Trevor Howard

Anouk Aimée

Herbert Lom

Walter Rilla

Miles Malleson

Jacques Sernas

Wilfrid Hyde-White

Peter Copley

Marcel Poncin

Kathleen Boutall

Eugene Deckers

Ronald Neame

Alexander Galperson

Victor Canning

Jim Hydes

Lesley Storm

Marjorie Owens

Gordon Pilkington

Freddie Francis

Dudley Lovell

Elizabeth Hennings

Audrey Powell

William Alwyn

Jack Harris

Oswald Morris

John Bryan

Charles Knott

George Croll

Crime

Drama

Adventure

Golden Salamander

Pinewood Films

United Kingdom

CinemaSerf

This is a slightly confused smuggling mystery with an oddly cast Trevor Howard as "David", a British archaeologist sent to Tunisia to supervise the removal of some artefacts. He arrives at the inn run by "Anna" (Anouk Aimée) and a slightly sinister pianist Wilfred Hyde-White ("Anjo"). Next thing, he is involved in a gun-smuggling racket with local hoodlum Herbert Lom ("Rankl") and his lobster fisherman pal "Max" (Jacques Sernas) whilst slowly falling in love with the much younger "Anna". It's a good looking film, but the story has more holes than a Dutch cheese with just way too many co-incidences. Howard is fine, but Lom features all too rarely to build any sense of suspense. Sernas is positively smouldering so why Anouk would prefer the older man is slightly bewildering; and the casting of Miles Malleson - ordinarily the archetypical British vicar/train enthusiast as "Douvet" - the local policeman, is just a bit too baffling to make much sense of the really thinly spread story.

English