director: Victor Saville.

Music hall star Harriet Green (Jessie Matthews) has fallen in love and decided to retire. Her sycophants tell her that she is ageless and will remain "evergreen." Then someone gives her distressing news and she runs off all of a sudden. Decades later, Harriet's lookalike daughter, also named Harriet, shows up in London, and winds up masquerading as her own "ageless" (and deceased) mother. She herself becomes a music hall star, but how long can the deception last? Aside from one lovely tune, 'Springtime in Your Heart" -- which I believe is by Roger Woods and not Rodgers and Hart, who contributed one or two minor ditties -- this is a decidedly poor British musical starring the "talents" of the fish-faced Jessie Matthews whose singing is a trial for the ears -- Betty Boop, anyone? At least when her friend Maudie (Betty Balfour) does a horrendously bad version of an aria from Rigoletto, it is meant to be funny. At one point young Harriet's singing boyfriend Tommy Thompson (Barry MacKay) pretends to be the older Harriet's son, and the two put on a romantic (!) act together, which is gross in of itself. The final production number is okay, there is a weird "futuristic" bit with descending tubes transforming dancers into space-types, but for the most part these numbers are bad imitations of MGM musicals. Matthews later played the mother of Tom Thumb. Matthews has her fans; I am not among them.

Verdict: Stupid, with mostly uninteresting players, and just one good song. **.