Golden Salamander (1950)

By CinemaSerf

This is a slightly confused smuggling mystery with an oddly cast Trevor Howard as "David", a British archaeologist sent to Tunisia to supervise the removal of some artefacts. He arrives at the inn run by "Anna" (Anouk Aimée) and a slightly sinister pianist Wilfred Hyde-White ("Anjo"). Next thing, he is involved in a gun-smuggling racket with local hoodlum Herbert Lom ("Rankl") and his lobster fisherman pal "Max" (Jacques Sernas) whilst slowly falling in love with the much younger "Anna". It's a good looking film, but the story has more holes than a Dutch cheese with just way too many co-incidences. Howard is fine, but Lom features all too rarely to build any sense of suspense. Sernas is positively smouldering so why Anouk would prefer the older man is slightly bewildering; and the casting of Miles Malleson - ordinarily the archetypical British vicar/train enthusiast as "Douvet" - the local policeman, is just a bit too baffling to make much sense of the really thinly spread story.