Monday, October 28, 2019

Movie review - "The Ambassador's Daughter" (1956) **

Norman Krasna was a so-so director but the main problem with this film is that his writing let him down. It's also miscast.

This has CinemaScope, colour and some name actors but suffers from undercasting - Olivia de Havilland, while still pretty and of a good actor, seems far too old to play a "daughter" i.e. someone who's entire life is defined by being a daughter. She was forty by now and while she looks good for her age she still seems kind of forty.. .and watching it I kept help thinking "you're still hanging around dad? At forty?"

His co star is John Fortsyth who is a lump - I mean he's alright but he's just straight and dull... He is no Robert Cummings, say.

The central concept is lame. De Havilland is the daughter of the American ambassador to France who pretends to be... a French model. What sort of deception is that? Why hide what she is? It made sense in other Krasna films to cover up being super rich or a royal but here there's no point to it.

The support cast are bright: Adolphe Menjou, Edward Arnold, Myrna Loy, Tom Noonan . Not that they have that much to do... Loy gets a monologue at the end but it feels like "oh I'd better give her something to do" as opposed to something dramatic. You actually could cut Menjou and Loy out of the film.

Really dull and disappointing.

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