Golden Salamander

This is a slightly confused smuggling mystery with an oddly cast Trevor Howard as "David", a British archaeologist sent to Tunisia to supervise the removal of some artefacts. He arrives at the inn run by "Anna" (Anouk Aimée) and a slightly sinister pianist Wilfred Hyde-White ("Anjo"). Next thing, he is involved in a gun-smuggling racket with local hoodlum Herbert Lom ("Rankl") and his lobster fisherman pal "Max" (Jacques Sernas) whilst slowly falling in love with the much younger "Anna". It's a good looking film, but the story has more holes than a Dutch cheese with just way too many co-incidences. Howard is fine, but Lom features all too rarely to build any sense of suspense. Sernas is positively smouldering so why Anouk would prefer the older man is slightly bewildering; and the casting of Miles Malleson - ordinarily the archetypical British vicar/train enthusiast as "Douvet" - the local policeman, is just a bit too baffling to make much sense of the really thinly spread story.

Not really poorly made, but more so mediocre, the film's biggest downfall is the lack of any solid plot. The darkness of the shots at the beginning of the film make it hard to see what is going, however one is able to make out that the protagonist has stumbled across some illegal activity. The first third of the film progresses along with the mystery of what they were doing being the only thing driving the plot. Soon after the mystery is revealed, a romance begins, and the rest of the films ties in the protagonist's love interest to how he deals with the crooks. In other words, it is a bit of a mess, and a bit of a predictable one too. Trevor Howard is a good choice for the lead, but the rest of the acting is merely adequate. To the film's virtue, Neame captures the intriguing nature of a foreign environment and atmosphere well, the locations are good, and close-ups are used well to tell certain parts of the tale. It is probably worth a look for fans of Neame and/or Howard.

Watchable British thriller about gun-running in Post-WWII Tunisia with faint echoes of THE MALTESE FALCON (1941; except that the title artifact bears little relation to the main plot!), TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1944) and THE THIRD MAN (1949; not least the presence of two of its cast members), but is perhaps too low-key to be really memorable. Nonetheless, the film has a remarkable cast (Trevor Howard, Anouk Aimee', Herbert Lom, Walter Rilla, Miles Malleson, Jacques Sernas, Wilfrid Hyde-White) and nice, noir-ish atmosphere going for it - and is short enough (87 minutes, though some sources give this as 96!) to keep tedium at bay...which could result from its lack of incident (apart from a couple of confrontation scenes and a climactic fistfight between Howard and Lom) or the incongruous pairing of its two leads.

In a movie that suffers from to many unanswered questions, too many loose ends, and far too much coincidence, there is one constant which merits mention: the acting of Anouk Aimee. From the moment she enters the as a bar maid she becomes a force in the film, since she is simply a more dominant presence on the screen. The other roles are pretty much clichés. In fact so much so that one expects Howard to really be a secret British agent. And the piano player in the bar drinks as much as he plays. The villains seem much too superficial. The problem stems from a seeming attempt to reproduce World War Two Bogart films, an attempt which is historically out of step with he Cold War of 1950. Does anyone really care about gun running in Tunisia?

To me, Anouk Aimee gives a more convincing performance than does Bergman in CASABLANCA or Bacall in TO HAVE OR HAVE NOT. Bergman seems out of place in Rick's, and Bacall's quips appear contrived. Aimee seems natural throughout, and her lines are appropriate. Her performance is reason enough to see this film.

While the poor casting in "Golden Salamander" might surprise you, it it STILL worth seeing. It begins with a British man, David (Trevor Howard), driving along some very, very wet roads at night in Tunisia. Eventually, he pulls off the road--and stumbles on some guns that have fallen out of a crate. Soon, some folks return to retrieve the guns--and David runs, as he's pretty sure these are smugglers. However, he does NOT report this to the authorities.

His job in the town is to pack some antiquities for transport to a British museum. During the time he's in the town, he falls for Anna (Anouk Aimée). He also soon realizes that Anna's brother is one of the smugglers. What's he to do? And, just how deep does this conspiracy go?

This is a nice action-romance. As I mentioned above, the casting was odd, as Howard was almost two decades older than his love interest. I also was dumbfounded when there was the HUGE fight near the end...and Anna just stood there watching (even though if the wrong man wins, she will die!). Despite these problems, the film is exciting and has a very good plot...and it's well acted as well.