Second viewing; previously viewed on January 4, 1989
A ship bound for Africa is docked at an Italian town while it waits for an engine part to be replaced. Among its passengers is an American adventurer who works for a group of crooks who plan to get rich exploring uranium. The American and his wife befriend an English couple who are taking possession of a coffee estate which they have inherited. The English guy's wife starts an affair with the American; she has a tendency to lie about her husband, which leads to a series of misunderstandings. A further series of mishaps happen later.
This is a much improved print compared to the one I watched previously (restored too). That being said, and having now a knowledge of the entertaining source novel, my admiration for this movie faded somewhat. The plot and the dialogue are interesting, but they do not feel as lively and authentic as in the novel; by the way, most, if not all, the critics, for some mysterious reason, state without the shadow of a doubt that all the best lines of dialogue, some of which are really splendid, come from the first credited screenwriter. To be fair, a funny exchange about the wrecked car, and in fact that whole sequence, were created for the movie. Ditto the unfunny allusions to Hitler and Mussolini. Nearly all of the other dialogue came from the source novel and were thus written by its author, Claud Cockburn. And for all we know Cockburn may have written the previously mentioned ones as well, since he also contributed with the script in a direct manner and did not receive credit for it. The casting for this film was brilliantly done, but in my opinion the two leading actresses would have been more convincing if they had switched roles.
Rating: 60 (down from 73)
No comments:
Post a Comment