Affair in Trinidad

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Movie
German title Affair in Trinidad
Original title Affair in Trinidad
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1952
length 98 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Vincent Sherman
script Berne Giler ,
James Gunn ,
Oscar Saul ,
Virginia Van Upp
production Virginia Van Upp,
Vincent Sherman,
Rita Hayworth
music George Duning ,
Lester Lee ,
Bob Russell
camera Joseph Walker
cut Viola Lawrence
occupation
synchronization

Affair in Trinidad (Original title: Affair in Trinidad ) is an American detective film in the style of film noir from 1952 with Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford in the leading roles. The film marks the comeback of Hayworth after a film break of several years. Despite bad reviews, which mostly rated the affair in Trinidad as a mediocre copy of Gilda (1946), the film was very successful at the box office worldwide.

action

The American artist Neal Emery, who was exploited for many years by his wealthy patron Max Fabian on the island of Trinidad and involved in his shady business, is found shot on his sailboat. British Colonial Police Inspector Smythe is convinced it was suicide . When the shocking news reached Neal's wife Chris, she had little information to give the police. Her husband was often moody and professionally dissatisfied, but in her opinion he never took his own life.

According to a local fisherman, Emery's boat was seen on Max Fabian's jetty at the time when his death must have occurred. The inspector also learns that Neal had paid his patron 1,000 dollars for paintings that no one else would have bought and that Fabian had shown a keen interest in the attractive Chris. As a result, Chris is persuaded to get involved with Fabian's advances in order to possibly expose him as a perpetrator.

At the same time, Neal's older brother Steve arrives in Trinidad after Neal had sent him a strange letter. Although surprised by the sudden appearance of her brother-in-law, Chris welcomes Steve benevolently into her home. When Fabian invites both Chris and Steve to dinner at his villa, Steve can't shake the impression that his late brother's wife and the host are secretly having an affair. After that evening, Steve and Chris get into an argument. With a deep kiss they finally realize how much passion they feel for one another. However, since Chris hides her secret mission from Steve, Steve remains suspicious.

Steve does some research on his own. In search of his brother's murderer, the trail leads him to Max Fabian. When he arrives at his house to publicly accuse him of murder, he finds Chris at a lavish party. Since this sees through Steve's intentions immediately, she dances a provocative dance in front of all the guests to get Steve to leave and thus bring him to safety. Fabian later offers Chris the option of spending the night in his villa. She agrees to find evidence of his guilt and criminal business in Fabian's summer house. She learns that Fabian intends to sell stolen plans for a rocket shell to a man named Walters, who wants to hand them over to his homeland for war purposes against the United States. When Chris tries to escape, she is discovered and arrested by Fabian's accomplices. At this moment Steve reappears because Chris's behavior seemed too strange in retrospect. He manages to overpower the gangsters, with Fabian being fatally hit by a shot. Chris and Steve then leave Trinidad for the United States to start a new life together.

background

prehistory

After completing the filming of Love Nights in Seville , Rita Hayworth left Hollywood in 1948 in order to gain some distance from her film career in Europe. She was dissatisfied with her contract with Columbia Pictures and suffered from studio boss Harry Cohn , who was known as a vulgar despot. In her private life, too, Hayworth longed for a fresh start after her marriage to director Orson Welles had failed. Hayworth then met Prince Aly Khan in Cannes in the south of France . This was the son of Aga Khan III. , the religious head of millions of Ismailis . On May 27, 1949, the public wedding took place, which subsequently dominated the front pages worldwide. Their daughter Yasmin Khan was born in December of the same year. But Rita Hayworth and Aly Khan's marriage was short-lived. Fed up with Khan's Playboy escapades, Hayworth traveled back to the United States for divorce in 1951 , which again hit the headlines.

After her separation from Khan, Hayworth was, contrary to expectations, almost bankrupt and was forced to shoot a new film under her contract with Columbia Pictures as soon as possible. She had been Columbia's biggest star during the 1940s. But after several years of hiatus in her career, the studio wasn't sure whether Hayworth still had her former box office traction. For this reason, a decision was made to produce in black and white to avoid a flop with an expensive Technicolor film. Harry Cohn engaged Virginia Van Upp as executive producer , who had already worked successfully with Hayworth several times and had significantly shaped Hayworth's image as a mixture of pin-up girl and femme fatale with productions such as Es tanzt die Göttin (1944) and Gilda (1946) . Hayworth herself appeared as a co-producer with her production company, the Beckworth Corporation. Vincent Sherman was hired to direct and co-produced the film.

