Though advertised as a noir, when this movie kicks off it feels like a feminine Douglas Sirk movie. And color noirs are extremely rare & problematic. After an unpromising, hazy, faded opening sequence, and after it abandons 'travelogue,' and 'class-envy feature,' the noir part finally arrives and it's shot really nicely. The compositions get nice and dark. A sequence with Mitchum in a dark house in Germany with a blind housekeeper is pretty striking and dreamlike.
There's so much right about this movie that the two major things wrong with it are very disappointing;
1) The movie traipses through genre after genre, unsure if the Noir angle (so popular in the 40s) is enough/still salable to '50s audiences. It goes through romance, cloak-and-dagger movie, Hitchcock flick, Swedish woo-woo film (horny, easy blonds), etc. It gets very uneven as it tries to be all things to all viewers.
2) It has the worst score in all of film history. Here's the irritating, percussive theme you have to listen to ad nauseum: "Click... clock.... click click clock!" Tense moment? "Click... clock.... click click clock!" Romantic moment? "Click... clock.... click click clock!" Tense negotiations? "Click... clock.... click click clock!" Police chase? "Click... clock.... click click clock!" It's beyond inept. It even plays as background music about 11 times. Brilliant though the theme is (sarcasm), it does nothing to underscore romance, tension etc. You've spent the money to film in European locations. Spend a buck on the score.
Give it a look. Bring some earplugs.
There's so much right about this movie that the two major things wrong with it are very disappointing;
1) The movie traipses through genre after genre, unsure if the Noir angle (so popular in the 40s) is enough/still salable to '50s audiences. It goes through romance, cloak-and-dagger movie, Hitchcock flick, Swedish woo-woo film (horny, easy blonds), etc. It gets very uneven as it tries to be all things to all viewers.
2) It has the worst score in all of film history. Here's the irritating, percussive theme you have to listen to ad nauseum: "Click... clock.... click click clock!" Tense moment? "Click... clock.... click click clock!" Romantic moment? "Click... clock.... click click clock!" Tense negotiations? "Click... clock.... click click clock!" Police chase? "Click... clock.... click click clock!" It's beyond inept. It even plays as background music about 11 times. Brilliant though the theme is (sarcasm), it does nothing to underscore romance, tension etc. You've spent the money to film in European locations. Spend a buck on the score.
Give it a look. Bring some earplugs.
