Temptation Harbour

This is a hidden gem of film noir. Not the usual fare of hard-nosed gangsters plugging each other with lead, but a much simpler story of a decent man caught up in the understandable lure of easy money. Robert Newton (Treasure Island) plays a widowed harbor bridge man who lives alone with his adolescent daughter in simple surroundings. He witnesses a murder and tries to rescue the victim. Instead, he dredges up a valise with 5000 pounds; quite a sum in those days. From here there are many unforseen complications, including a very pleasant romance with a circus performer (Simone Simon, who was the original Cat Woman). That would have been more than enough complications for any man, but there are many other forces at play here. The murderer, the police, and a man's conscience. It is interesting to note which of these is the most prominent. Very good viewing.

Robert Newton has been a railroad night signalman, stuck in a box for eight hours a night for twenty years. His wife died three years ago, and he's trying to raise their daughter, Margaret Barton. One night he sees two men get into a fight in the yards, and one of them goes down. Both disappear, but he recovers the suitcase they were fighting over. There are five thousand pounds in small bills in it. He takes it home, determined to take it to the police, but on his way, there are too many temptations: a five-pound smoking pipe.... well, easy enough to stick with his old one, but there are other temptations.

Can decency survive in a Film Noir world? Oh, easy enough for someone like Bogart, I suppose, who's sampled the world and found it wanting, or Robert Mitchum, who can barely open his eyes to see, let alone want. But what is a little man like Robert Newton to do? He seems to be unaware there is anything outside his poor, little world, until he finds his daughter scrubbing floors in a butcher shop, the butcher's wife shouting at her, and he realizes that with this money, she doesn't have to do that. She can have that new dress, they can go to the fair and see Simone Simon, the Atomic Mermaid, and maybe he can have her too....

There's something sleazy and slipshod about the best of British film noir that makes it much more compelling; there's an air of desperation about it, of little men slipping through the cracks that the relative richness of American noir never noticed, outside of a few like Gordon Wiles' THE GANGSTER. With supporting players like William Hartnell and Marcel Dalio, this one has it.

Released in 1947 it was overshadowed by Brighton Rock of course.

We were delighted to be instrumental, together with Jonathan Duvall, to arrange a one night screening of the the only print(then at the BFI) of this film at The Silver Screen Cinema Folkestone.

I tried to find some of the locals, kindly assisted by John Gale local fisherman, who had appeared as extras to attend too. This was 2012 and pre-digitising of the print.

Robert Newton was said to be partial to a drink on set!

It is a classic film noir and great shots of the sleepy fishing village that is now a bustling resort. As a Dr. Who fan - it is also interesting to see William Hartnell in a very different role.

"Temptation harbor" is actually the remake of Henri Decoin's " l'homme de Londres" (1943) one of the twenty or so movies produced by the German La Continentale in the French occupations days.

The American screenplay ,based on Georges Simenon 's book ,has undergone some changes : the hero is a widower whereas in the French movie he had a whole family ; Camelia was a prostitute (with a big heart) whereas she's a "mermaid" at the fair in Lance Comfort's work.

Gone are religion, the colleague in the signal box who mentioned the Bible and the difficulties for man to stay on the straight and narrow .

But the gist of the movie is the same ;both heroes ,with their man-next-door look (Robert Newton is an ideal successor to Fernand Ledoux ) , are haunted by the lure of gain but smitten with remorse ; if religion is absent in Comfort's effort, one attends "a tempest in a skull" a la Victor Hugo : the frames of mind in voice over ,and Robert Newton's face reflect an unbearable feeling of guit.

The character of Camelia was thoroughly rewritten and developed ; one should note that they reverse the countries : the action which took place in France in Simenon 's book and in the first movie is now situated in England: and Camelia is played by French actress Simone Simon who had already two masterpieces under her belt ("Renoir's "la bête humaine" and Tourneur's "cat people") , her character is French although she appears as a stateless person ,not really a femme fatale ,who dreams of a little home in her native land .

Decoin 's movie focused on the atmosphere ;Comfort's effort is more action with a good sense of rhythm and scenes full of contrasts (the opening scene is the fair ,and the hero's daughter and his new love get along very well (not the usual jealous cliché)) ; the scene in the shack by the sea where only the lighter shows the face is even superior to Decoin's .

Both Decoin's and Comfort's version sufficed ,although Bela Tarr's 3rd adaptation turned it into highbrow stuff in 2008.

For some reason this film has been unseen for more than 30years.Unshown on TV,unreleased on vhs or DVD.I saw it over 30years ago at the BFI South bank.It is a great film,finally now viewable on the BFI player.Great performance from a restrained Robert Newton,atmospheric photography and taut direction.This film deserves a DVD release so that we can watch it whenever we like,not have to wait whilst it is stuck in a vault.