THE GOLDEN SALAMANDER
UK, 1949, 90 minutes, Black and white.
Trevor Howard, Anouk Aimee, Herbert Lom, Wilfred Hyde- White, Peter Copley, Miles Malleson.
Directed by Ronald Neame.
The Golden Salamander has interesting credentials. It is based on a novel by Victor Canning (Venetian Bird). The musical score is by William Allwyn. Photography is by Oswald Morris and Freddie Francis. These were to make their names in cinema photography in the coming decades. The film was directed by Ronald Neame who had worked as an editor with David Lean. After making several films in the United Kingdom in the 50s, including The Horse's Mouth and Tunes of Glory, he went to Hollywood where his most popular success was The Poseidon Adventure.
The film is a conventional thriller of the period, an archaeologist going to Tunisia and encountering a gun-running group, falling foul of the affluent boss and violent struggles and planned murders_ Trevor Howard is at home in this kind of role, rather gentlemanly as a British hero. Anouk Aimee was at the beginning of her career, which was to last for the next fifty years in her native France as well as in international films such as La Dolce Vita. The supporting cast is the usual round-up of British character actors with Herbert Lom as a villain, Wilfred Hyde- White as a seedy piano player in a restaurant and writer Miles Malleson as a crooked policeman.
It is the conventional material which would be used in later decades in television series.
1. The popularity of this kind of British thriller in the 50s? The gentleman hero, the romantic lead, the villains, clashes, fights, vindication?
2. The Tunisian locations, the authentic atmosphere, the town, the desert, the wealthy mansions, the cliffs at the sea? The musical score and its atmospherics?
3. The title, the symbolism, the salamander in the desert? The head of the gun-running operation as a salamander?
4. David Redfern, the background of his work, coming to Tunisia to bring the artefacts back to London? The coat and tie hero, well-spoken? The drive, the landslide, his seeing the truck and the guns? Walking to the hotel? The relationship with Anne, the piano player? His meeting the wealthy owner, doing the work with the artefacts? His lying about seeing the guns? The villains and their interrogation, the piano player and his information? Anne's brother, his being involved in the group, David going swimming, discovering the body? The later identification of the body as his and the reaction of the police and the British ambassador? His suspicions, his discovery of the truth with the wealthy owner, the confrontation at the table, the gun? The planned murder, in the car, being helped by the piano player, with Anne, eluding the shooting during the boar hunt? Returning, the gun, the police and the ambassador, his vindication? A typical British character of the period?
5. Anne, her brother, in the town, isolated, the hotel, her friendship with David, their being together, the truth about her brother? Her supporting David, sharing the dangers with him?
6. The villains, tough, ruthless, gun-running, arranging murders? The chase during the boar hunt?
7. The piano player, character, seedy, drinking, with the gang? In the car, the shepherd and the sheep coming, helping David escape? The happy ending and his having another drink?
8. The villain, wealthy, sinister, the cover-up, the artefacts, the truck and its being disabled, the revelation of what he was doing, his confronting David, the suave manner with the police, being unmasked?
9. The police officer, dithery, finding excuses not to help, being in league with the gun-runners, his being ashamed, his death?
10. The popular ingredients of villains and heroes, dangers, and the exotic touch?
