Affair in Trinidad (1952)

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Mr. Arkadin
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Affair in Trinidad (1952)

Post by Mr. Arkadin »

Rarely screened Rita and Glenn Ford film. Comes on Tuesday.

I have been begging TCM to show this for a long time because I want to see it. Has anyone seen it and what did you think?
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Dewey1960
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Post by Dewey1960 »

Hi Arkadin, nice to see you again! With respect to AFFAIR IN TRINIDAD, I can only say that I hope you feel it was worth the wait. Visually the film is impressively rich and the presence of its two magnetic stars helps considerably. In some rather obvious ways it is reminiscent of GILDA but without the pretensions to high art. I saw it for the first time a year or so ago (the Mystery Channel was running it fairly regularly a while back) and I was pleasantly surprised. Definitely worth taping / recording.
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Post by Mr. Arkadin »

Hi Dewey,

I saw it in the 70's with my Dad (on TV I think) and I remembered it was good, but I can't remember that much about it.

I was pretty young at the time and I thought Glenn Ford was great in this film. However, as we get older sometimes we don't feel the same about things we liked as kids.

I also saw "Make Way for Tomorrow" (1937) somewhere around this time and have never seen it since. I really did not even know the name of that film until a few years ago.

Do you know anything about the film that shows right before "Affair", "The Lady in Question" (1940)?

Looks interesting. It also stars Brian Ahearne. I'll probably record it.
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Dewey1960
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Post by Dewey1960 »

Have never seen THE LADY IN QUESTION but will probably be setting my timer. Thanks for the reminder!
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moira finnie
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Welcome Dewey!

Post by moira finnie »

Hi Dewey,
Glad you've found your way here. I think that The Lady in Question (1940) is enjoyable for an early peek at the Rita Hayworth-Glenn Ford chemistry in relatively small roles. Since I have a weakness for Brian Aherne, (yes, i may be the only one), I've seen it before and find that Aherne's role isn't the greatest, but the story and the rest of the cast make up for it. I hope that you'll post your reactions after seeing it.
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Post by Dewey1960 »

Hi Moira, and thanks for welcoming me to this wonderful new site! I'm a Brian Aherne fan as well--I particularly like him in John Brahm's psychological noir THE LOCKET with Larraine Day and Robert Mitchum--a very misunderstood and consequently underrated film.
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Post by Mr. Arkadin »

I love BA as well, but my first introduction to him was not one of his films. It was his book on his friend George Sanders "A Dreadful Man".

I thought it was a fascinating read and went on to check out his films from there. He was not just a great actor, but good writer and nice guy to boot!
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Sue Sue Applegate
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Post by Sue Sue Applegate »

Hi, Mr. Arkadin.
Just read the noir thread at TCM and realized I didn't respond to your Brigton Rock query.

Hermione Baddeley was also very good in that film. I actually got to walk on that pier last summer where part of the movie was filmed and heard all about it's history.

Richard Attenborough revealed much early promise in that role and I wish this movie would be shown on TCM as an import. It is a fabulous noir.
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Mr. Arkadin
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Post by Mr. Arkadin »

Sounds great Sue Sue. Is it availible on DVD or video? Love your avatar by the way.
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moira finnie
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Brian Aherne

Post by moira finnie »

Image
I can't believe it! Picture me, walking on air, dancing with joy: there are other people on earth who actually like Brian Aherne.

On every other message board where I've mentioned his name I've gotten a who :?: or someone responds that he makes their skin crawl. I enjoy many of Aherne's movies. I think that John Brahm's The Locket is a pip of a psychological story, and can't understand its neglected status since it also features fine cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca and may feature Laraine Day's best work. Some of BA's more endearing and stylish performances to me are in Sylvia Scarlett, Merrily We Live, Vigil in the Night, (he's pretty dreamy opposite Carole Lombard), Juarez,(great part, beautifully done, and Bette Davis once said that he was the best one in the film), The Best of Everything (a nice, different role for Brian as a handy-andy boss who favors liquid lunches with his stenographer du jour) and my new TCM-delivered discovery, Captain Fury, which was delightfully cheesy fun with Aherne and Victor McLaglen making like an Australian Robin Hood and Little John.

Mr. Aherne's affectionate book on his difficult friend, George Sanders, A Dreadful Man, is on my bookshelf next to Aherne's autobiography, A Proper Job, which I heartily recommend. He wrote well about his family, early theatrical career and his perspective on keeping his equilibrium during his roller coaster life (see Joan Fontaine chapter, among others), and a sometimes disappointing Hollywood career.

Btw, I hope that you've had the opportunity to see the 1960 Twilight Zone episode, "The Trouble with Templeton" in which a reflective Aherne plays a theatre actor who was a star in the 1920s, who finds that he may be better off living in the present more fully.

