Affair in Trinidad – A Film Review
Affair in Trinidad was the 1952 comeback vehicle for the Hollywood sex symbol and actress Rita Hayworth. She had spent 4 years away from the big screen because of her marriage to Prince Ali Khan. But when that marriage ended Hayworth needed to make her return in a big way.
Affair in Trinidad is a film noir that reunites Hayworth with most of the principals from her last big hit the movie Gilda, including her leading man Glenn Forde. It is a desperate move and it shows.
The plot is paper thin. Hayworth is Chris Emery, a nightclub performer whose husband is found dead. It soon becomes clear that he was murdered. The police have a suspect, the millionaire Max Fabian, and Chris is drafted to help them find the proof. Unbeknownst to her, her late husband had invited his brother to the island with the promise of a job. Steve Emery (Glenn Forde) arrives in Trinidad to find his brother dead under suspicious circumstances and begins his own investigation of the matter.
The acting is dated, and very stylised. The opening scene features a most casual conversation over Neil’s body.
And while the movie was filmed in Trinidad, you see very little of the island. It very well could have been set anywhere.
The racial politics of the time feature throughout. People of colour are part of the scenery, they are incidental to action, except for Dominique. Played by Juanita Moore, Dominique is Chris’ housekeeper, and while she is clearly what Spike Lee would refer to as the movie’s ‘magical negro’, she gets quite a few of some of the movie’s most memorable lines. And that brings us to this film’s saving grace, it is an extremely quotable movie. A friend described it as throwing more shade than the Northern Range.
It is also a very feminist movie. Chris is the goddess all men want to worship, but she is very ready to put them in their place when they get out of hand. In that she is matched by Dominique who had to set Steve right when he loses his manners around his brother’s widow. Chris is also sexual without apology. The other unapologetically sexual woman in the film is Valerie Bettis’ Veronica Huebling, a film vixen if there ever was one.
Affair in Trinidad is deeply flawed film that still manages to be very entertaining. It is tremendously quotable and it is one that will have you talking long after the credits have ended.
It gets it 3 stars out of 5.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY1FTVL-KbY?rel=0&w=560&h=315]
Soy, I have a copy of this and some of the other “Caribbean films” that benefited from the Eady Levy like “Fire Down Below” and “Island In The Sun”. Bring out the popcorn and rum! Nostalgia is a hell of a thing. It is also an opportunity to see us through others’ eyes. Not very ennobling though. Juanita Moore’s Dominique was an eye opener for me for a film in that era.
I didn’t expect to like it. Not even a little bit, but the dialogue was just too good. You should have a film night, I haven’t seen any of the films on your list.