oldblackandwhite The Golden Salamander is a thoroughly engaging, high-powered entertainment from the beginning to the end. Other reviews have made this clear.One point I should like to clear up. Since yours truly has found it impossible to navigate the trivia section to correct misinformation there, I have taken the oblique path of a review. The "Goofs" section incorrectly states that a flock of seagulls is shown to be making noise around a "body floating on top of the water", then we see that the body is actually discovered weighted at the bottom of the shallow water near the shore. In fact it not a body at the top of the water around which the seagulls were flocking, but merely the coat which had come off the body and floated to the top.Perhaps someone better at navigating (probably intentionally) difficult sites will see this and wedge a correction though.

worldofgabby When I saw the cast for this, I figured the movie would either be very good or awful. Luckily, it was the former. Good acting, great cinematography, editing and a convincing character path make this movie a real classic. Of course there are the "exotic" Arabs, but their depiction is not as offensive as in most films of its era. The somewhat dazed performance by Anouk Aimee leads one to believe that she either had a lot of trouble with the English language, or overplayed her depressive qualities. The boar hunt sequence brings to mind the conclusion of the book "The Alexandria Quartet." Aside from these minor quibbles, I recommend The Golden Salamander to anyone with an interest in character development, intrigue, and film noir that isn't about people unjustly accused of criminal action, innocent people led into same, and heists gone wrong.

sol- Not really poorly made, but more so mediocre, the film's biggest downfall is the lack of any solid plot. The darkness of the shots at the beginning of the film make it hard to see what is going, however one is able to make out that the protagonist has stumbled across some illegal activity. The first third of the film progresses along with the mystery of what they were doing being the only thing driving the plot. Soon after the mystery is revealed, a romance begins, and the rest of the films ties in the protagonist's love interest to how he deals with the crooks. In other words, it is a bit of a mess, and a bit of a predictable one too. Trevor Howard is a good choice for the lead, but the rest of the acting is merely adequate. To the film's virtue, Neame captures the intriguing nature of a foreign environment and atmosphere well, the locations are good, and close-ups are used well to tell certain parts of the tale. It is probably worth a look for fans of Neame and/or Howard.

JaQaL Trevor Howard plays David Redfern, an archaeologist sent to Tunis to recover artifacts belonging to his English employer. However, he runs across a gun running operation headed up by Serafis (Walter Rilla). The suspense builds and a murder only adds to the danger for Redfern.Herbert Lom is absolutely wonderful as the evil, dangerous henchman, Rankl, and Anouk Aimee is beautiful as Anna. A good movie is always characterised by the strength of its supporting cast and even those people with minor parts (such as Wilfrid Hyde-White) add depth and colour to the film.The only negative for me was the fact that Trevor Howard and Anouk Aimee make an extremely unlikely romantic couple. In the scenes with Aimee, Howard, who was a very good actor, seems to play the part like a man with too much starch in his collar.Leaving that minor detail aside, this is a good, suspenseful movie and well worth watching.Rating: 7/10