Come prima... meglio di prima

Undistinctive but enjoyable tearjerker: American doctor loves/loses/finds Vienna nightclub entertainer. The skillful screenplay mixes motherhood, medicine and the Iron Curtain, plus manages a few provocative digs at American male behavior. Rock Hudson and George Sanders give appealing performances. In the central role, German actress Cornell Borchers looks like Ingrid Bergman but lacks her warmth. A rich supporting cast includes a bit by Clint Eastwood . Old-fashioned, but done with some dignity.

It's a really sweet story, but the execution of it to bring it to our screens is disappointing.

The A to B of 'Never Say Goodbye' is rather endearing, with people reconnecting. However, how the film fills in the blanks is kinda shoddy. I found a lot of the dialogue to be cringeworthy and the way characters act came across as irritating. I will say most of that stems from the final 30 or so minutes, it's a tad more solid up until that point.

The cast members themselves are good, it's all well acted. Rock Hudson, Cornell Borchers and George Sanders are all decent value. The look of the film is also pleasant enough. I just wish the production itself, namely on the writing side, was more well made.

Clint Eastwood has a blink-and-you'll-miss-it uncredited role, though is named - as 'Will'. Still a fair few films until his career really got going.

Although Jerry Hopper is the credited director of "Never Say Goodbye", Douglas Sirk oddly goes unrecognized as the co-director. Though Sirk's presence can be felt at times, "Never Say Goodbye" lacks the visual irony and heaving drama of his greatest films. Nonetheless, this is a beautifully-acted, handsomely-crafted affair, with a lush Frank Skinner score and some climactic melodrama thrown in for good measure. Part war romance, part domestic drama, "Never Say Goodbye" is an interesting hybrid that actually works.

Rock Hudson plays a military doctor who falls in love with nightclub pianist, Cornell Borchers. They marry and have a baby and all seems right. That is, until Hudson's seething jealousy wrecks everything that they had established. Tragedy tears the couple apart and Hudson must raise their daughter alone. Years later, fate brings the couple back together and their daughter(played surprisingly well by a young Shelley Fabares)must come to grips with the mother she had never known. The always good George Sanders is sorely underused as the man who blames Hudson for the entire ordeal.

"Never Say Goodbye" has its heavy-handed moments for sure. And you just might roll your eyes at how quickly and cleanly the ending gets wrapped up. But the action gets rolling almost from scene one and it turns out to be a satisfying, if unmemorable, nugget of 1950's soap opera. Uinversal-International continues to churn out the glossy fluff with this one.

Although widely acknowledged that parts of "Never Say Goodbye" were directed by Douglas Sirk, the credit is given to Jerry Hopper with no mention of Sirk at all. Filmographies of Sirk's work most often do not include this work.

"Never Say Goodbye" has many of the hallmarks of Sirk's work, though is much lacking in the biting social criticism that elevated his finest work. Like "Interlude" this is pure melodrama, filmed with style but ultimately forgettable.

Rock Hudson and George Sanders turn in predictably solid performances but it is Cornell Borchers an Ingrid Bergman Greta Garbo hybrid, who manages to bring a sense of truth to the more than unlikely drama, which is essential for the melodrama's success.

While obviously not in the class of the major Sirk melodrama's there is enough here of interest to followers of his work.

This remake of "this love of ours " starring Merle Oberon inspired by a play by Pirandello was to be directed by Douglas Sirk who provided the movie with the German actress Cornell Borchers ;portions of the movie were directed by Sirk himself.

If you like melodrama with a capital M ,you will like "never say goodbye" ;Jerry Hopper cannot be mentioned in the same breath as Sirk who was the master of the genre in the fifties ; there are similarities with "magnificent obsession" : the accident , Dr Parker assisting the surgeon during the operation ,and his guilt feeling (he caused Wyman' s blindness in "obsession " ,he unfairly accuses his faithful wife of cheating on him ,which causes her daughter's "advanced Elektra complex" .There are roughly three parts ,the second of which is a long flashback ,taking place in Vienna just after WW2.

Sirk could turn exponential tear-jerkers into masterpieces ,Hopper only made an estimable work ;directing is rather flat ,but the screenplay achieves maximum emotion ,the girl is adorable (the final sketch is really a good trick ,thanks to the always reliable George Sanders );an uncredited Clint Eastwood (today my favorite American director) appears as Dr Parker 's lab assistant .