Of Love and Desire

Beautiful photography and wonderful atmospherics of early 60's Mexico as it was back then. It was a good era to visit Mexico as I remember, having been there for the first time in 1961 (yes I'm old). Merle Oberon looks beautiful and displays real star power. Steve Cochran strolls through the film portraying an engineer stuck in Mexico, loafing around waiting for equipment to arrive. Cochran is well cast since he was apparently a world-class loafer at times in his life. He would die amid mystery and sleaze a mere 2 years after the film's release, his rotting and putrid corpse found on a derelict boat in the Pacific Ocean, accompanied by two surviving female "attendants".

Oberon's acting is good, but the role makes you wonder why anyone would care about the affairs of silly, spoiled rich woman "Katherine", her character in this film. Katherine, you need to see a shrink.

Featuring good scenery and atmospherics vs. a shallow plot that drags especially toward the ending, this film will probably entertain Merle Oberon's fans. Other viewers must choose whether they have the time to invest watching this to experience Ms. Oberon's undeniable star power, or just skip it.

It seems that too few people have been privileged enough to bear witness to this magnificently presented, overheated camp epic. A sort of romantic science-fiction saga, it takes place in a world where every man in evidence wants a piece of Oberon and nearly all of them get some! Things kick off with a love song, somewhat wobbily crooned by none other than Sammy Davis Jr! Next, mining entrepreneur Cochran lands his plane in Acapulco in order to meet a local honcho who will be utilizing his services. However, Cochran is spirited away to a glamorous party at which the honcho (Jurgens) and his half-sister (Oberon) are mixing business (on his part) and pleasure (on her part.) Oberon's character is a highly neurotic sex-addict who causes her brother a fair share of grief. Cochran scarcely gets to meet Jurgens before Oberon has her hooks in him, playing a see-through version of hard-to-get one minute, then desperately tugging at his heartstrings the next. After their bedroom romp, Oberon is up and at 'em in the swimming pool (impressively sporting a bikini at age 53), soon joined by Cochran, who has to choose from a variety of suits, some left behind by her army of ex-lovers. He settles on a monogrammed bikini brief of his own (which he also displays admirably for a 46 year-old man), playfully indicating that whomever's initials are on it has left it behind. When Jurgens chides her behavior, Oberon has another meltdown, but soon overcomes it long enough to take Cochran on a lengthy jaunt all over the Mexican shoreline. Just as Cochran has decided he loves Oberon and is willing to overlook the legions of men who came before him, Jurgens schemes to break them apart with the help of the man (Agar) whose initials are on the swim-trunks. What follows is a heaving dollop of melodrama including attempted rape, attempted suicide and attempted acting by the principal actors who are trapped in an overheated, sometimes preposterous scenario! The climax involves a sidesplittingly hysterical scene in which Oberon frantically runs through every corridor, stairwell and foyer of a busy hotel and then out onto the street, all the time being confronted by man after man after man. There isn't a woman anywhere in sight! Suddenly, the entire city of Acapulco is male and they all have goo-goo eyes for her! This recap can only begin to describe the camp overload as Oberon changes from one eye-popping outfit to the next, always with a complimentary hairdo, flashy jewelry and false eyelashes that seem to have a life of their own. She even has a pointless scene in bed with her hair spread out on the pillow, a cruel reminder that this was once Cathy in "Wuthering Heights"! (Coincidentally, her character here is named Katherine.) Secret motives and pasts are revealed which shed light on the rather kinky earlier proceedings of the film. Filmed amid the properties and adopted homeland of Ms. Oberon, it's a colorful, briskly paced and vastly entertaining piece of dirty soap. Sadly, Cochran would die mysteriously on board a private boat not too long after this film. Oberon wasn't finished yet. After a glamorous role in "Hotel", she tried one last time to fashion a glamorous, romantic, Mexican-set weeper with "Interval", but it was even more disastrous. Director Rush, whose career could be described as a roller-coaster of highs and lows (one high being "The Stunt Man", for which he snagged an Oscar nom) would go on to direct one of the all-time good/bad screamfests "Color of Night".

Merle Oberon was a great beauty often tabbed the 8th wonder of the World so striking was La Oberon in person and on film. In a career that started in London in the 30's Oberon worked with Laughton, Wayler, Hopkins, Brando, Olivier in a long and great career. A good actress her lavish lifestyle got more attention than her ability as an actress.

Of Love And Desire is a vanity production produced by Oberon's then fabulously wealthy Mexican husband Bruno Paglai, and many of the settings are in the various Mexican homes ( palaces really) that the Paglai's owned in Mexico. A sight to behold is then 53 year old Merle Oberon in a bikini in a scene with an equally daring Steve Cochran also in a bikini who despite the fact that Mr. Paglai was financing this film was said to be Merle's off camera lover as well. No horror roles for Merle like her peers Joan Crawford, and Bette Davis and Ann Sothern, no way! It was glamor all the way with Merle Oberon looking fantastic in this film.

Merle Oberon's performance is good in this, some scenes are better than others, but she worked hard at finding some nuances. One of my favorite scenes is what I call the "church bells scene" where they profess their love, "for 400 years. At least." This is a well-acted and staged scene with much better dialogue than other parts of the film, as if someone else wrote it (?) I would rate this scene pretty high among other similar movie romance scenes.

Although you have to be in the right frame of mind to appreciate it. It is an odd, strange, quirky film but I've seen it at least a dozen times if not more and don't tire of it. Ronald Stein's score is terrific, and there was a soundtrack album for this that was fairly faithful to the film's soundtrack. Of course there is more music in the film, but the soundtrack album is worth buying if you like this score (but it is hard to find). This was Merle Oberon's baby, she was behind the production of it and the homes seen in the film were hers.