Temptation

Despite an excellent cast who perform their roles just fine, the real star of Irving Pichel’s Temptation is costume designer Orry-Kelly, who wraps Merle Oberon’s figure in more works of art than one could see in an afternoon at the Louvre. A slightly puzzling period noir set around an archeological enterprise in Egypt, Temptation is both subdued and opulent, both nasty and refined, Oberon’s surreptitiously selfish Ruby perhaps the most elegant femme fatale in all of noir. The last film released by International Pictures before its merger with Universal, and the fourth film adaptation of Robert Smythe Hichens’ sensational 1909 novel, Bella Donna, the story is nothing that hasn’t been done many times before: selfish social climber marries a wealthy man for his money, becomes bored, and begins a torrid affair with a sexy stranger who convinces her to off the husband (“I want to destroy everything that comes between us”). George Brent plays Egyptologist and loving, dutiful cuckold Nigel Armine, whose naïve devotion to Ruby is actually touching in parts, and Charles Korvin plays the handsome, caddish lover Mahoud Baroudi, whose death, which takes place in front of a chess board, is foretold from the start of the film. Despite a few sound editing problems which muffle dialogue here and there, the film is beautifully made, Pichel and crew maximizing a modest budget to create a contained baroque world of moonlit studio-bound estate grounds and lattice-walled sitting rooms.