Beautiful Stranger

Lively and Lovely to Look at Movie that moves rapidly here and there with Everyone trying to figure out Who is Who and What is What and is breathless to say the least. The Cast, including the Dramatization of Ginger Rogers Career is OK if nothing remarkable. It is the Action and the Intrigue that Star here.

Some on location Photography and Criminal behavior Spice things up beyond the rather Bland Romance Angles. There are extended Fight Scenes, Misidentifications, Smuggling, Thievery, and Murder, Adultery, Betrayal, and after all, a Deathbed confession that thankfully, and predictably clears things up.

There is enough here to recommend because once things get going it is all in Perpetual Motion that makes for a Fun Film Experience, although it fails to be sharp enough for it to rise above expectations, but it does manage to deliver just that.

In fact, there are so many coincidences and misunderstandings in this movie it looks as though the makers of 1986's "Ruthless People" looked to this film for inspiration in writing that comedy.

Ginger Rogers plays Johnny Victor, an ex-showgirl who has become the mistress of Louis Galt (Stanley Baker). Everything she thinks she knows about him is wrong. She thinks he's been long legally separated from his wife and waiting on the divorce to become final - in fact he is estranged from his wife but very married. She thinks him to be head of a family business - he is, but it's his wife's family business, and any divorce would be the end of his executive life and the end of the front for his real business - counterfeiting illegal coins.

Now that's the straight-forward part of the film. The rest of it is one long string of coincidences and misunderstandings. First off, Johnny is friends with Emil (Herbert Lom) who is a con artist. She gives him money because she thinks the money is going to his sick wife. Emil is also working for Louis (several flights down in the chain) selling the counterfeit coins. Neither Louis nor Johnny know that the other one knows Emil. Emil owes Louis a bunch of money he can't pay back because he gambled it away, so he thinks he can get the money back by robbing Johnny's safe when she's away from home. He does so, and escapes detection by Johnny, but he takes something that was a personal gift from Louis. When Louis sees the bracelet up for hock and realizes Emil hocked it he thinks Johnny has a lover and it is Emil. Well, Johnny does have a new love, one she met after she found out Louis was permanently married, but he is an artist in the village, not Emil.

The end result is all of these people are arguing with each other yet none of them are on the same page. Emil is the only one who has most of the facts, and he's perfect as the cowardly little weasel. Somehow this not too bright piece of inhuman slime manages to steal even more loot, commit what seems to be the perfect murder, and frame unknowing suspects. One piece of advice here from years of watching Perry Mason - if you are ever in such a catbird seat, just walk away from the scene of the crime and act like you were never there - that's what people who want to appear innocent do. Do not follow the people you framed to see how it all turns out.

This is a European noir so there are certain techniques in style and acting that make it different from its American counterparts, but it is still an edge of the seat viewing experience. Only Ginger Rogers and maybe Herbert Lom will likely be familiar to American viewers. If those of you who recognize Lom know him only as Inspector Dreyfuss from the Pink Panther movies you'll find Lom's portrayal of the slowly emotionally unraveling Emil a revelation. Highly recommended.

By the 1950s, Ginger Rogers had proved several times over that she was an excellent dramatic actress. Why she chose this project is beyond me. Was it to showcase her new actor husband? Ginger looks wonderful. Her clothes are stylish. The sets are lavish. The locales are beautiful (even in black and white). The script and plot seen to be an afterthought.

If seeing Ginger and her two handsome leading men is enough for you, this is worth viewing. Don't expect to be otherwise entertained.

A rather smart plot ,gambling on the mistaken identities; the characters are cardboard, except for Herbert Lom's , the loser flesh on the bone with a lot of self-pity : Lom ' s performance gives the story a little substance , his playing often resembling Peter Lorre's .As for Johnny , to put it mildly ,her generosity verges on naiveté.

French Jacques Bergerac only made two movies in his native country where he remained virtually unknown ; and abroad,he could never become the French lover, as Charles Boyer and Louis Jourdan did : a pretty face and a slight accent are not enough.

This is problematic from the start. Stanley Baker seems okay but while he enthuses over his young love we are only too aware that poor Ginger Rogers is a little old for her role. Another problem arises almost immediately when we realise just how flat and uninteresting this is going to be. Baker looses it as he has to become more two faced and Rogers doesn't stand a chance as she has to take on another lover. Only Herbert Lom stands a chance of saving the day and as things hot up towards the end it seems as if he might but then the story unravels and we don't care about anything at all.