L'affaire de Trinidad

When one talks about Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford as a screen team, one is primarily talking about Gilda. There first film, The Lady in Question had them as featured players, second was the classic Gilda, third was The Loves of Carmen with a horribly miscast Glenn Ford. It was after that one, that Rita Hayworth married Aly Khan and was off the screen for four years.

When she came back, Harry Cohn decided not to be too adventurous. Her last big success was Gilda with Glenn Ford, she got Glenn Ford. She was a singer stranded in the southern hemisphere in Gilda, she was again a singer stranded in Affair in Trinidad. Stepping into the George MacReady's shoes as villainous mastermind is suave and continental Alexander Scourby.

Rita's husband is murdered and the Trinidad police inspector Torin Thatcher knows full well Alexander Scourby is behind it. Scourby is your international man of mystery in the Sydney Greenstreet, Orson Welles tradition. Thatcher wants Rita to spy on Scourby and she agrees to find out exactly what he's up to.

In comes Glenn Ford into the picture as her late husband's brother. He wants some answers and nearly succeeds in wrecking the whole project. Good thing Rita's a quick thinking girl, a better thing is that Ford's a man of action, helps them both out in a pinch.

Come to think of it, though Alexander Scourby is a fine player, Orson Welles would have owned this part and even better if he had directed Affair in Trinidad. This is just the kind of story that someone like him could have made into a classic. What a film to remember with Rita with her most well known co-star and another ex-husband as well.

Harry Cohn probably would have shot anyone who brought him that idea, still it's interesting to speculate.

Though Affair in Trinidad got panned by critics it cleaned up at the box office with all of Rita's loyal fans wanting to see her again. It's still a treat for fans of the screen's greatest sex symbol.