Istanbul

When the pilot James Brennan (Errol Flynn) returns to Istanbul, the local Inspector Nural (John Bentley) questions him in the airport about the objective of his voyage and also about some missing diamonds. James checks in the hotel and asks for his former room 424; however he goes to the bar to drink vodka, where he recalls his love affair with Stephanie Bauer (Cornell Borchers) five years ago. James and Stephanie are in love for each other; when James travels to Cairo with his plane transporting some cargo for a client, he visits his friend Aziz Rakim (Vladimir Sokoloff) to buy a wedding gift for Stephanie since he intends to propose her. Aziz sells an expensive bracelet for US$ 50.00 only, and when James returns to Istanbul, he finds two hundred thousand dollars in diamonds hidden inside the bracelet. But the gang of Mr. Darius (Martin Benson) chases the smuggled diamonds with James, who denies the existence of the stones. The criminals attack Stephanie in her apartment and when her building is on fire, she disappears and her body is never identified. On the present days, while in the hotel trying to retrieve the diamonds hidden in the ventilator of his former room, James sees Stephanie and she claims to be Karen Fielding and well-married with Douglas Fielding (Torin Thatcher). James tries to help Stephanie to recall who she is while Darius's gangsters chase him seeking the diamonds.

"Istanbul" is a moralist and dated love story, but also entertaining. The music score is fantastic, probably the best in this movie, with the awesome Nat King Cole singing "When I fall in Love". The story has many similarities that slightly recall the masterpiece "Casablanca", like for example, the lead character missing a lost love that reappears some time later with another man; a wonderful song (in Casablanca, the stunning "As Time Goes By" by Dooley Wilson); the tickets are replaced by smuggled diamonds; there is an inspector chasing the lead character. Therefore, the story is visibly inspired but without the charming of "Casablanca" and with a conclusion too corny for my taste. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Istambul" ("Istanbul")

Fairly good movie with some similarities to Casablanca including a song comparable to 'As Time Goes By' sung by the leading man's black sidekick.

Nat Cole was one of the greatest song stylists ever, and the way he caresses 'When I Fall In Love' is something to behold. As an actor he was just fair, but when he sings at the piano even Errol Flynn pays him an envious compliment.

Cornell Borchers is pretty but doesn't jump off the screen like Ingrid Bergman. Flynn is good but shows the beginnings of his alcohol induced physical slide that led to his premature death in 1959.

Yes, comparisons can be made to Casablanca, but this is not a remake of that movie. It is, however, a remake of "Singapore", starring Fred MacMurray and Ava Gardner. Aside from being left speechless by Ms. Gardner's overwhelming beauty, "Singapore" is a dreadful film. "Istanbul", however, is far more enjoyable for several reasons. 1) Errol Flynn. In spite of being older, slower, and puffy from decades of extremely hard living, the man had a personal charisma, effortless charm, and undeniable star quality that transcends all of the decay he had allowed to occur. I know of very few people who take Errol Flynn seriously as an actor, or think him very talented, but any true film aficionado knows the truth. Mr. Flynn's problem was that his performances were so casual, so effortless, so filled with natural humor, that the response was always "Oh it's just Errol being Errol" (not unlike the fate suffered by Dean Martin). I defy anyone to try and find a film where Mr. Flynn was not 100% honest on screen. Do you know how difficult it is to come across as casual on screen...as if the words you are saying are actually your own and not written in a script? Give the man his due. He is one of the most underrated actors in film history, which is a real crime. 2) Cornell Borcher. I don't recall ever having seen her before, nor since, so I looked her up on IMDb. I saw The Big Lift with Monty Clift, but don't recall her performance. Her other films appear to all be European and I haven't seen any of them. For reasons that are unexplained, she stopped acting in 1959. In my opinion, that is a shame. I thought she was really wonderful in this movie. It is rather startling how similar she is in look to Ingrid Bergman (which I am sure is another reason why there are Casablanca comparisons). I wish she had done more films, as I think her departure from acting was a loss for the movie-going public. 3) John Bentley as the customs agent who hounds Errol Flynn for the smuggled diamonds. Here is another actor who I had not seen before, nor since, but who gives a performance that is very nicely executed. His exchanges with Errol Flynn really help elevate the film. 4) Although a color film, there are many nice noir moments, and noir shots by director Pevney that attempt to generate viewer's interest, along with some very nice location shots of Istanbul that add immensely to the color and flavor of the film. 5) The incomparable Nat King Cole. A previous IMDb reviewer knocked Mr. Cole's acting, but I thought he did a fine job in this film, and there isn't a negative word that can be said about the man's singing. He was a one-of-a-kind.

I am certainly not blinded to the films drawbacks, however. Although under 90 minutes, there are times this film feels very long. Sections drag, and the story could have been tightened up quite a bit, but then I assume they were adding filler to make this movie a respectable length. The script is average, most of the supporting characters are one-dimensional or uninspired (with an obnoxious caricature of a petty thief presented by Hogan's Heroes star, Werner Klemperer). Some might also be expecting more action from a film that has Errol Flynn's name above the title, but one must keep in mind that this is a love story, with the smuggling, suspense, and action being truly secondary.

I think people are much harder on this film than they need to be. It is a flawed film, but that in no way keeps it from being entertaining...and, as I stated in the beginning, it is far better than the film it is intended to remake. A must-see for Errol Flynn fans, and a recommended outing for those interested in the kind of romantic-thriller-set-in-an-exotic-country movie that old Hollywood loved to make.

After reading some moderately positive reviews here I approached watching Istanbul with some optimism. I remembered fondly Errol Flynn's late-career turn as "Mike Campbell" in the film version of Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises". Although too old for the part, he put in a fantastic performance and was the only actor in that film who truly "got" his character from that great novel. Sadly here he is listless throughout whether fighting or romancing or anything. Cornell Borchers plays the love interest done up as Ingrid Bergman but with little of the charisma. As an aside Peggy Knudsen ("Mona Mars" from "The Big Sleep") plays the distaff side of a crass American tourist couple. The roles are played in the manner of Ralph and Alice from "The Honeymooners" and it jars greatly to a modern taste showing yet again that the past is a foreign country. The plot involving lost love and diamond smuggling is ho-hum and the overall entertainment value is passable only.

This must seem like a very superficial second hand plagiarism of "Casablanca" to many, but there is actually much more to it than that, if you bother to look deeper into the story, another fascinating study in a case of amnesia with a lot of question marks, many of which you have to figure out for yourself.

Errol Flynn comes back to Istanbul after five years and remembers the turbulence of his last visit, in which he was involved in some diamond smuggling. He had a great and promising love affair, when everything was brutally interrupted by unforeseen circumstances, and he couldn't come back for five years. On his return he meets again his great love, but she is another person, and he has some trouble in understanding the situation, especially since she is now happily married, or at least so it seems. There is very much in this intrigue of seeming appearances while much more isn't easily told.

The superficial impression and unavoidable associations to "Casablanca" are especially exacerbated by Stephanie's almost irritating likeness with Ingrid Bergman, but there is no Humphrey Bogart here. Instead you have an unusually sober Errol Flynn with almost a stone face, covering up stormy feelings with some difficulty, which must trouble him all the way. But the finale is a wonder of almost metaphysical turnings of a totally unexpected nature, and that's where you have to complete the picture by your own thinking; because Errol Flynn's sober face is never more stony than when he has given up all.