Double identity drama about a diplomat with amnesia commences in fine style, but sags in the telling due both to lack of action and a surfeit of dialogue. Perhaps even more important, however, is the lack of a credible plot - so many details are either blatantly wrong or ring so bewilderingly false, few viewers will not be three or four jumps ahead of the allegedly intelligent but naive and slow-witted William Powell character. Even his empty-headed wife who spends just about the entire movie modeling the most exquisite gowns has more sense. And why would such a ravishingly attractive girl saddle herself to such a poor fish of a dimwit who can't even make up a good excuse to keep a rendezvous with the police? Why not simply tell the truth? But then of course there'd be no film. The director strives mightily to maintain interest though this increasingly disheartening charade with all sorts of pictorially striking shots and even cuts, such as the sequence on the bridge with the camera dollying in from an incredibly high angle and then dissolving from long shot to medium to close-up to ultra-close. It's also a sad waste of fine players - Claire Trevor for example, and particularly Rathbone whose character is such an unintentional cretin we have little interest in him at all. Rathbone seems to have realized the emptiness of this pasteboard villain. His acting is dispirited. He just goes through the motions.

Claire Trevor is my pick for interest in this, though William Powell is always engaging. He does well in a different sort of part for him, a man who has cause to doubt himself. But character shows true, not something you can hide with such close alliances as in his life and over time. He just does not have the criminal bent about him. But you begin to wonder as it goes along. The marriage is one of those society types, where it's always "darling" and other formalities, yet they demonstrate a solid bond. Good Hedy Lamarr vehicle for a deeper sort of character and inner attractiveness. It's not just the background and beauty here that make up her weight. But Claire Trevor has that intriguing woman thing down in this, doing both the refined veneer along with the bald adventuress well. Rathbone has a different role type also, having more of the nervous edginess, needing side coaching from the Trevor character. The old lady playing the fake mother is good also. As one said here, there is the formula element about the film, but there is depth of interest as well.

Enjoyed viewing this film on late night television starring William Powell, (David Talbot) a very successful man working for the French Government and happily married to a very beautiful woman named Lucienne Talbot, (Hedy Lamarr). Every thing is going great for this couple until David has an accident and develops amnesia and cannot remember a period of his life for 13 years. Henri Sarrou, (Basil Rathbone) meets up with David Talbot and blackmail's him for a crime he committed under the name of Jean Pelletier several years ago. Henri also has a woman named Michelle Allaine, (Claire Trevor) who also confirms that David is guilt of this crime and seeks thousands of dollars to keep everything quite. This is a great mystery story starring great classic veteran actors.

I was drawn to this by the presence in the cast of William Powell, an actor whose graceful charm always lent class to any movie he appeared in. His work in this surprisingly good story of mystery and blackmail, lives up to expectations. The plot manages to surprise one throughout and keeps one's interest going right to the end. Good script, good direction, and a nice setting in 1920's France. Basil Rathbone turns in a nice bit as a villainous character from the past. Worth seeing.