Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Syl Sir Michael Redgrave gave a brilliant performance as the British journalist who befriends a naive American businessman. When his friend is murdered, he recalls the circumstances around his arrival and their relationship. The events take place in Saigon, Vietnam in post World War II and before the catastrophic Vietnam war. The naive American businessman isn't so naive at times. He wants to help the Vietnamese but he doesn't know the game there. The British journalist is married to a woman in England but lives with a beautiful Vietnamese woman, Phuong. I had to read this book for my 20th Century American History Class. The American played by Audie Murphy did a fantastic job against Redgrave. The love triangle for Phuong is believable yet under-stated and tame. There is plenty of intrigue and suspicion. Life before the Vietnam war is uncertain and there are clues to the upcoming conflict. This film was done before the Vietnam War and is telling about international relations especially American's fear of communism ruling the world. Graham Greene's novel is perfectly adapted to the screen here.

sddavis63 Personally, I thought this movie never really found its direction. One of the advantages of a novel (this is based on one by Graham Greene) is that it can go in many different directions successfully and work very well because the written word allows for a much fuller depiction of what's happening. If you translate the novel into a movie, though, you're dealing with a more limited medium and it's a lot harder to make multiple story lines work. So - what was this? Part Cold War thriller, part murder mystery, part romance, with various other things thrown in, mixed together and ending up as mush.There were parts of this that I enjoyed. Generally, I thought that Peter Redgrave as Fowler (a middle aged, jaded British journalist) and Audie Murphy as "The American" put on pretty decent performances, I appreciated the look (somewhat limited but still present) at Vietnamese culture, and I also appreciated the portrayal of the very early years of the Vietnam War, when it was still the French dealing with a Communist insurgency in what was then an integral part of their Empire. It was an interesting look at that aspect of the Cold War. Not really anti-Communist, as one might expect from the era, but somewhat anti-everything. In that sense, the movie took on Fowler's jaded personality. Starting with the American's murder, the story revolves around the search for the killer and I didn't find that part to be particularly interesting. Unfortunately, that's the bulk of the movie. Woefully underused and under-appreciated, I thought, was Giorgia Moll as Phuong, the young Vietnamese girl who becomes a love interest to both Fowler and the American. One wonders why an Italian born actress was cast as a Vietnamese (not a single Asian actress was around in 1958?) but more disappointing was that she had little to do except sip her ever-present milkshakes.Frankly, I found most of this dreadfully boring. 3/10

William J. Fickling I just saw this film on Turner Classic Movies. When it was over I was reminded of Hemingway's comment when he was asked his opinion of the film version of "The Snows of Kilimanjaro": "it was okay except for one difference; in my story the protagonist dies, and in the film he lives." This film is as much a distortion of Greene as the other film was of Hemingway; in Greene's novel the title character was intended to be a villain, but in this film he is a hero.It is not a spoiler to tell you that the title character dies, because the film begins with his death and tells what leads up to it in flashback. In Greene's novel, the seemingly naive, idealistic American who is in (then) French Indochina for vaguely idealistic operative is in fact a sinister undercover CIA operative in cahoots with an unscrupulous general. Together with the general, he plans and executes bombings in public places that result in the deaths of dozens of innocent people, then leaves evidence making it appear that the Communists carried out the bombing. His purpose is to turn the Vietnamese people against both the French and the Communists, leaving them open to intervention by the US, who will of course put the renegade general in charge. The American is seen as so evil by Fowler, the pathetic English journalist who is his rival in love, that Fowler goes along with a plot to have him killed. The novel is intensely anti-American, as was Greene.By contrast, this film, released in 1958 at the height of the cold war and just after the McCarthy era, could not afford to appear anti-American. The title character is therefore made to appear like a good guy who was indeed hoping for a US-backed "third force" to intervene in Vietnam. He is never identified as a CIA operative, and his complicity in the bombings is revealed as a Communist fabrication intended to dupe the naive Fowler and others. Fowler collaborates in the American's murder because he is a rival in love and not because he is evil. Greene was reportedly outraged at this change and denounced the film. There was some poetic justice: the film was both a commercial and critical failure.There are some merits to the film. It was filmed on location in Saigon, very unusual for the time when most films like this were filmed in the studio. Consequently, we get to see what Saigon was like in a more innocent time, before large scale US intervention. There are several Asian actors and actresses in minor roles, but not in the key role of Phuong, the Vietnamese prostitute with whom both Fowler and the American fall in love. Phuong is played by a Caucasian actress with poor makeup, a continuation of a lamentable Hollywood practice that lasted until the 1960s. There is a superb performance by Michael Redgrave as Fowler. Audie Murphy sleepwalks through his portrayal of the American.This film is an interesting period curiosity that is worth watching, but the 2002 film with Michael Caine and Brendan Frasier is much better and much truer to Greene's novel. That version is highly recommended.

dbdumonteil Like some other Joseph L.Mankiewicz movies,this is an investigation.The form recalls "Barefoot contessa" which began with the heroine's funeral and was a long flashback .But ,by and large,"Suddenly last Summer " ,the follow-up,was also an investigation (by a shrink)If we forget "guys and dolls" these are three investigations in a row.And anyway ,what are "letter to three wives" or "people will talk"? The plot is complex,and I must admit I do not find it as palatable and as accessible as most of Mankiewicz's works,which,although very talky,manage to remain absorbing till the last pictures : all in all ,all Mankiewicz movies look like filmed stage productions from "All about Eve" to "the Honey pot" and from " a letter to three wives " to " Sleuth" Even a work like "Cleopatra" features more intimate scenes than in an usual epic.The cast,for the first time in Mankiewicz 's canon (it never happened again),is weak:only Redgrave is convincing.Audie Murphy is a wooden actor(but we will not forget he was a hero in real life) and Italian Georgia Moll was a starlet who got lost in two-bit spy thrillers or sword and sandals in the sixties :why an Italian by the way?Just compare this acting with those of" Suddenly Last Summer" ! or "the honey pot" and I won't even mention "All about Eve".The plot mixes politics,economics and love affairs.The center of the story is a simple question of vocabulary:the meaning of the word "plastic" (explosive or plastic to make toys?)It leads the hero (who is not a nice person anyway:it's a cynical man getting old who cannot forgive the American his idealism )into a crazy spiral.He's been manipulated just as Mrs Holy,her son and the shrink were by Mrs Venable (Suddenly last Summer) or the guests and even McFly by Cecil Fox(The honey pot) .In "Sleuth" probably Mankiewicz's pinnacle ,Wyke manipulates Tindle and vice versa.In Mankiewicz 's best works ,people work behind the scenes (Cousin Sebastian in "Suddenly Last Summer" Cecil Fox after his death in "honey pot" and the most important scene in this film -the murder- which we do not see!!-And when they take the stage,they are wearing masks ("Sleuth")