Aaron Igay I've been in a few seedy nightclubs around the world and I have yet to find one where Rita Hayworth was saucily dancing in her bare feet. The rest of this mystery I've already forgotten and is just there as a vehicle for Rita's dance numbers (her singing was dubbed). The film was 'produced' by the Beckworth Corporation which was actually a front set up by Hayworth to reduce her tax bill. I'm not sure why they chose Trinidad as the locale, they didn't film one scene there and there weren't any Trini accents, music, or culture to be found in the movie. At the time T&T was simply a place in the Caribbean known for having a few US Naval bases and the subject of the song "Rum and Coca-Cola." This affair didn't end soon enough for me.

oliver-177 Affair in Trinidad was a hit of its day, but it suffers from a lukewarm reputation as a late rehash of Gilda.The plot is reminiscent of Notorious: a girl 'with a past' infiltrates a group of wealthy and amoral expatriates who are planning a terrorist attack on the US. The girl is doing so undercover, helping the good guys following the death of her father (Notorious) or her in-name-only husband (Affair). Glenn Ford has little to do: we always know more than he does, which is one of the plot weaknesses. Alexander Scourby is excellent as the enamored magnate (the Claude Rains role in Notorious). In smaller roles, Juanita Moore is striking as an omniscient maid with a great island wardrobe: the role is a stereotype, but Moore is magnificent. Obscure Valerie Bettis is also noticeable as a sarcastic lush (she was, in addition, the choreographer for Rita Hayworth's borderline-sleazy dance numbers). Rita Hayworth is at the pinnacle of her beauty. There is not one angle under which she is less than gorgeous (which cannot be said of some of her earlier hits like Cover Girl, for instance). However, she is also a bit vacant, a bit sad, a bit extinguished. Her performance would appear stronger if the character had been clearly written as a complex girl (like Bergman in Notorious), instead of also making her the hootchy-kootchy queen of the local cabaret. It is a writing problem, not an acting problem. The contrast between the character's inner turmoil and her torrid dance numbers is unmanageable. Still, this is a very enjoyable movie of its time, and probably Vincent Sherman's best alongside Nora Prentiss. Watch it if you know Notorious well (and you will also notice some similarities with the later North by Northwest towards the end).

Terrell-4 Affair in Trinidad might have been a reasonably solid movie of murder and intrigue if Columbia Pictures hadn't strained so mightily to remind us of, and cash in on, Gilda. But six years have passed since that hothouse orchid bloomed. Rita Hayworth, returning to movies after four years, a survivor of two demeaning marriages, first to the ego-driven and easily bored Orson Welles and the second to the spoiled, world-class philanderer Aly Khan, looks great but no longer has that fresh, spirited quality she brought to her movies in the Forties. Glenn Ford is finally beginning to look older than a teen-ager, but all he's called on to do is to project the same melodramatic resentment he carried along with him in Gilda. For the villain, Alexander Scourby was a good actor, but there's none of the noxious, smooth danger that George Macready gave off in waves...and none of the homoerotic subtext that spiced up Gilda. All we have is Inspector Smythe's flat-footed description of Max Fabian: "He's a man who deals in international intrigue, secret information, treason...a man who's grown rich by exploiting trouble and unrest wherever they exist..." Yawn. Chris Emery (Rita Hayworth) is a headlining entertainer in Trinidad's Carib Club. She sings, dances, and knocks 'em dead when she undulates across the dance floor. Her husband, an unsuccessful painter, dies. Suicide? It looks that way, but Inspector Smythe (Torin Thatcher) is convinced it's murder. Smythe believes that Max Fabian was behind it. He arms twists Chris to get close to Fabian, who likes her a lot. Her job: Get the goods on him. This will include slimy men with German accents and devices that seem to be nuclear. During the last ten minutes we'll forget Gilda and remember Notorious. But then her husband's brother shows up from the States. Steve Emery (Glenn Ford) quickly resents how Chris is being so friendly to Max. He has no idea she's working for the police and that she has been instructed to say nothing. This three-way arrangement results in Steve showing how tough and angry he can be, in Fabian showing how cool and dangerous he can be, and in Chris showing how conflicted she can be, especially when Chris and Steve realize their love for each other. Fear not; the movie does eventually end. When Affair in Trinidad was released it was considerably more successful than Gilda had been. Affair in Trinidad hasn't aged well. The script is no better than workmanlike. The acting, especially in the smaller parts, is basic. Even the two musical numbers Hayworth gives us, "Trinidad Lady" and "I've Been Kissed Before," seem like stuffed animals from another era. Instead of the self-aware and amusing heat of Hayworth doing "Put the Blame on Mame," here Hayworth is gorgeous and merely professional. Most of the problem is that the choreography for her is vulgar instead of being sexy. Picture a small group of bongo-thumping Trinidadians in native dress sitting on stage amongst banana fronds. They sing, eyes rolling with delight... "A chicky chick boom chick boom / A chicky chick boom chick boom / Announces you're in the room / With the Trinidad Lady "A chicky chick boom chick boom / A chicky chick boom chick boom / Your ticker goes boom, boom, boom / For the Trinidad Lady..." Even Hayworth swaying in on bare feet can't do much with material like this. Same with the movie.

LouE15 Chris (Rita Hayworth, in a return to the silver screen after years away), a beautiful dancer in a seedy Trinidad club, is forced to play the spy in a game between men, "Notorious"–style, after her husband is murdered. In a new and awkward twist, her brother in law Steve (the wonderful Glenn Ford) turns up, with questions that her compromised position makes it hard to answer. A plot is uncovered, shady dealings, a love triangle, and a noirish feel to the thing. Moustache-twirling is decently covered by Alexander Scourby.This isn't the finest ever moment for anyone involved, but it's quite poignant and interesting to look at. The reuniting of Hayworth with her "Gilda" co-star Ford hasn't quite the spark and bite of their earlier venture, and her face records the slight battering she's taken from life in the interim. This is all to the good for her character – but it isn't quite synchronised; not everything she says is convincing, and sometimes her face is too much of a mask. But her dancing is as vibrant and engaging as ever, and the chemistry between her and Ford is there, thank goodness. Otherwise it would be a shame for Ford's talent and effort to be thrown away on a film that didn't deserve it.Glenn Ford's Steve epitomises the strong man in trouble, his handsome face by turns boyish, petulant, lovestruck, brooding, aggressive. I love the way he walks into a room, shoulders first, defiantly always a man, determined to tread the straight path. When he confronts Chris at Max's birthday party, weighted under by dark jealousy, suspicion, baffled love and grief, his carefully constructed masculinity seems to me almost to tremble on the brink of collapse."Affair in Trinidad" has strong visual moments standing out from a slightly silly plot: the wonderfully murky, expressionist shot of Chris smoking in the thick dark of her doorway, her face just dimly lit by the cigarette she pulls on; the way Steve looks at Max and Chris at the point of their first meeting together; Steve slapping the cringing bar owner across the face with a wad of dollars; Chris in her big scene, downing a glass of champagne, then flouncing over to start up the orchestra and dance, in a desperate bid to give both Max and Steve the message they need to hear. The film is finally less than the sum of its parts – but enjoyable all the same.