Review: Beautiful Stranger

Ginger Rogers stars as former showgirl ‘Johnny’, engaged to businessman Louis (Stanley Baker). They’re living happily on the French Riviera, though Louis is still technically married, albeit separated. They divorce will come through any day, he promises. Of course it will, of course he does. The kicker is that industrialist Louis’ business is actually controlled by his wife’s family, though he’s ‘helped’ the business through some lucrative, but highly unethical practices. Basically, Louis and his right-hand man Luigi (Eddie Byrne) are in the business of counterfeit coins. Oh, and he’s probably lying about the whole divorce thing, too. Herbert Lom plays a shifty loser acquaintance of Johnny, who is also connected to unscrupulous Louis. Jacques Bergerac plays a nice guy French potter whom Johnny meets after a minor car wreck, and falls for. Louis isn’t going to be too happy about that. John Le Mesurier can be briefly seen at the baccarat table, Ferdy Mayne plays a police detective.

 

No singing or dancing means this 1954 British crime film from director David Miller (“Sudden Fear”, “Midnight Lace”) is my first real exposure to Ginger Rogers. I’ve gotta say, she does a rather good job as a legit dramatic actress here (and is full of personality), though the film itself is only two-thirds a terrific film. Still, that means it’s a good film at least, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

 

The issue is French actor Jacques Bergerac, who was Mr. Ginger Rogers at the time and I’m sorry, but Ginger obviously saw a lot more in him than I do. He’s a walking statue in a fairly sizeable role, so it’s quite the issue. In fact, the only positive thing Bergerac’s presence adds is complication to an otherwise fairly standard plot. He doesn’t ruin the film, it’s very fine regardless, but Bergerac (as the one truly virtuous person in the entire film) is certainly bad enough to ruin its chances of being an even better film. One wonders if his casting had anything to do with being involved with the leading lady.

 

There’s plenty of talent here to help pick up some of Bergerac’s slack though, particularly the far too underrated Stanley Baker. I’m not sure what’s going on with Baker’s hair colour in this (online sources say he has grey streaks in it, but he looks blond to me), but he’s terrific nonetheless. Playing a somewhat shady businessman and an occasionally physically abusive, jealous cad, he’s completely unsympathetic, even though he’s being cheated on by Rogers. He’s still legally married to someone else, for one thing. Apparently Herbert Lom was bald even in 1954, here playing a shifty loser and petty crim the versatile character actor is perfectly cast. Lom was a long-serving player in all kinds of different genres, playing all kinds of different characters, but he was especially effective playing underworld figures and sleazy schemers like he does here. The funny thing is, you almost want this desperate loser to get away unscathed, at least more so than the clearly rotten and abusive Baker. There’s also a good, solid smaller turn by Irish actor Eddie Byrne (who looks a bit like Victor Mature) as Baker’s right-hand man Luigi. You might remember him as Gen. Willard in the first “Star Wars” movie. Long-serving European character actor Ferdy Mayne does good, thankless work as a detective late in the film. His filmography is even longer and just as colourful as Lom’s. Another asset of the film is the nice, shadowy B&W cinematography by Edward Scaife (“Khartoum”, “The Dirty Dozen”, “Hannie Caulder”) adding a bit of a noirish touch.

 

Although Jacques Bergerac is a dud, the supporting cast and star Ginger Rogers’ personality help smooth things over in this otherwise solid romantic crime-thriller. Scripted by Carl Nystrom (“No Trace”) and Robert Westerby (“War and Peace”), it’s a good film that could’ve been even better with a more charismatic male romantic lead. It doesn’t appear to be terribly popular elsewhere, but I rather liked this one.

 

Rating: B-