A Hal Wallis production for Paramount (he left Warner Bros. in 1944, Casablanca being one of his later jobs). Walter Doniger's tough diamond adventure (additional dialogue John Paxton) has Burt Lancaster return to South Africa to recover diamonds he left and to confront nemesis Paul Heinreid (splendidly nasty) and corrupt boss Claude Rains (essentially doing another Capt. Renault from Casablanca) and receiving help from shady crook Peter Lorre (essentially doing Ugarte from Casablanca). Also involved is professional call girl Corinne Calvet, a handy local, John Bromfield and a drunken doctor, Sam Jaffe.
Accompanied by another great Franz Waxman score and photographed by the brilliant Charles Lang (not one of his eighteen Oscar nominations but could easily have been).
'Play with me!' desert fight scene one of many gripping moments; most satisfying ending.
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| Calvet did not - I regret to say - have the most distinguished career |
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