Affair in Monte Carlo (1952) User Reviews

An Affair to Forget

[wes-connors · 4/10 · 10 April 2010]

On the colorful Riviera, lonely socialite widow Merle Oberon (as Linda Venning ) is attracted to handsome gambling addict Richard Todd. At a Monte Carlo nightclub, with platonic pal Leo Genn (as Robert Sterling), Ms. Oberon senses Mr. Todd is suicidal after losing his money at the roulette table. The older woman begins to treat the distraught Todd like a gigolo, and he succumbs to her advances. Mr. Genn, who tells the story in flashback, worries about Oberon's relationship with the younger man.

Re-titled "Affair in Monte Carlo" for US audiences, this film had great potential as a psychological drama. This is made most evident in Todd's final confrontation with Oberon, when he draws an interesting parallel between his luck and her presence. Moreover, the use of Genn as a rival for Oberon's affections comes too late. Sadly, the script gives Stefan Zweig's story short shrift. Note the version on TreeLine Film's "Hollywood Legends" is in black-and-white, robbing the picture of an obvious strength.

**** 24 Hours of a Woman's Life (9/10/52) Victor Saville ~ Merle Oberon, Richard Todd, Leo Genn, Stephen Murray

A beautiful older woman; A psychotic younger man; A spot for strange romance.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 3 October 2013]

At points in this abbreviated version of the European produced romantic drama, you think you're watching an early television version of "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone", for Merle Oberon's character heads after gambler Richard Todd much like Vivien Leigh did for Warren Beatty's gigolo in that Tennessee Williams melodrama. The metaphors of Williams' story are missing, however, and in the faded black and white version of the color movie (trimmed excessively for video release) makes this look like an episode of an early television anthology series.

Told in flashback by an older man (Leo Genn) who obviously loves the heroine, the story traces the downfall of the sophisticated Oberon after striking up an interest in the somewhat melancholy Todd after he storms out of a gambling casino in Monte Carlo and she finds him a hotel room. He becomes excessively paranoid as Oberon's obsession with him gets deeper and deeper. There's really no motivation for her attraction to him beyond the obvious as he is actually pretty condescending to her and obviously using her in spite of his objections to the contrary.

Because of the slightly older woman/younger man theme, there's a definite comparison to many of Williams' works, particularly "A Streetcar Named Desire", "Roman Spring" and "The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore". If there's any indication in the obviously missing footage of something important from the plot that explains something deeper in the relationship, hopefully it will show up, along with a color print, as certain sequences (particularly a fireworks scene) cry for it. In its available print, it strikes a high cord of major mediocrity.

"Well I'm ready to look for that lonely sympathetic woman who'll understand me,"

[classicsoncall · 5/10 · 14 November 2012]

My guess is that I viewed a severely truncated version of this film since it lasted just a bit over an hour, and in black and white no less, robbing the movie of some vibrancy given the rather exotic location. Given those shortcomings, this seemed to be a rather lifeless picture that wasn't helped at all by the bland characters portrayed by Richard Todd and Merle Oberon. For no discernible reason, Oberon's character becomes obsessed with gambler Todd's 'Young Man', contemplating suicide during the initial flashback scene when he runs a string of bad luck at a gaming table. The tenuous relationship proceeds for a time, but eventually dissolves when the gambling man makes a choice between his addiction and the woman who's melancholy seems to overwhelm the mood of the picture. It's all a rather somber affair, if one could even attribute that description to the title of the picture.

Had Unfulfilled Potential

[Snow Leopard · 2 December 2005]

This movie version of the Stefan Zweig story is worth seeing, but it has a lot of unfulfilled potential, and it could have been much more memorable. The story has been filmed several times, and indeed the novella seems ready-made for a movie. It combines an interesting setting, compulsive gambling, suicidal tendencies, a love affair, crime, and quite a bit more into a concise story that plays out in the space of just one day. At the same time, there are some challenges in making it into a movie, since much of the force of the story comes from the psychology of the characters, rather than from their actions.

The various movie versions have each chosen different ways of framing the main narrative. In this adaptation, the main story is told as a flashback by a writer played by Leo Genn, whose character also played a role in the main story itself. Genn's character is actually a little underused, and doesn't allow him to use some of his best strengths as an actor, but the character itself is a suitable choice for the narration.

