La Maison de l'amour perdu

The underrated Roberto Gavaldon helmed this stylish woman's picture about two medical practitioners who fall in love but typical for a melodrama are not allowed to find permanent happiness together.Early in the story Del Rio's washed up father, also a doctor, makes a comment on how our most desired aspirations are the ones we never realize. Del Rio's competition here is Miroslava, another striking actress, who plays the doctor's rich girlfriend who he lands up with. Del Rio has in common with Ingrid Bergman a quality of warmth that makes her convincing in roles like this where she is trying to do good for humanity. The story is told in flashback as we see her, aged and alone, and uses a series of mirror shots at dramatic moments in a way that anticipates the later 50s movies of Sirk in Hollywood. (in a later scene we see her with her window curtains blowing that could be something from Written On the Wind.)