Oh, one more thing. I come by my fondness for Mr. Aherne genetically. My mother, a native New Yorker, used to pine for him regularly when he appeared onstage as Mercutio in the Katharine Cornell production of Romeo & Juliet in the thirties, (Basil Rathbone was Romeo!). Mom's convent school friends tried to goad her into approaching the six foot, red-haired Aherne at the theatre door to ask him to attend their one and only annual school dance, but common sense and shyness prevented her taking that plunge. Mr. A. was very nice to my future mother and her buddies when autographing their Playbills. Funny that Mom went on to marry a six foot redhead eventually, eh?
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Affair in Trinidad

Post by moira finnie »

Now that I've fed my jones for Brian Aherne by digressing in that one post, I thought that I'd mention that one thing that's come across to me in the Rita Hayworth films that have been shown so far on TCM this month is the vulnerability that the "love goddess" so often projected on screen. In The Lady in Question this lost quality manifested itself throughout the courtroom scenes and in the despair and resignation of her character as she tentatively tried to find another way out of her character's dilemma.

In Affair in Trinidad, about a decade later, this quality is even more evident. As Robert Osborne pointed out, it is startling to see the contrast between her sensitivity as a grieving, misunderstood widow and her dazzling sensuality during her song and dance numbers. From what Vincent Sherman, the director of this film mentions in his autobiography, Studio Affairs, Hayworth was a lonely and wounded individual who needed constant reassurance, (and whom Sherman briefly became involved with on a personal level too). I can't help but wonder if Rita Hayworth's fragility might have been indicative of her personal setbacks as well as possible early stages of Alzheimer's. I thought the plot of this film was a pretty lame retread, though I enjoyed many of the actors' work, especially that of Torin Thatcher and to a lesser degree that of a petulant Glenn Ford.

Btw, those Jean Louis gowns were miracles of engineering, weren't they?
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Post by Rusty »

Hello,

Off topic here, but reading about Brian Aherne...well, I have to reply with something. Brian Aherne is an underrated actor, but his big screen performances are sometimes good and sometimes not so good. For instance, the best Brian Aherne performance I have watched is Aherne teamed with Helen Hayes in What Every Woman Knows (1934). Aherne and Hayes are really good together. One year later...Brian Aherne and Joan Crawford appear together in I Live My Life and I simply did not sense much chemistry between the two stars. A few years later, Brian Aherne stars in My Son, My Son!. I can't help comparing Brian Aherne in My Son, My Son! with Spencer Tracy in the similarly plotted...Edward, My Son (1949). Aherne's father of spoiled son comes off second best to Tracy's father of spoiled son. Is it fair to make the comparison between Spencer Tracy's performance and Brian Aherne's performance? Sure it's fair.

moira...I do agree with you regarding Captain Fury. I loved the movie. Here is something funny. TCM broadcast Captain Fury at about the same time as the Victor Mature howler...Captain Caution. I put both "Captain" movies on the same dvd to compare and contrast "fury" versus "caution". You know...a theme disk. They certainly could have used a furious Captain on the cautious boat.

Now, back to Rita.

Rusty
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Brian Aherne barges back into the thread

Post by moira finnie »

Rusty,
I absolutely understand your feeling about the consistency of Aherne's performances on film. He felt it too. In the memoir that I mentioned, Brian Aherne talks about the way that he'd jump into a project with great enthusiasm, especially if he thought that the script was good and that it might bring him better choices in the future if successful, but, due to the inconsistencies of studio politics and his own, sometimes admittedly poor choice of contractual obligation, (at one time he was under contract to RKO and Hal Roach, among other individuals & organizations), Aherne sometimes lost heart about his ability to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, and too often did films just for the dough.

Aherne had many outside, rather expensive interests, other than acting, among them farming and aviation. After one too many promises from various studios and agents, (he is alleged to have been seriously considered for the Ronald Colman parts in Prisoner of Zenda and A Tale of Two Cities), he eventually turned happily back to theatre and established himself as a character man on film until retirement.

Btw, except for the scenes in the court room in The Lady in Question, I don't think he's so hot in that particular movie, though I give him extra artistic doobie points for trying an older character role while still a relatively young man.
Mr. Arkadin
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Re: Affair in Trinidad

Post by Mr. Arkadin »

I thought that I'd mention that one thing that's come across to me in the Rita Hayworth films that have been shown so far on TCM this month is the vulnerability that the "love goddess" so often projected on screen. In The Lady in Question this lost quality manifested itself throughout the courtroom scenes and in the despair and resignation of her character as she tentatively tried to find another way out of her character's dilemma.

In Affair in Trinidad, about a decade later, this quality is even more evident. As Robert Osborne pointed out, it is startling to see the contrast between her sensitivity as a grieving, misunderstood widow and her dazzling sensuality during her song and dance numbers. From what Vincent Sherman, the director of this film mentions in his autobiography, Studio Affairs, Hayworth was a lonely and wounded individual who needed constant reassurance, (and whom Sherman briefly became involved with on a personal level too). I can't help but wonder if Rita Hayworth's fragility might have been indicative of her personal setbacks as well as possible early stages of Alzheimer's.

That's an interesting thought. I will also be checking out "Miss Sadie Thompson" this month as well. This will be the third film of Maughm's short story (Sadie Thompson/Swanson, Rain/Crawford being the first two).

I am curious to see what RH can bring to this role. The personal baggage she dealt with more than equipped her for the part. Of course the production and how the film is handled will make a huge difference as well.
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Brighton Rock

Post by Sue Sue Applegate »

I don't even know if it is available in the US. I watched a burned DVD of it in the UK. If it is for sale, it may be only available in the UK, and the need for a multi-region DVD player would be required.

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