The story takes place in Monte Carlo, and it includes a lot of location footage. But, at least in the public domain print (which could be the problem), the setting and scenery are never quite as striking as you would have expected them to be. Many other movies have used the same setting to more memorable effect.

The main story has Merle Oberon suitably cast as the young widow who becomes irresistibly attracted to a desperate gambler, and who tries to save him from his addiction to roulette. Oberon's rather ethereal, dreamy presence makes her character's actions seem believable. She is hindered, though, by some weak dialogue that sometimes reduces her deeper feelings to the level of clichés.

The gambler character is never fleshed out, and Richard Todd plays him in a one-dimensional fashion. To some degree, this is supposed to be the character's nature, but even a little more of a sympathetic side could have made the story more powerful. Todd, though, is also hindered by some stale dialogue, even more so than Oberon. The conversations between Oberon and Todd ought to have been the centerpiece of the movie, and with better dialogue they could easily have evoked more passion and tension.

The story itself focuses attention on the desire of a woman to change a man who really does not want to change all that much. As such, it is a thought-provoking character study, and it provides some useful ideas to think about. In this particular adaptation, the themes are all there on the surface, but they are never examined as deeply as they could have been. It is still adequate as a dramatic story, but it had the potential to be more than that.

Melodramatic '24 Hours in a Woman's Life'

[HotToastyRag · 4/10 · 10 April 2023]

I recognized it immediately in the opening scene, but in case you don't, Affair in Monte Carlo is the original version of Twenty-Four Hours in a Woman's Life (turned into a live television production in 1962 with Ingrid Bergman). As I'd seen that version first, I knew how the story would progress.

The main difference is the narration of the movie. In this original version, Leo Genn tells the story to a bunch of friends about how his old flame Merle Oberon fell in love with a gambler. In the remake, an elderly Ingrid Bergman tells the story of her own romance to her granddaughter. Besides that, the stories are nearly identical. Merle is a classy woman of high society who randomly chances upon a destitute gambler in Monte Carlo, Richard Todd. She senses that he's about to commit suicide, and she makes it her personal mission to save him and inspire him to live. It doesn't really feel like a 1952 drama, but instead one from the 1930s. It's very melodramatic and has hardly any depth to it, but if you love Merle, you can try it. I found it rather thin, but since it was such a short movie I figured it wouldn't hurt me to finish it.

Brave of Oberon

[malcolmgsw · 5/10 · 28 February 2020]

She was 41 when this film was made.Todd was then 33,but playing 25 becomes her toy boy.The film is set in Monte Carlo and makes full advantage of the locations.She was on the way down in her career and Todd on the way up.

A good cast works to keep this soap opera barely afloat

[SimonJack · 5/10 · 11 January 2023]

From the accounts I have read about Austrian author Stefan Zweig, it's somewhat surprising that this British film would be made. ." It is based on a 1927 story by Zweig. The original title of "Affair in Monte Carlo" is the same as the novella, "24 Hours of a Woman's Life." While Zweig was apparently well-liked and read around much of Europe, and in the Untied States in the 1920s and 1930s, he got very little attention in Great Britain. So, it seemed a little odd that a British film company would make a movie based on a Zweig story.

Adding to that peculiarity is the somewhat strange situation that so few of Zweig's many novels, biographies and other books have had films made or based on them. Just two others were adapted into movie dramas in 1946 and 1948 - "Beware of Pity" inn 1946 and "Letter from an Unknown Woman" in 1948. These films have foreboding stories that have dark palls over them. And, Zweig's writing style has been viewed as not very good by a number of critics. So, the lugubrious tone of his work doesn't appeal to many readers, and doesn't adapt well to films that are liked most by audiences.

Now, the gist of this film, told in a flashback story, is about how a woman could fall in love with a man in one day. Robert Stirling is hosting people on his yacht in the Mediterranean, and relates the story that took place in Monte Carlo. The slight air of mystery is obvious, and one might guess where it will end, as I did.

