When you're writing a novel and it's necessary for plot purposes to allow characters to behave inconsistently or to contend they were in a certain place at a certain time when in actual fact you have recorded the fact in an earlier chapter that they were miles away or not even in the country at all at that particular time, just go right ahead! Few people, if any, will pick you up on this. This movie, for instance, has at least two really glaring plot holes, but I didn't pick them up myself on a first or second viewing. It was only last night that I suddenly realized that at least three or four of the principal characters are either incredibly stupid or inexhaustible liars or simply as blind as bats! But as I say, if you've never seen the movie at all, please go ahead and watch it. You'll really enjoy it. The screenplay not only jots along at an admirably fast pace, encompassing lots of twists and turns, but it's enacted by a really great cast of professionals – no born yesterday brainwaves or witless protégés of sexually inexhaustible producers. Powell and Rainer, of course, are both in fine form – but so is everyone else in this fast moving, big ticket production.
Review of The Emperor's Candlesticks
