Ray Milland was not a great director, as this effort shows. This colour film shows much of Lisbon and the surrounding area in the mid-1950s, which is welcome. There are several excellent performances. Claude Rains is magnificent as usual as a devious and urbane crook, Francis (originally Franz) Lederer is superb as his henchman and assassin, underplaying and thereby increasing the menace of his character (which in the script cannot have amounted to much). Yvonne Furneaux is a charming ingenue who tries very hard indeed to be convincing about throwing herself into the arms of an aged Ray Milland and telling him she loves him. Maureen O'Hara flashes her usual Irish fire, but she also has to tell Milland she loves him, and two beautiful gals throwing themselves at Milland in competition is really too much to take, since he looks like he needs a month's rest in a sanatorium rather than a heady romance. Milland always had great 'watchability' and he still retains some in this film. This film has a very weak script and absolutely atrocious cinematography by Jack Marta, who seems only to use about two lights in his interiors. A friend who worked with Ray Milland once told me that Milland was the meanest man with money he had ever known, and he would always try to share taxis with poor actors and then pretend he had forgotten his money and make them pay. (That is why everyone tried to avoid sharing cabs with Milland.) Perhaps Milland, who co-produced this venture, was too mean to pay Marta to have proper lights! The interior shadows and lighting are simply unimaginably awful.There is an equally atrocious score by Nelson Riddle. Somebody should have taken a whip and beaten Milland back into his box. He had no business producing and directing. There is a fine authentic song performed by Anita Guerreiro in this film, who gives us a few moments of real music. Milland obviously loved Portugal, and we can be grateful for his enthusiasm in showing some of it to us as it was then. If only the film had come up to a higher standard, we would be able to say on our postcards: 'Having a wonderful viewing, wish you were here!'
Review of Lisbon
