Review of Temptation

Temptation (1946)
6/10
Merle Oberon Is A Baaaad Woman
3 October 2023
After an undefined past, Merle Oberon decides to marry a wealthy man and does in archeologist George Brent. He whisks her away to Egypt, where he is busy archeologizing. Enjoying her newly luxurious life, she falls in love with local prince Charles Korvin. They hatch a plan to poison Brent and enjoy the wealth, when they are not busy enjoying each other.

This A picture from International Picture -- soon to merge with Universal -- shows the peculiarities of the Production Code. It's ok to poison your husband (so long as eventually you suffer some sort of penalty, usually divinely imposed) but not to show how you became a Bad Woman; I suppose that would be seen as some sort of justification. Also, you can let the audience infer an extra-marital affair, so long as you don't do anything to show it. Either that, or producer Edward Small decided to horsetrade that away for some indiscretion elsewhere. It has been reported that the Majors would emasculate one movie in return for something spicy in another. International, with a total production of ten movies before its merger probably didn't have much to offer in its string.

Miss Oberon is quite lovely and dresses very well, although director Irving Pichel thinks that the way to show an actress is being evil is to make her glare and shoot from below. With Paul Lukas, Arnold Moss, and Ludwig Stossel.
1 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed