Affair in Trinidad (1952)

Nightclub singer and her brother-in-law try to find her husband's killer.

Director:

Vincent Sherman

Writers:

Oscar Saul (screen play), James Gunn (screen play),

Stars:

Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, Alexander Scourby

Nominated for 1 Oscar.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Rita Hayworth	...	Chris Emery
Glenn Ford	...	Steve Emery
Alexander Scourby	...	Max Fabian
Valerie Bettis	...	Veronica Huebling
Torin Thatcher	...	Inspector Smythe
Howard Wendell	...	Anderson
Karel Stepanek	...	Walters
George Voskovec	...	Doctor Franz Huebling
Steven Geray	...	Wittol
Walter Kohler	...	Peter Bronec
Juanita Moore	...	Dominique
Gregg Martell	...	Olaf, Fabian's Chauffeur
Mort Mills	...	Martin, Wittol's Henchman
Ralph Moody	...	Coroner

Storyline

When Steve Emery arrives in Trinidad at the urgent request of his brother, he is stunned to find that his brother has not only been murdered, but that his brother's wife Chris is succumbing to the seduction attempts of the man who quite possibly is the murderer. His feelings are further exacerbated when he discovers that he, too, is becoming strongly attracted to Chris, who is a steamy cabaret singer. She, in turn, is playing off one against the other while betraying the secrets of both men to the police, for whom she is secretly working.

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Plot Keywords:

seduction | trinidad | caribbean | woman slaps man | place name in title | 

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Genres:

Drama | Film-Noir | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 July 1952 (USA)

Also Known As:

Girl from Amen Valley

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation, The Beckworth Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The production of "Affair in Trinidad" is credited to the Beckworth Corporation, named for Rita Hayworth and her daughter Rebecca Welles, but Beckworth wasn't an actual production company. It was a tax dodge set up by Hayworth and Columbia Pictures president Harry Cohn to allow her fee for the film to be considered a capital gain rather than a salary, and therefore taxed at a lower rate.

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Goofs

When Bronec gets run over at the airport his bags end up on the verge but in the next cut they are on the road.

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Quotes

Max Fabian: If you're waiting for my last words, you've heard them.

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Connections

Featured in The Lady with the Torch (1999)

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Soundtracks

"Trinidad Lady"
(uncredited)
Written by Lester Lee and Bob Russell
Performed by Rita Hayworth (dubbed by Jo Ann Greer)

User Reviews

Not so hot

1952's Affair in Trinidad was an attempt by Columbia to reignite some of the heat that Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford brought to Gilda six years earlier with director Vincent Sherman drafted in to give it some of the snappy style of his Warner Bros. pictures, but with somewhat more tepid results all round (except at the box-office, where it surprisingly proved an even bigger hit). It's the kind of film you know you haven't seen before but you could swear you had so predictably familiar is the formula – tropical location, a couple of sultry musical numbers, Alexander Scourby in the George Macready role, although in this case it might be more accurate to say the Claude Rains role, since the last half of the movie is pure Notorious as Hayworth's suddenly widowed singer tries to find out just what his millionaire purveyor of stolen information is up to with those ex-Nazi scientists who are staying in his guest house. Ford often has so little to do as her suspicious brother-in-law here that you hoped they at least paid him well for his time. Hayworth is centre stage all the way, and if the choreography of her opening number is more comical than erotic she's the main reason for watching it, although there are good supporting turns from Scourby and Torin Thatcher, a not-entirely-geographically-logical MacGuffin that predates the Cuban Missile Crisis by nearly a decade and one character gets a great last line – "If you're waiting for my last words, you've heard them." Neither particularly bad or particularly good, it fills an aimless afternoon but leaves little impression in its wake.