The great suspense director Robert Siodmak made this wonderful sleeper for Universal, a terrific romantic crime drama that has been overlooked. What a treat to catch up with it seven decades later.
Jeff Chandler is unlikely but brilliant casting against type as the Italian gangster deported to Naples five years after finishing his prison stretch for a robbery, in which the $100,000 he stole was never recovered.
In Italy, Claude Dauphin, solid as always, is cast as the whimsical but dogged Italian agent committed to arresting Jeff before he can set up criminal operations in his home country. Jeff is forced to return to his home town for 30 days, and lives with his older brother, who is a really nice guy, thinking Jeff is a big shot on government business in Italy, little realizing he's a notorious criminal.
With fabulous location photography by Hollywood great William Daniels (known for his glamorous work on many films starring Greta Garbo and later gritty classics like "The Naked City" and "Brute Force"), it's clear this was shot during the Italian Neo-Realism period. But Siodmak manages to balance a touching and tasteful romantic story of tough-guy Jeff falling for the glamorous local Contessa played by Marta Toren, with the inevitable underlying crime story as Jeff indulges in (topically significant) black-market activities -up to his old tricks. But he is ultimately redeemed in a rather fanciful way -not exactly "Miracle in Milan" but quite heart-warming in its own fashion thanks to writer-producer Robert Buckner's script. Surprisingly, the basic story here is quite similar to the current TV hit "Tulsa King", but without the tongue-in-cheek humor and fashionable glamorization of the Mafia. Chandler, before his good-guy and Silver Fox image, is amazing in staying in character, while Toren's beauty is a revelation, and Marina Berti is very fine as the "bad girl" of the story.
