Golden Salamander (1950)

The Golden Salamander is a thoroughly engaging, high-powered entertainment from the beginning to the end. Other reviews have made this clear.One point I should like to clear up. Since yours truly has found it impossible to navigate the trivia section to correct misinformation there, I have taken the oblique path of a review. The "Goofs" section incorrectly states that a flock of seagulls is shown to be making noise around a "body floating on top of the water", then we see that the body is actually discovered weighted at the bottom of the shallow water near the shore. In fact it not a body at the top of the water around which the seagulls were flocking, but merely the coat which had come off the body and floated to the top.Perhaps someone better at navigating (probably intentionally) difficult sites will see this and wedge a correction though.

While the poor casting in "Golden Salamander" might surprise you, it it STILL worth seeing. It begins with a British man, David (Trevor Howard), driving along some very, very wet roads at night in Tunisia. Eventually, he pulls off the road--and stumbles on some guns that have fallen out of a crate. Soon, some folks return to retrieve the guns--and David runs, as he's pretty sure these are smugglers. However, he does NOT report this to the authorities.His job in the town is to pack some antiquities for transport to a British museum. During the time he's in the town, he falls for Anna (Anouk Aimée). He also soon realizes that Anna's brother is one of the smugglers. What's he to do? And, just how deep does this conspiracy go?This is a nice action-romance. As I mentioned above, the casting was odd, as Howard was almost two decades older than his love interest. I also was dumbfounded when there was the HUGE fight near the end...and Anna just stood there watching (even though if the wrong man wins, she will die!). Despite these problems, the film is exciting and has a very good plot...and it's well acted as well.

Trevor Howard is driving to a small Tunisian town in the pouring rain but a rock slide blocks the road and he has to hoof it. He stumbles across a disabled truck carrying a load of contraband pistols...a couple of dudes approach and he hides....he sees the dudes faces in lightning and so the plot is in motion. In a café in town he meets the lackadaisical piano player and mopey barmaid Anouk Aimee. Then the dudes from the truck come in the café and the plot thickens. The truck dudes know he was stranded by the rock slide so they ask him if he saw them or the truck. Gosh,no says he. They don't believe him. One of the dudes is Max. After awhile he convinces Max to run away from the other dude and hightail it to Paris, so he can pursue his career as an artist (not kidding). Max says OK, but the other dude finds out & makes Max go for a swim in concrete boots. Then Howard goes to the police chief to narc on the other dude who snuffed Max but turns out the chief is on the take. Matter of fact the whole town is crooked and owned by the villain who lives behind a desk in the fancy spread outside town. He's the kingpin of the gun-running operation.Well, after some romance between Howard and Aimee, lots of running in the drably scenic Tunisian hills and dales,the good guys and the villains end up all together outside town at Villa d'villain. Its not a bad movie although Anouk Aimee seems in a coma in most scenes and inaudible as well. Howard was 37 when he made this, he's not handsome and he he looks 50 so his Kissie scenes with 19 year old Aimee are really gross and totally unbelievable. Other than that, it has some suspense and has a nice quick pace. I think I'll give it 6 instead of 5.

If Golden Salamander had been made in the USA some studio back-lot would have sufficed for Tunisia. But this being post World War II in Europe, the British film adventure was made on the actual location with interiors shot in the UK. That's more than could be said for the great Casablanca.In 1950 when this made the French were busy trying to hang on to their colonial empire and not making much of a go at it. Which brings us to the plot of Golden Salamander and how archaeologist Trevor Howard, in Tunisia to retrieve some salvaged Etruscan works gets himself mixed up in arms smuggling. The guy who has his archaeological treasures is Walter Rilla, the same man who is running the arms smuggling. He's also the local big shot in the coastal town where this is all taking place and owns just about everyone.Who to trust is Howard's problem, he's not even sure about the lovely Anouk Aimee, a refugee with brother Jacques Serna from the Nazis who has settled down there, but would like to get back to Paris once she can afford to. Because of the lack of trust involved in our hero's part, Golden Salamander is an action adventure that plays a whole lot like film noir.Herbert Lom is on hand as Rilla's nasty henchmen. No mystery where he's concerned. Until he got to play Inspector Dreyfys in the Pink Panther series, Lom was as reliable a villain as you could find in film. Wilfrid Hyde-White has an interesting part, if this had been done in America, Hoagy Carmichael would have been cast.The title refers to a particular valuable piece of Etruscan art that is the centerpiece of the collection that Rilla is turning over to Howard. Golden Salamander is a nicely packaged action film with a twist of noir that should satisfy anyone.