The cast are all quite good - Leo Genn as Stirling, and Merle Oberon ad Richard Todd as the main characters, Linda Venning and The Young Man. But this film, with its plot and screenplay, more closely resembles a soap opera than a good drama. But for the actors giving it their best, the screenplay would sink this film entirely. Except for fans of Oberon and Todd, most viewers will probably find this film dull at best, and depressing at worst.

A young beautiful widow saves a gambler from suicide - or so it seems

[clanciai · 10/10 · 15 February 2021]

The story is by Stefan Zweig, and that warrants some very interesting watching experience. The story is very romantic and splendid in its Mediterranean settings around Monte Carlo with a focus on the gambling house. The most interesting detail of the film and story is perhaps the study of the hands at the gaming table. Leo Genn makes as comforting appearance as ever, and he is the one who watches the hands of the gamblers and analyses them, and there is one pair of hands that his friend Merle Oberon can't detach herself from. It takes a very long time before you are admitted the sight of the man's face whose hands have revealed to her the most bottomless desperation in the world. It's a psychological drama, and the main psychology is about the demon of gambling. Richard Todd wants to quit gambling and swears that he will do it and still returns to the the gambling table. The demon is there to stay, and his irresistibility is as relentless as devastating. Merle Oberon makes as usual a blinding performance for her beauty, Leo Genn is perfect as usual as the superior mind of solace, Richard Todd is perfect as usual in his obsession, and Stephen Murray is quite convincing as a French musical priest. It's a beautiful film with a very concentrated and multi-faced story with many surprising turnings, so it's worth while indeed to see this one again - but preferably in colour.

Deep Focus For a Stefan Zweig Story

[boblipton · 9/10 · 2 April 2019]

Leo Genn and his friends are awaiting the arrival of his wife. While they hold her birthday dinner in absentia, Genn tells a story of a woman who ran away with a man she had just met. The narrator is a necessity for this story, because it's from a story by Stefan Zweig. With Zweig, you never know if you have a work of fiction, a work of keyhole literature, in which the events happened but the names have been changed, or the unvarnished, rueful truth.

Genn is a successful author, and he and some friends and unwanted leeches are vacationing in Monte Carlo. He takes Merle Oberon to the Casino, and leaves her to watch the roulette table. There she sees Richard Todd. He has just lost everything and is getting ready to kill himself. She saves him, and lends him money to pay back what he has stolen.... and then they fall in love. Or do they?

Last year's ROMA was a very interesting movie, but its constant use of deep focus disturbed me. In watching movies, the camera focuses on what you are supposed to look at. ROMA's deep focus never permitted you to focus on the story, because something else might grab your attention: a riot outside, or a marching band, or a giant statue of a crab. Might the story wander off to look at them? Yet with a story by Zweig, with its ironic twists and turns, its sardonic and self-slighting attitudes, such camerawork might work.

Maybe it did. The copy I looked at was a very soft print, and seems to have been cut by half an hour from its original 90-minute length. Nonetheless, Victor Saville's direction makes this the most successful adaptation of a Zweig story I have seen.

A love affair that is hardly a love affair!

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 18 May 2021]

The story is set among a group of Brits who are staying in Antibes, France....near Nice and Monte Carlo. It begins these folks all in a dither because apparently one of them ran away with a man she hardly knew...and she was supposed to marry another man! Robert (Leo Genn) regales his friends with a similar story...one that you assume will prove that love at first sight and marrying in haste is a good thing. Oddly, the story pretty much proves the opposite...which, actually, is a good thing as you don't want movies romanticizing such blind and foolish love.

It seems that Linda (Merle Oberon) met a young man who was a compulsive gambler (Richard Todd). The pair instantly hit it off and you could tell she was head over heels in love with the man. As for him, he says he realizes how empty his life of gambling has been and he makes a promise to God to reform and never gamble again.

I thought this film had a nice polish and set a nice romantic mood. Understand, however, it is NOT a romantic film...at least by the end. It's actually a very realistic portrait of a woman who is desperately in love with a man with an uncontrollable addiction. Had everything gone happily ever after, I would have hated the film...as it sure wouldn't have been realistic. However, it chose a very realistic ending...one that will no doubt annoy folks wanting to see a romance....and the film is much like a bait and switch here! I appreciated it...some clearly will not. As for the film's message, apart from gambling is indeed an addiction, the messages otherwise are a bit cloudy and vague.