script

Since Hayworth's sudden return to film came as a surprise to Columbia, there was initially no suitable script for the actress. When her contract came back into effect after her 1948 suspension , Columbia had to pay her $ 3,500 a week in wages before filming began. As a matter of urgency, studio boss Harry Cohn had at least four screenwriters, including Virginia Van Upp, write a script entitled Affair in Trinidad , which borrowed some of it from Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious (1946), but was particularly reminiscent of the film noir Gilda , with which Hayworth became a superstar and goddess of love in 1946. Both Affair in Trinidad and Gilda are set against an exotic backdrop - Trinidad and Buenos Aires . In both scripts, secret cartels and shady deals make up the subplots, while Hayworth is the center of the action as a dancing and singing showgirl. Glenn Ford was Hayworth's screen partner in both films, who vacillates between love and hatred for the female characters portrayed by Hayworth. Even Steven Geray was once again in a similar supporting role of the party, to the success of Gilda to repeat.

The parallels to Gilda and the weaknesses of the illogical plot, which had not yet been written when shooting began, were obvious to everyone involved, which is why Hayworth threatened in the meantime that he would not want to continue shooting the film and thus risked another suspension. Years later, Hayworth was unhappy with the affair in Trinidad : “It wasn't really a movie. It was an accumulation of compromises made by everyone from the Columbia porter to Harry Cohn himself. "

Music and dance numbers

On the two songs Trinidad Lady and I've Been Kissed Before , written by Lester Lee and Bob Russell , Rita Hayworth was dubbed by Jo Ann Greer . The dances were designed by Valerie Bettis , who was one of the few female choreographers in Hollywood at the time and who took on a self-deprecating supporting role in the film. Since Hayworth hadn't made a movie in a long time, she took a hard dance training to get back in shape. Valerie Bettis' modern dance steps were appreciated today as too avant-garde and unflattering for the otherwise elegant Hayworth. Nevertheless, both women worked together one more time for Hayworth's famous Dance of the Seven Veils in Salome (1953).

  • Trinidad Lady ( Lester Lee , Bob Russell ): In her first scene at the beginning of the film, Chris Emery (Rita Hayworth) appears in a nightclub. She appears with a slow twist in a strapless dress and snake bangle when a spotlight is turned on her. Barefoot and with a grip on her curly hair, she begins her dance to the Trinidad Lady , with black musicians drumming to set the rhythm. She also sings that she is enjoying what she is doing and that she does not feel responsible for the desires of the male viewers. At dance steps of modern dance, she whirls dynamically across the dance floor with the wide, striped skirt of her dress, flirting with her feminine charms.
  • I've Been Kissed Before (Lee, Russell): When Steve Emery (Glenn Ford) appears in Max Fabian's ( Alexander Scourby ) mansion to confront a group of party guests, Chris goes spontaneously and slightly drunk to the Dance floor. In a tight, glittering black evening dress, she sings and dances in front of all the guests to the song I've Been Kissed Before , with which she portrays herself as a woman who openly maintains many male acquaintances. Snapping her fingers, she mainly uses her shoulders and hips in circular movements, while she flirts with the male guests promisingly and puts a flower in her neckline. Steve watches her angrily and jealously and then slaps her in the face.

reception

publication

The world premiere of Affair in Trinidad took place on July 30, 1952 at the Victoria Theater in New York . With the simple headline "She is back!" (Eng: "She is back!") Columbia Pictures advertised the film, which went into general distribution in the United States in September 1952. Although the reviews were poor and it was agreed that the film was a mediocre copy of Gilda , Hayworth's fans flocked to the movie theaters to see the long-awaited comeback of the actress after a four-year break from the big screen. With gross revenues of more than $ 7 million worldwide, the film was a huge financial success at a production cost of $ 1.2 million. He made more money than Gilda . In Germany, the film was shown in cinemas for the first time on November 4, 1952.

Reviews

The lexicon of international films describes the affair in Trinidad as "[r] omantic agent drama against a tropical backdrop that should bring the successful actors of Gilda (1946) together again". The result, however, was "unassuming, over-constructed entertainment without any particular shine". Also Bosley Crowther's judgment in the New York Times at the time was anything but benevolent. Before the film, one almost forgot what a mediocre actress Hayworth was. In the affair in Trinidad hit the viewer "this fact, which was previously politely ignored, right in the face". Her acting has "no more expression than the postures of a doll". The dances they performed made them look "vulgar and grotesque". "When Rita dances the choreography by Valerie Bettis, the atmosphere of the film warms up considerably," said The Hollywood Reporter . However, "the graceful and subtly erotic component of Gilda and other films is not present".

