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The title is a gigolo's patter, to his dupe it means a privileged delay before the romantic dream dissipates. Quota laws at the Mexican border, marrying gringos is the shortcut of choice, the authorities put a title to the tune: "Is it love, or is it immigration?" Ditching the Old World as storm clouds gather, the seedy Romanian dandy (Charles Boyer) cools his heels at the Hotel Esperanza. He spots the American schoolteacher (Olivia de Havilland) on holiday with a carload of students and pours the charm, they're officially a couple less than a day later. Blossoming emotion as they hit the road complicates his hitch-and-ditch scheme, to the chagrin of his accomplice (Paulette Goddard). "If you carry a torch long enough, it burns out... My hands are scorched." The rake's contempt and redemption, a Billy Wilder-Charles Brackett spike which Mitchell Leisen wraps in velvet. Newlyweds have their own patron saint, candles at the fiesta for a spiritual transformation of the sham marriage, cp. Minnelli's The Clock. (The physical side is addressed at a deserted beach, suddenly the provincial virgin blooms touchingly in the waves.) "I lift my lamp beside the golden door," the government inspector (Walter Abel) fumbles the Statue of Liberty's message but the refugee doctor (Victor Francen) has it at his fingertips. The introductory view of America is a patrolled wall (the pregnant German maiden squeaks by so her child will have more rights than her), just beyond that is Hollywood: The protagonist sneaks into the studio and finds Leisen himself directing Veronica Lake, the tale he tells is the reflexive movie pitch which pays for its own happy ending. "Well, now let's not get into international complications!" The arrangement is polished by Wilder in A Foreign Affair, then corroded by Kastle in The Honeymoon Killers. With Rosemary DeCamp, Curt Bois, Eric Feldary, Nestor Paiva, Madeleine LeBeau, and Micheline Cheirel. In black and white.
--- Fernando F. Croce |