24 Hours of a Woman's Life

1952 film by Victor Saville

10 September 1952 (1952-09-10) (London)

Running time

90 minutesCountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglishBox office£95,702 (UK)^[1]

24 Hours of a Woman's Life, also known as Affair in Monte Carlo, is a 1952 British romantic drama film directed by Victor Saville and starring Merle Oberon, Richard Todd and Leo Genn. It is loosely based on the 1927 novella by Stefan Zweig.^[2]^[3]^[4] Produced by ABPC, it was shot at the company's Elstree Studios and on location in Monaco. The film's sets were designed by the art director Terence Verity.

Plot

Monsieur Blanc, the middle-aged proprietor of a café in Antibes, is eagerly preparing for his wedding to Henriette. He is devastated, however, when Henriette runs away with a young man she apparently only met the day before. Robert Sterling, a writer and one of the café patrons, tells the other diners that he has seen the same thing before: someone falling in love with a complete stranger.

He was playing host to Linda, a young widow whom he knew well, and three other guests aboard his yacht anchored in Monte Carlo. When he persuades her to visit the casino one night, she became irresistibly attracted to an unstable young man who became suicidal after losing all his money at roulette. Sterling describes how they fell deeply in love, and how they then had to face difficult decisions about the future.

Cast

Merle Oberon as Linda
Richard Todd as A Young Man
Leo Genn as Robert Stirling
Stephen Murray as L'Abbé Benoit
Peter Reynolds as Peter
Joan Dowling as Mrs. Barry
June Clyde as Mrs. Roche
Peter Illing as Monsieur Blanc
Jacques B. Brunius as Concierge, Pension Lisa
Isabel Dean as Miss Johnson
Peter Jones as Bill
Yvonne Furneaux as Henriette
Mara Lane as Alice Brown
Robert Ayres as Frank Brown
Cyril Smith as Harry
Mark Baker as Mr. Rohe
Moultrie Kelsall as Murdoch
Trader Faulkner as Mr. Barry
Jeanne Pali as Mme Blanc
Rene Poirier as Attendant, Hotel Royalo
Marguerite D'Alvarez as Mme Benoit
Virginia Bedard as Lady in Cook's Office
Gordon Bell as Clerk in Cook's Office
Jill Clifford as Estelle Hunter
Peter Hobbes as David Hunter

Critical reception

The Spectator described it as "a film of such artificiality and bathos the very typewriter keys cling together to avoid describing it."^[5] TV Guide called the film a "poor sudser, although the background of the romantic Riviera and its fabulous casino provides some exotic interest."^[6]

References

^ Vincent Porter, 'The Robert Clark Account', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 20 No 4, 2000 p499
^ Nicholas Lezard (20 September 2003). "Review: Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman by Stefan Zweig | Books". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
^ Affair in Monte Carlo at TCMDB
^ "24 Hours of a Woman's Life | BFI | BFI". Explore.bfi.org.uk. Archived from the original on 13 July 2012. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
^ "CINEMA » 11 Sep 1952 » The Spectator Archive". Archive.spectator.co.uk. 11 September 1952. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
^ "Affair In Monte Carlo Review". Movies.tvguide.com. Retrieved 5 April 2014.