This one starts very meta with Charles Boyer arriving at Paramount to talk to director "Mr Saxon" (played by Mitchell Leisen who directed this), who is directing I Wanted Wings (which was produced IRL by Arthur Hornblow who produced this) and we see Veronica Lake being filmed, and Brian Donlevy watching.
Full of memorable bits: one refugee hangs himself in a room (briefly glimpsed), de Havilland's kids in the bus. It is stately paced, clocks in at nearly two hours. But it's of very high quality. Wilder was driven to directing by "script tweaks" on this film, but it is very well directed. Superb line up of stars: Charles Boyer was born to play a gigolo, and frequently did, ditto Paulette Goddard as the cheerful gold digger who loves Boyer and wants to move to New York with him, and Olivia de Havilland is perfect as the "plain" school teacher who finds love, and then who Boyer gets the horn for watching her in the surf.
It combines cynicism, sex, genuine romance. Walter Abel is fine as the dogged immigration inspector. The support players get a chance to shine.
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