When you're asking yourself pertinent questions as a film unspools before you it's usually a sign that something is sadly amiss. The first question I asked myself here is WHY, Quentin Reynolds. Okay, the film is going to be a flashback ergo Ray Milland needs someone to tell his story to but given that he is telling it to a fellow passenger on a flight to Paris it could have been any fictional creation. Given the date of the movie, 1947, it may well be that Reynolds was familiar as a war correspondent but the fact that Milland is telling Reynolds and not Gregory Schmearcase adds nothing to the story. Next question; as stated, Milland tells his story on a flight to Paris, again, WHY. The story he is relating took place in Germany and that is where his gypsy lover, Dietrich, is waiting for him. So why not a flight to Berlin, Frankfort, Stuttgart or whatever. Leading on from this, one minute he is on the plane - en route, remember, to Paris - in the next shot he is deep in the German countryside rendezvousing with Dietrich and her caravan. How did he get there? At the beginning of the film, set in September, 1939 - war is declared even as we watch - Milland is a British agent, travelling with a colleague and intent on obtaining a formula from a German chemist. Milland and colleague are arrested, escape and don German uniforms. Having sunk the car in which they escaped, they separate after arranging a rendezvous near a signpost. Milland meets Dietrich, a gypsy, and travels in her caravan. When they reach the rendezvous Milland's colleague turns up in full Bavarian gear and riding a bicycle. How did he acquire these things. It's little things like that, plus the total lack of chemistry between Milland and Dietrich, the fact that director Mitchell Liesen is totally out of his element, being more at home with sophisticated comedy and elaborate sets that tended to mar any enjoyment the movie may have had
Review of Golden Earrings
