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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful:-
Get thee to a Nunnally, 6 August 2003
Author:
F Gwynplaine MacIntyre (Borroloola@aol.com) from Minffordd, North Wales
'The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo' has a good script, mid-level
production values and a fine performance by Colin Clive in a villainous
role. The great theatre director Joshua Logan was peripherally involved in
this film (without credit); his autobiography 'Josh' mentions his
participation but does not discuss the movie in detail.
This movie got its title (and premise) from a once-popular music-hall song
performed by the Englishman Charles Coborn (not the American actor Charles
Coburn). Ronald Colman stars as a White Russian nobleman who has fled the
revolution and now ekes out an existence in Monte Carlo. When he manages
to
break the bank at the casino, the casino directors are delighted: surely
the
publicity will bring more suckers (I mean gamblers) to the tables. But
Colman gives an interview in which he acknowledges that his lucky streak
was
against the odds, and he warns others to save their money and stay away
from
the casino!
The casino directors try various stratagems to lure Colman back to the
tables. Eventually they hire Joan Bennett to pretend to be romantically
interested in Colman, planning to lure him back to the casino.
(Surprisingly, Colman falls for this: he's just been widely publicised as
a
man with a potful of casino winnings, yet he assumes that Bennett is
interested in him for himself.) It's no spoiler to reveal that she
genuinely
falls for him. But Colman doesn't know that Bennett has a husband: namely
Colin Clive, who is becoming homicidally jealous...
Colman is good in this film, but Clive (in a smaller role) gives a better
performance. There was a basic coldness to Colin Clive which made him more
effective in sinister roles than in heroic ones. Bennett is bland in a
predictable role. Nigel Bruce is good (as usual) in an atypical role as
Colman's valet, a fellow Russian expat: wisely, Bruce does not attempt a
Russian accent. A sequence in the Swiss alps (via 20th Century-Fox's
backlot) is not very convincing. The photography is excellent, the editing
and sound recording less so. Nunnally Johnson's sparkling dialogue is up
to
his usual standard. I'll rate this enjoyable film 7 out of
10.
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