Overrated

How sad is this?

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The most curious asset of this film is a very young and irresistible Anouk Aimée ("Anouk") as the innocent girl who is totally unaware of what is going on although her boyfriend is deeply mixed up in it, which makes her worried without knowing for what. As it happens, the archaeologist Trevor Howard enters and makes things happen in this off-side village in Tunisia where corruption flourishes, in which everyone is involved. It is therefore a rather unpleasant film, with Herbert Lom as villainous as ever, and Miles Malleson as inimtable as ever as the local chief of police, who isn't quite as innocent as he should be either. It all amounts to a bloody mess of troubles mainly for Trevord Howard himself, and it might seem objectionable that he falls for la belle Anouk while he knows the truth about her boyfriend, in whose case his meddling didn't quite work oui as he had intended. A key figure is Wilfred Hyde-White, constantly sitting drunk by the piano playing the wonderful "Clopin Clopant" and saying very little but in the end doing what is needed to resolve a hopeless situation just by a very small hint. He was never better, although he always was a crown jewel in every film he was in.

GOLDEN SALAMANDER is an intriguing and moralistic British crime film of 1950 that stars Trevor Howard in a winning performance as the sympathetic lead. He plays a British archaeologist who heads off to Tunisia to retrieve some priceless antiquities discovered in a rich client's cellar. While on the scene, he soon becomes aware of a gun running scheme in the locality and must decide between keeping tight-lipped or revealing what he knows to the authorities. Although this feels like a low budget production at times, it's generally pretty effective. The narrative is lean and clean and the exotic landscapes put to good effect. The story plays out in a way which is both slow and realistic. Herbert Lom is an effective villain, as always, and Anouk leads a certain exotic beauty to the role of the love interest. The climax of the film is an extended chase sequence which works nicely, topping off a generally well-rounded production.

Trevor Howard, past his prime, is a plucky archaeologist matching wits against gunrunners in North Africa and falling in love with Anouk Aimee.This post-war British thriller suffers from an almost terminal stiffness of the upper lip, but it offers an intelligent, no-nonsense script and several notable performances, particularly among the villains (Howard's principal adversary is a young and menacing Herbert Lom.The story was adapted from a Victor Canning novel and filmed, to excellent advantage, on location in Tunisia.

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.