Fortunately we can never remember the double twist in Agatha Christie's London-set stage play, screenwritten here by Wilder, Larry Marcus and Harry Kurnitz.
That fact that I'm not entirely convinced by Tyrone Power's performances perhaps works to the film's advantage here. With Marlene Dietrich (I'm beginning to love her more and more with every film - this was her second for Wilder - I wonder if they sometimes joked to each other in German?), Charles Laughton (wonderful), Elsa Lanchester, John Williams, Ian Wolfe (the faithful servant). Has classic last line as well.
Wilder touches: trading coffee for kisses (in Berlin scenes which could have been straight out of A Foreign Affair); using calcium injection to point end of cigar. And I wondered why we kept seeing the same spectator in the gallery (Ruta Lee)...
Shot by Russell Harlan.
No comments:
Post a Comment