This film is a re-make of Le Train pour Venise (1938), directed by André Berthomieu, starring playwright Louis Verneuil himself in the Colman part, and Huguette Duflos as Caroline.
COMMENT: As a generalization, much as I enjoy his thrillers, Lewis Milestone has never impressed me as a skillful, let alone a masterful, comedy director.
Admittedly, in this entry he is served neither by a particularly witty nor effervescent screenplay, nor a halfway plausible performance by Hollywood debut-making Anna Lee.
Nonetheless, it's impossible to keep an inventive film-maker down. Despite the movie's dull patches, it still emerges as reasonably worthwhile entertainment, thanks to a number of ingenious Milestone appetizers, including post-synching dialogue with Colman's narration, Our Town-reminiscent comment into the camera, the Remisoff (the film's art director) in-joke, and the fish-kissing finale.
Another asset is the picture's expensive forties-studio look, complete with strikingly large sets and glossy photography.
COMMENT: As a generalization, much as I enjoy his thrillers, Lewis Milestone has never impressed me as a skillful, let alone a masterful, comedy director.
Admittedly, in this entry he is served neither by a particularly witty nor effervescent screenplay, nor a halfway plausible performance by Hollywood debut-making Anna Lee.
Nonetheless, it's impossible to keep an inventive film-maker down. Despite the movie's dull patches, it still emerges as reasonably worthwhile entertainment, thanks to a number of ingenious Milestone appetizers, including post-synching dialogue with Colman's narration, Our Town-reminiscent comment into the camera, the Remisoff (the film's art director) in-joke, and the fish-kissing finale.
Another asset is the picture's expensive forties-studio look, complete with strikingly large sets and glossy photography.