brogmiller

A typically well-heeled production from the Michael Relph-Basil Dearden partnership featuring three actors who bring their distinctive personalities to bear. Despite only two Bond films being in the can, Sean Connery was already wary of being typecast as 007 and was keen to play a caddish villain whilst Sir Ralph Richardson was also apparently seeking a change of direction. This was to be the first British film for Gina Lollobrigida who reportedly asked when told that her possible leading man was Sean Connery: "Sean who?"

It was on the cards that La Lollo's diva-like tendencies of arriving late and offering advice on how scenes shoud be lit would clash with the no-nonsense Connery and the jury is still out as to whether the infamous 'slap' scene in which he appears to strike her with more vehemence than necessary, cutting her lip and sending her reeling was a sign of his frustration or merely the result of miscalculated timing. The slap remained in the final cut with the point of contact cleverly edited. What is beyond doubt of course is their sexual chemistry on screen and the effectiveness of their performances.

The film really belongs to Sir Ralph as his character is called upon to be both loathsome and sympathetic and is portrayed by an artiste of range and substance the like of whom alas we shall never see again.

The film looks ravishing as shot by Otto Heller in Eastmancolor, the designs by Ken Adam are lavish whilst use of the glorious music of Beethoven, Berlioz et al adds a further dimension to proceedings.

Despite unfavourable reviews the film performed extremely well at the box office on both sides of the Atlantic and although for this viewer at any rate the material fails to justify its two-hour length it succeeds in being what its director intended it to be, a piece of entertainment.

In Shakespeare's late play 'The Winter's Tale', the character of Leontes observes that should every husband despair of being a cuckold then 'the tenth of mankind would hang themseves.' In this adaptation of Dostoevsky's novella 'The Eternal Husband', the cuckolded Nicolas, having discovered that his late wife had deceived him with a roué named Michel who fathered the daughter he has brought up as his own, sets about wreaking revenge through psychologically perverse means.

This bleak depiction of hatred and of human nature at its ugliest is stylishly directed by Pierre Billon, aided by the gloomy sets of Georges Wakhévitch, the shadowy images by cinematographer Nicolas Toporkoff and Maurice Thiriet's brooding score.

In what was fated to be his final role the magnificent Raimu completes his gallery of unforgettable character studies with his troubling performance as the utterly despicable Nicolas. He had recently been admitted to the Comédie-Francaise and it is only fitting that he is supported here by Aimée Clariond, Louis Seigner and Gisele Casadesus all three of whom were members of that hallowed institution.

Little Lucy Valnor is deeply touching as Nicolas' cruelly treated daughter.

After a dramatically effective final scene with the fragile dandy Michel of Clariond, Raimu's hunched figure walking away into the evening mist is the screen's farewell to one that Orson Welles called 'the greatest actor of them all.'

Faced with problems of finance, not uncommon in the world of Film, producer Betty Box put her own money into this feature directed by Ralph Thomas which not only proved a commercial success but cemented a professional partnership that continued into the 1970's.

Janet Green's brisk screenplay moves imperceptibly from psychological thriller to fugitive story and the chase segment in North Yorkshire is more than a passing nod to Hitchcock. Interestingly, amongst a cast of familiar faces, Kenneth More plays the pursuer and would later play the pursued for Mr. Thomas in his remake of 'The 39 Steps'.

The film stars Trevor Howard, an exceptional actor and somewhat unconventional leading man who always had a simpatico with his leading ladies and here the enchanting Jean Simmons is no exception. This was to be her last British appearance before going off to La-la Land.

Geoffrey Unsworth is behind the camera and the score is by Benjamin Frankel whilst the direction, albeit reliable, lacks the indefinable touch of a master. Ralph Thomas described himself with refreshing humility as 'a sort of journeyman director, generally happy to make anything that I felt to be halfway respectable.'