Twist of Fate

Moviecut—Twist of Fate

source: Twist of Fate

A rather smart plot ,gambling on the mistaken identities; the characters are cardboard, except for Herbert Lom's , the loser flesh on the bone with a lot of self-pity : Lom ' s performance gives the story a little substance , his playing often resembling Peter Lorre's .As for Johnny , to put it mildly ,her generosity verges on naiveté. French Jacques Bergerac only made two movies in his native country where he remained virtually unknown ; and abroad,he could never become the French lover, as Charles Boyer and Louis Jourdan did : a pretty face and a slight accent are not enough.

"I stole it... I am innocent," Herbert Lom says to Stanley Baker; one a gambling con artist and the other a rich businessman/secret criminal, both are connected to central star Ginger Rogers... Baker's her supposedly single fiance and Lom a friend that bums money and steals jewelry, specifically a bracelet that ignites the alternate-titled TWIST OF FATE involving Rogers's real life husband/this film's love-interest Jacques Bergerac as not only a proud-poor artist but a different kind of Wrong Man, more a Mistaken Man... This British production has a famous American (most do) and is set in Bergerac's territory of Cannes, so BEAUTIFUL STRANGER imitates the lavish melodramas from Hollywood's Golden Age... Which is actually a shame since Baker, who would often play intense yet interesting, fleshed-out characters, whether bad or good, is somewhat one dimensional as the inevitable heavy, despite starting out romancing the hell out of Rogers before smacking her in the face.... Yet what the film's mostly known for is the pairing of Rogers and Bergerac, whose convenient romance includes flirtatious pottery-making (decades before GHOST) while the crime story, also including Baker's weaselly partner Eddie Byrne, gets secondary treatment... And with future HELL DRIVERS Baker and Lom brimmed with raw, deceptive energy, BEAUTIFUL should have stretched beyond a marriage that wouldn't last the decade... Yet it's still a neat 90-minute programmer, part noir but mostly soap, making this STRANGER a bit too shiny and clean.

This movie seems to be hampered by preserving Ginger Rogers' good girl image. This leads to a lot of highly unlikely scenarios, none of which ring true.

This is one of those films where the longer it runs the less it holds your interest.Stanley Baker is the star on the way up and Ginger Rogers on the way down.Not worth watching.

Ginger Rogers stars with Stanley Baker and Herbert Lom in "Twist of Fate," a 1954 film shot on location in the Riviera. Even in black and white, the scenery is wonderful. Rogers is Johnny, an ex-showgirl living on the largesse of her sugar daddy Louis Galt (Baker), who's been separated from his wife supposedly for years and whose divorce will be final any minute. After a fight with him, she runs off and has a minor accident with her car. Going to the nearest house, she meets Pierre (Jacques Bergerac). (In real life, Rogers had the same reaction when she saw him as Dorothy Malone did - she married him.) Johnny and Pierre fall in love, and she wants to leave Louis. First of all, he's a criminal, though she's unaware of this; secondly, he's been lying to her, which she finds out the night of the accident; and thirdly, he turns out to have a violent streak. He announces that he won't let her leave. Louis sees that the diamond bracelet he gave her is in the hands of a con man (Herbert Lom) and thinks he's her lover. That's where the twist of fate comes in. Very derivative film, with Rogers excellent as Johnny, and with good performances by Baker and Lom, both scary in different ways. Jacques Bergerac was a handsome Fremchman, and that was about it. My mother once told me, "He was someone who married beautiful actresses." After he had married a couple of them and done some films, he became the head of Revlon's Paris office. Bless his heart, at 86, he's still with us.

Historically of interest as marking Herbert Lom probably at his least hirsute (it's even mentioned in the film) before shaving his head completely to play in 'The King and I' on the West End Stage in 1955. (Marianne Stone is also in it before she had her nose job.) Ginger Rogers looks throughout as if she quickly realised she'd made as big an error of judgment coming to Britain to make this garrulous melodrama set in the South of France as her character has in getting romantically involved with dashing but vile Stanley Baker. However, she did have real-life newlywed Jacques Bergerac on the set to provide solace.

Lively and Lovely to Look at Movie that moves rapidly here and there with Everyone trying to figure out Who is Who and What is What and is breathless to say the least. The Cast, including the Dramatization of Ginger Rogers Career is OK if nothing remarkable. It is the Action and the Intrigue that Star here. Some on location Photography and Criminal behavior Spice things up beyond the rather Bland Romance Angles. There are extended Fight Scenes, Misidentifications, Smuggling, Thievery, and Murder, Adultery, Betrayal, and after all, a Deathbed confession that thankfully, and predictably clears things up. There is enough here to recommend because once things get going it is all in Perpetual Motion that makes for a Fun Film Experience, although it fails to be sharp enough for it to rise above expectations, but it does manage to deliver just that.

This is problematic from the start. Stanley Baker seems okay but while he enthuses over his young love we are only too aware that poor Ginger Rogers is a little old for her role. Another problem arises almost immediately when we realise just how flat and uninteresting this is going to be. Baker looses it as he has to become more two faced and Rogers doesn't stand a chance as she has to take on another lover. Only Herbert Lom stands a chance of saving the day and as things hot up towards the end it seems as if he might but then the story unravels and we don't care about anything at all.