Cigana Feiticeira

I made my earthly debut on September 26, 1947 and according to my parents when they were alive, as an infant I had a particular liking for the song Golden Earrings that came from this film. It served as my best lullaby in those formative months. I wish it had come from a better film than the one it served as a title tune for.

The film's story is told in flashback by Ray Milland to real life war correspondent Quentin Reynolds on a plane to Paris. Milland's got pierced ears which today would not raise a ripple, but back in 1947 was hardly in vogue, especially for a British brigadier.

Back in 1939 Milland went on a mission to Germany just before war was declared to get a poison gas formula from a German scientist of liberal sympathies. But he and partner Bruce Lester get caught, but manage to escape and split up.

Milland's route takes him to the Black Forest where gypsies are known to hang out and Hitler hasn't started rounding them up yet. They became targets for extermination as surely as Jews were later on. He runs into Marlene Dietrich and she teaches him a few survival tricks and a few tricks of another kind. With that kind of distraction, Milland can barely keep his mind on his mission.

Golden Earrings gets very campy indeed, remarkable since Milland and Dietrich did not get along during the making. On that level it's enjoyable, as serious drama it falls real short as an espionage story.

Murvyn Vye is the head gypsy and if Milland ain't got enough trouble with the Nazis, he's got to fight Vye to get Marlene and the help he needs from the clan. It'a all very silly. Vye was making his film debut and he introduces the song Golden Earrings. Vye had come from the Broadway stage where he played Jigger in the original Broadway production of Carousel.

Paramount got it's number one star and biggest recording star in America at the time, Bing Crosby, to make a record of it. Bing's record sold well, but the big hit came from Peggy Lee. I'm surprised that Marlene didn't sing a full version in the film, it's just her kind of material.

Could have definitely helped the film a lot.

Those reviewers who have complained that this movie lacks plausibility or has problems of construction are missing the point. This is a wonderfully camp romance, with plenty of Play, gypsies! Dance, gypsies! music, that both sends up exotic love stories and celebrates them. Buttoned-up Ray Milland makes an amusing foil for a Dietrich with black hair, tattered scarves, and tons of jewelry. The character's eagerness to feed Milland and look after him more closely resembles the good German hausfrau Dietrich was off the set than her mannered vamp roles. Censorship being in force, it's made clear that they share a caravan on platonic terms only, with Milland fighting off Dietrich's advances with a determination remarkable for a heterosexual bachelor who might be killed any day. His only excuse is that she smells, so perhaps a stuffy, fastidious Englishman might indeed be put off.

In the small role of Milland's young companion on his secret mission, Bruce Lester adds a note of camp of a different kind. We are told at the beginning that he hero-worships Milland, and indeed he rather fawns on him. When, after they are separated, he meets Milland, now transformed into a brown-skinned gypsy with a shirt open to the waist, his glowing appreciation of the disguise even further suggests that not only Dietrich is romantically infatuated with Milland.

Despite the wonderfully improbable characters and sequence of events, the growing love of Milland for Dietrich and his acceptance of the non-rational aspects of life is rather touching. And when, on their last night alone before he escapes, he says that each of them now contain half of the other, the two have become one, and then darkness falls, I think we can assume that the censor decided to give them a break! One goof--at the beginning, Milland, who is supposed to be English, refers to a lieutenant, using the American pronunciation. (The English say "leftenant.") Since Milland was British, he must have been saying it that way because the American movie-makers feared that American audiences would be distracted and confused by the British style.

Mitchell Leisen loved the long flashbacks :"hold back the dawn" was a story the hero told the director himself;" to each his own" began with a shot of a middle age lady whose misfortunes were told ;" no man of her own" ,faithful to the novel ,began with a "give up the fight" feeling .He had also tackled the fantasy genre in "death takes a holiday".

"Golden earrings" is a long flashback,blending spy thriller scenes in a just-before-WW2 Germany with snatches of supernatural thrown in :the heroine knew his beloved one would come (she's a fortune teller anyway) and ,most amazing scene,the hero himself through her contact becomes a clairvoyant,seeing his mate's future in the palm of his hand.

I do not put,however ,"golden earrings " in the same league as the movies I mention above;I do not think it's underrated cause its flaws are glaring:first of all,like the Jews,the gypsies were persecuted and sent to concentration camps by the Nazis before and during the war ;so it is absolutely impossible to believe they are allowed -although one of the officers says they are an inferior race-to enter the scientist's desirable mansion to tell fortunes.Besides,everybody speaks English in Germany ,only some soldiers mumble a few German sentences and that's it.

I do like Ray Milland -a certainly underrated actor ,sadly remembered by too many people as the villain in "love story" ,his worst role- and Marlene Dietrich is arguably a fascinating actress ,but as Mardi Gras gypsies ,they cannot be taken seriously .

Both Ray Milland and especially Marlene Dietrich had given great performances more than once and starred in a number of good to outstanding films, that both stretched them and played to their strengths (consider both important when it comes to acting). While not one of the all-time greats when it comes to directors, Mitchell Leisen in my mind was deserving of far more credit. The story for 'Golden Earrings' also sounded intriguing, so the promise was hardly non-existent let alone small.

'Golden Earrings' happened to be something of a comeback for Dietrich, entertaining the troops during the war meant an absence from the screen. While she doesn't fare badly at all here, she was deserving of a better comeback, in terms of overall quality for the film itself, than this. There have been far better representations of Milland as well. 'Golden Earrings' didn't strike me as an awful film, it is better than said though do agree with the criticisms against it. Great too it is a long way from being, didn't think overall it was particularly good.

Dietrich is 'Golden Earrings' biggest merit, she clearly has fun here and is immensely charming. It is hard to believe that she was absent from the screen at all, it was like she never left. Leisen also does a good job with the director, it is stylish and clever with touches of necessary subtlety. Some of the supporting cast do their best in unsubtle caricatured roles, especially Murvyn Vye.

Visually, 'Golden Earrings' is good looking, with slick photography and designed handsomely and evocatively. The music is both fun and dramatic, if at times obviously utilised. The title song is a memorable one, very haunting. Some funny moments and some poignant ones.

However, the script is a bit of a mess tonally, with a mix of comedy and drama, and in a way that jars at times. The comedy falls on the wrong side of camp, am aware that campness was the intent and was expecting it to be part of its charm but it was done to overkill effect here to the point of exhaustion. Although the poignant moments are there, too often the more dramatic elements veer on the melodramatic. Any suspense is not there enough, and the too often ponderous pace and overlong length are relatively big offenders as to why.

The story gets ridiculous frequently and has the same problems as the script, while the characters never feel real, with the supporting characters being caricatures. Other supporting cast members are bizarre and camp it up to extremes, particularly Bruce Lester. Milland's performance is inconsistent, at times too heavy-weight and at other times too low-key. His chemistry, what little there is of it (hardly any), is never harmonious and reminiscent of a meal with flavours that clash too much with each other. Apparently they didn't get along when filming and it shows.

In summary, watchable but strange. Doesn't turn to gold. 5/10

I've watched this film perhaps a dozen times, and yet it always stays fresh with me. I think it's one of the best things Dietrich has ever done. This is a Dietrich you've never seen before. Not a worldly femme fatale, but an earthy, highly engaging woman. The interplay between this uncultured gypsy (Dietrich) guided by the spirit world and the stuffy, establishment rationalist(Milland) is both funny and poignant. Dietrich and Milland are simply wonderful in their roles, and Leisen's direction is subtle and clever. If the story lacks plausibility, who cares? This picture belongs to Dietrich and Milland and the wonderful authenticity they bring to their characters.