La vendicatrice

Fritz Leiber has been assassinated. Proof in court has demonstrated that it was done by the bandit Donald Buka. However his daughter, Faith Domergue, believes the notes was forged and that he was assassinated by the family of Joseph Calleia because he believed in justice and ruled against him in court. She is intent on her vendetta. However, he brother, George Dolenz, who has been away for ten years fighting in war, believes in the rule of law, as does his fiancee, the English Hillary Brooke.

What do you get when three different screenwriters attack a Prosper Merimee story, which is that directed by five different directors, two cinematographers, and the biggest star is Nigel Bruce? A mes is what, with sexual innuendo of every variety dripping over the boggy set? You get an estimated four million dollar turkey produced by Howard Hughes -- who apparently was an uncredited sixth director of some reshot scenes) which took four years from initial shooting to getting released. Critics and the public were unkind to the movie, and it's easy to see and hear why: while every shot is fine, it just goes around and around until the bandit points a gun at a witness and he says he perjured himself, but all you can hear is Roy Webb's score quoting the same phrase from Puccini over and again.

The IMDb claims that Don Siegel was asked to look at the movie and salvage what he could from it. He fell asleep while screening it and said that Hughes was insane.

1825, Corsica. The French rule but many of the island's inhabitants cling to the old ways. A portentous voice over explains the nature of vendettas in this community, how if a man is murdered he must lie in unhallowed ground until his death is avenged by the killing of his murderer. Based on a French novel entitled Colomba, this piece does have an agreeably gothic atmosphere of stygian gloom and gnarled trees. In fact it is sometimes so dark it is hard to see what's going on! It clearly had a troubled production history; the named director, Mel Ferrer, much better known as an actor, added sequences and reshot the ending (still abrupt) and there was apparently an earlier release in 1946/47 that was unsatisfactory with this version making an appearance in 1950. Powerful film mogul Howard Hughes had already fired two directors and notable ones at that, Preston Sturges and Max Ophuls and another director, Stuart Heisler had been taken illl and substituted for by Paul Weatherwex before Ferrer came on to the scene, presumably to make something of the mess and bulk up the running time. The production values are fine but the acting less so, so it still feels like a B movie. The acting is never less than competent but only two actors shine. Fortunately one of them is Faith Domergue as the lead, Colomba. She is a Freudian dream or possibly nightmare as the woman obsessed with avenging her father's death and possibly also unhealthily obsessed with her brother, Orso, who she nevertheless pushes into danger. Domergue is a striking presence throughout and commands all the scenes which feature her in a committed performance. Also good is Nigel Bruce as an Englishman, Sir Thomas Nevil, droll in his talk of guns and hunting, though his role Peters out towards the middle of the film. This tale of Corsican bandits in the right but on the wrong side of the law and the villainous Barracinis, on the right side of the law purely because they are the establishment, feels like it deserves the epic treatment and its ambition seems to be headed that way before seemingly accepting its limitations as an interesting but flawed, melodramatic B movie.

Some films it seems are doomed from the outset. Designed as a vehicle for Howard Hughes 'discovery' Faith Domergue, this unutterably dreary, lacklustre version of Prosper Merimée's 'Colomba' was finally released four years after its conception and was given an universal thumbs down.

Infinitely more dramatic than the film itself is the troubled production with Max Ophuls given the old heave-ho early on by the meddling Hughes and replaced by Stuart Heisler who is probably responsible for two thirds of it but is, happily for him, uncredited. Last up is Mel Ferrer who has the dubious distinction of sole directorial credit.

Devoid of passion and momentum this damp squib of a movie is a monumental waste of money but certainly not a waste of talent as there is precious little of that on display with only Nigel Bruce and Joseph Calleia providing some substance. The rest of the cast is uniformly mediocre. As for Miss Domergue she was given an expensive build up but Joe Public simply wasn't buying it.

The film's failure must have given the discarded Ophuls great satisfaction and he was of course to get his revenge as Robert Ryan's megalomaniacal Smith Ohlrig in 'Caught' is a thinly veiled portrait of you-know-who.

Despite having been dismissed by the late eminent British film critic Leslie Halliwell as an "outmoded ethnic melodrama with nothing to recommend it", I had twice before attempted to acquire this (from a local movie-buff whose chief interest in the film was the presence of beloved Maltese character actor Joseph Calleia, here incarnating the chief villain) – however, both copies froze during the climax and would not proceed further!

A costly failure for producer Howard Hughes, this was actually shot in 1946: begun by Ophuls (in what would have been his American debut), with Sturges as writer-producer (he was contemporaneously engaged on THE SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK {1947}, another troubled Hughes production); as it happened, the former was fired by Hughes after just one week (claiming his shooting pace was too slow), so Sturges was forced to take over himself. Eventually, he too was replaced – as was, for that matter, original cinematographer Franz Planer (an Ophuls regular) by Al Gilks. Hughes then appointed Heisler and, when he fell ill, editor Weatherwax was put in charge! Still unsatisfied, the producer brought in Ferrer (not yet established as an actor) ostensibly to reshoot the ending – but he was retained for much longer than was anticipated! Ultimately, while Ferrer received sole credit for the film, it is estimated that about two-thirds of the footage is actually Heisler's – whereas precious little survives of either Ophuls' or Sturges' input (even the latter's original script, which he singled out in his memoirs as his best work but also that it was "unproduced"!).

Similarly, this was originally to co-star James Mason (who eventually became good friends with Ophuls and made 2 excellent noirs with him) and Madeleine Carroll. Hughes, though, was afraid they would act his current protégée – the inexperienced Faith Domergue – off the screen and had them substituted with George Dolenz (father of Mickey from The Monkees pop group!) and Hillary Brooke (THE WOMAN IN GREEN {1945} being thus re-united with Nigel Bruce's Dr. Watson from that fine "Sherlock Holmes" adventure!). Incidentally, while proudly announcing the introduction of 3 new personalities – Domergue, Dolenz (playing siblings) and Donald Buka (as their servant-turned-bandit, forever accompanied on his exploits by future actor/director Hugo Haas) – the film's resulting lack of success stalled their star careers at the get-go!

With respect to the film itself, it comes off as an overpowering, indeed oppressively gloomy, melodrama; that said, the excessively dark and murky print I watched did it no favors at all! To my mind, the thematic intentions here were admirable – yet the background was simply too obscure (exemplified by the hilarious 'V For Vendetta' gesture!) for general audiences to particularly relate to. Still, the plot – of the new head of a Sicilian family being duty-bound to avenge the patriarch's death but, since he had been living abroad, hesitates to stand by such an archaic code – feels at once overly-familiar (interestingly, the film it most reminded me of was Luis Bunuel's underrated THE RIVER AND DEATH {1955}!) and insufficiently compelling. The style, as I said earlier, is heavy-going despite undeniably atmospheric marshland scenes; another asset, then, is the effective use of Italian classical/popular music on the soundtrack.

She was a big chest breather, and had a sultry expression.

She had her best shot, I thought, in WHERE DANGER LIVES, with Mitchum.

George Dolenz had a good part in this; possibly his only. He was a solid character/contract player, and deserved better.

The classical musical themes and outsized, over-weighted backgrounds were effective, I thought. Really approaching the cerebral, almost, as far as on a scale of the Howard Hughes things.