The trailer gave me the impression that this might be a film about Hollywood creating a glittering female star, just to vindictively destroy her afterwards. But it was the foreboding course of true love that destroyed this both fey and gamine creation. A poignant love story, this film would have left cinema audiences of 1954 with tearful lumps in their throats as they exited through the foyer.
If there had been nothing else to praise this film for, it would have been for the superb acting and direction, the excellent production values, and the heart wrenching storyline. Also, Mario Nascimbene's haunting music, makes you feel tearful after just listening to the first few bars.
Edmund O' Brien won the Academy Award for the Best Supporting Actor, but the film really belongs to Ava Gardner, once voted the most beautiful woman in the World, as she lit up the screen with her alluring performance and her exquisite loveliness.
But what made the film so appealing was Humphrey Bogart's touching performance as a man tormented by the thoughts of what he had created, only for it to inexorably slide away from him, feeling hopeless and guilt ridden, with himself being powerless to rescue his lamented creation. It is ironic that his deep and gravelled narration was easier to listen to than that of the other two actors telling their part of the story. You could have listened to his weary, anguished tones for the whole of the film. Once this great actor lured himself away from being type cast as hoodlums and gangsters, he gave great performances in no matter whatever film he was in - such a great loss to the World of Cinema.
If there was ever a moral to this story, it was about whys and wherefores of making one right out of two wrongs. On that note, the ending left a lot up to the cinema audience's imagination, as in 1954 the censorship rules were not as relaxed as they are today.
I will definitely have to watch this film again, but I suggest other reviewers watch it on a wide screen.
If there had been nothing else to praise this film for, it would have been for the superb acting and direction, the excellent production values, and the heart wrenching storyline. Also, Mario Nascimbene's haunting music, makes you feel tearful after just listening to the first few bars.
Edmund O' Brien won the Academy Award for the Best Supporting Actor, but the film really belongs to Ava Gardner, once voted the most beautiful woman in the World, as she lit up the screen with her alluring performance and her exquisite loveliness.
But what made the film so appealing was Humphrey Bogart's touching performance as a man tormented by the thoughts of what he had created, only for it to inexorably slide away from him, feeling hopeless and guilt ridden, with himself being powerless to rescue his lamented creation. It is ironic that his deep and gravelled narration was easier to listen to than that of the other two actors telling their part of the story. You could have listened to his weary, anguished tones for the whole of the film. Once this great actor lured himself away from being type cast as hoodlums and gangsters, he gave great performances in no matter whatever film he was in - such a great loss to the World of Cinema.
If there was ever a moral to this story, it was about whys and wherefores of making one right out of two wrongs. On that note, the ending left a lot up to the cinema audience's imagination, as in 1954 the censorship rules were not as relaxed as they are today.
I will definitely have to watch this film again, but I suggest other reviewers watch it on a wide screen.