All Movie Guide's Craig Butler said in retrospect that "as was to be expected under the circumstances," the result was "quite a mess". The scriptwriters came along "with nothing better than a lukewarm infusion from Gilda ". The plot itself is "unnecessarily confusing" and the behavior of the characters "unrealistic", and that only "to keep the plot going". Director Vincent Sherman is "not in top form" and his direction seems "uncoordinated and insecure". Hayworth's performance was "overall okay, but apart from her two dance interludes, not outstanding". The musical interludes are, however, compensation enough: "Seldom has the screen experienced such fiery erotic dancing". Gary Giddins of the New York Sun said Hayworth was "the only reason" to "watch this movie." When she dances, she is “like a different one” and she has “two great numbers, choreographed by Valerie Bettis, who appears hilariously as an alcoholic slut”. According to film critic Leonard Maltin , Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford “shine” in their roles. Hayworth is "extremely seductive".

Awards

At the Academy Awards in 1953 , Affair in Trinidad was nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Costume Design in a Black and White Film. With his costumes for Rita Hayworth, designer Jean Louis was ultimately unable to assert himself against Helen Rose , who received the prize for Vincente Minnelli's City of Illusions .

German version

Four decades after the film's premiere in Germany, a second German dubbed version was made in 1992.

role actor Voice actor
Chris Emery Rita Hayworth Viola Sauer
Steve Emery Glenn Ford Thomas Danneberg
Max Fabian Alexander Scourby Bernd Eichner
Veronica Huebling Valerie Bettis Kerstin Sanders-Dornseif
Inspector Smythe Torin Thatcher Heinz Theo branding
Anderson Howard Wendell Manfred Petersen
Walters Karel Štěpánek Walter Wickenhauser
Dr. Franz Huebling George Voskovec Eberhard Prüter
Wittol Steven Geray Gerd Duwner
Peter Bronec Walter Kohler Freimut Götsch
Dominique Juanita Moore Ulrike Lau
Coroner Ralph Moody Gerd Holtenau

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g cf. Robert Nixon on tcm.com
  2. ↑ “It wasn't really a movie. It was a culmination of compromises made by everyone from the gateman at Columbia right up to Harry Cohn himself. " Rita Hayworth quoted. after Gene Ringgold: The Films of Rita Hayworth . Citadel Press, Secaucus 1974, p. 181.
  3. ↑ Bosley Crowther : Affair in Trinidad (1952) . In: The New York Times , July 31, 1952.
  4. ^ Joe Morella, Edward Z. Epstein: Rita: The Life of Rita Hayworth . Comet, 1984, p. 197.
  5. ↑ Affair in Trinidad. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed April 20, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  6. ↑ “In that time, we had probably forgotten what a mediocre actress she is, and now the bald fact - politely winked at in the past - hits one right between the eyes. [...] her acting is vastly unexpressive of anything but the postures of a doll. And the dancing she does in this picture makes her look both vulgar and grotesque. " Bosley Crowther: Affair in Trinidad (1952) . In: The New York Times , July 31, 1952.
  7. ↑ "When Rita dances the Valerie Bettis choreography the pictorial atmosphere warms up considerably, but somehow the graceful, subtly sexy element of Gilda and other pictures is absent." The Hollywood Reporter quoted. after Gene Ringgold: The Films of Rita Hayworth . Citadel Press, Secaucus 1974, p. 185.
  8. ↑ “As might be expected under the rushed circumstances, the resulting film is a bit of a mess; the quartet of credited screenwriters came up with no more than a tepid rehash of Gilda […]. The plot is unnecessarily confusing and the characters behave in unrealistic ways simply to keep the plot moving. Director Vincent Sherman is not in top form, and the direction comes off as unfocused and unsure. [...] Hayworth's overall performance is fine, but except for the two dance sequences is unexceptional. [...] rarely has the screen witnessed such torrid, erotic dancing. " Craig Butler, cf. omovie.com
  9. ↑ “Hayworth is the only reason to see this film […]. When Hayworth dances, she is transformed, and she has two terrific numbers, choreographed by Valerie Bettis, who appears hilariously as the alcoholic floozy Veronica. " Gary Giddins Salvaging a Forgotten Director . In: New York Sun , September 23, 2008.
  10. ↑ “Hayworth and Ford sparkle […]. Hayworth is most enticing. " Leonard Maltin , cf. tcm.com
  11. ↑ Affair in Trinidad. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on April 5, 2017 .