Golden Earrings

Marlene accepted an offer to adapt Yolanda Foldes' novel - which I recommend by the way because it's tremendously funny and straightforward. It wasn't quite what she expected at first, and like when she transferred from Paramount to Universal in 1937 to 1939, she had to make some compromises. But in the end, she became the sort of gypsy that the world has never seen before. She was so real that it actually felt like a hundred percent, and Ray Milland suffered when he had to kiss that garlic-soaked mouth. In short, the gypsy Lydia proved to be as rewarding a character for Marlene as Frenchy had been all those years ago, and one she was able to take advantage of to the max. After that, she used this costume twice more, in different variations in Touch of Evil and Witness for the Prosecution. Once more, we have no choice but to once again bow down to the phenomenon with the initials M.D. and enjoy another excellent film that she was in. (13/02/2009)