Radio review - Lux - "Hold Back the Dawn" (1941) ****

Billy Wilder was a refugee and former gigolo so it's no surprise he penned this tale of a shifty European (Charles Boyer) living in Mexico and trying to marry his way into America - he sets his eye on a school teacher (Susan Hayward, stepping in for Olivia de Havilland). Paulette Goddard is a fellow European who has married and sets her cap at Boyer; there's further complications from an investigating US official. It's done with cynicism and intelligence, at least at first - of course he has to reform. That isn't done very believably but the rest is terrific. The tale is bookended with Boyer telling his story with Cecil B de Mille playing himself in order to make money before he is arrested (he needs to pay for Hayward's operation) - so ten years before Sunset Boulevard here is de Mille playing himself in a Wilder script.