Affair in Trinidad (1952)

How sad is this?

Great Film overall

Good start, but then it gets ruined

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Although the 80-minute TV version leaves a few holes in the script and omits a couple of minor characters (I didn't notice any refugees), it is a considerable improvement on the original – and this will please just about everybody except Mr. Ford's most rabid fans. Mr. Ford makes a late entrance and disappears from the film altogether during most of the climax, but his absence is not missed all that much. He is less indulgently photographed than Rita Hayworth and his mannerisms seem even more theatrical than usual.On the other hand, Miss Hayworth is very kindly treated by Joseph Walker's soft-focus lighting and is stunningly gowned. She also has the lion's share of the action and acquits herself so effectively in the dramatic sections that the climactic sequences will have most viewers on the edges of their seats. Vincent Sherman's direction shows his customary skill in the handling of action and his usual efficiency in dialogue scenes. Joseph Walker's atmospheric photography is also a big help in creating suspense.Alexander Scourby is delightfully sinister as Max Fabian. Surprising to see dance choreographer Valerie Bettis as one of his confederates (she has the inside gag line, "Maybe I ought to learn to dance!" which was no doubt penned on the set) and essaying a scene in which she is slightly whiffed most effectively too! Torin Thatcher plays a police inspector with his usual air of forthright efficiency, whilst Howard Wendell does rather better as the American consul here than he does as the police commissioner in "The Big Heat". Steven Geray tries a part right off his usual track and is most effective as a corrupt night club proprietor. The other roles are comparatively small, but are well cast and played.Production values leave nothing to be desired — with the exception of the songs which are pedestrian and the dances which contrive to be both distasteful and unexciting.

"Affair in Trinidad" (1952) was supposed to be Rita Hayworth's "comeback" after a several year hiatus from Hollywood. Columbia pictures clearly pulled out as many stops as it could to get audiences into the theaters to see "Trinidad." The film's opening narration and its exotic locale are obviously derived from "Casablanca." Hayworth's pairing with leading man Glen Ford hearkened back to the great success of "Gilda." And the film's plot, using Hayworth to spy on Cold War conspirators, owes more than a little to Hitchcock's "Notorious."The film does have some entertainment value, but Hayworth was clearly rusty and her great beauty was beginning to age even though she was only 35 at the time of the film's release. Oddly, only two scenes show off her signature erotic singing and dancing, and the second one of these is a complete dud. Her chemistry with Ford is also much more forced in "Trinidad" than it had been in the far superior "Gilda." A love triangle involving a rich, shady older man is another element borrowed from "Gilda," but with much less complexity in the plot and with no depth whatsoever in the development of the rival/antagonist.I have always found it curious that in "Gilda," "Trinidad," and a few other films Rita Hayworth is often billed as a "femme fatale." Actually, she is the reverse of a femme fatale - - a woman with overt sexuality and seemingly loose morals who turns out to be "good" and "vulnerable." At least in "Gilda" her sexuality is trafficked upon in noirish ways until her heart-of-gold is finally established. Here in "Trinidad," despite being advertised as the hottest "Lady of Trinidad" and her introduction via a come-hither, bump and grind dance number, we are asked to believe that not only is she not promiscuous but that she is practically virginal, not having had sex in several years even with her suicidal/murdered ex- husband.With Hayworth's characters sexuality is typically a come-on and a mask, not a source of power or a threat to masculine dominance as it is with true femme fatales like Barbara Stanwyck's Phyllis Diedrich in "Double Indemnity." Also unlike true film noirs, the plot in "Trinidad" (and to a lesser degree "Gilda") resolves in a closed, happy ending, not a descent into chaotic darkness. Both of these characteristics are typical of the 1940s & 50s Hollywood mainstream drama, and NOT of the true film noirs that ran counter to the mainstream and remain more interesting to modern audiences than the standard Hollywood fare.All in all, "Affair in Trinidad" is a derivative work with both eyes on the box office and not much depth or credibility. Its claims to film noir status are dubious at best. And Rita Hayworth fans - of which I am one -- are likely to be left cold by the action and the romance.

This Rita Hayworth - Glenn Ford pairing may not be the classic that "Gilda" became, or quite as exotic as the title implies, but it's a pretty neat little mystery on its own. Though the supporting cast - the suavely villainous Alexander Scourby, the quirky Valerie Bettis, the comic-relief Steven Geray, etc. - is interesting enough, it's largely up to the two main stars to carry the movie. Rita Hayworth gives a low-key performance for the most part, but she also explodes in two wonderful song-and-dance numbers (one thing I noticed here is that her body was quite athletic by that era's standards). Ford's rugged masculinity is somehow a perfect counterpart to Hayworth's sensuality - they make a good pair. The film gets quite tense in the second half, when Rita goes on what is essentially a spy mission, but the ending is pretty rushed - and Rita's dangerous work does not really get rewarded since the police find the evidence they were looking for to get the bad guy from another source! But for fans of the two leads, "Affair In Trinidad" is still a must-see. *** out of 4.

James Gunn and Oscar Saul concocted this rather simple screenplay from Berne Giler and Virginia Van Upp's original story concerning American nightclub singer in the Tropics whose husband turns up dead; the police, believing it was murder made to look like a suicide, ask the sultry widow to spy on their number one suspect, an urbane millionaire with eyes for the hips-grinding dame. Rita Hayworth, more animated than usual, acquits herself well in this florid potboiler, knocking out two song numbers in a mellow key while falling for brother-in-law Glenn Ford (to whom she's been instructed not to divulge her secrets!). Misunderstandings, steamy clinches, an impertinent native maid, and a misplaced evening scarf all lead up to an exciting climax--although director Vincent Sherman cheats us a bit by skimping on the violent details. The narrative would pretty much collapse if only the two main characters were simply honest with each other--belaboring what Roger Ebert used to call "the idiot plot"--but, nevertheless, it's a fun, glossy affair. **1/2 from ****