Indiscretion Of An
American Wife (U.S.
Version/Passport)
Picture: C
Sound: C Extras: C Film: C-
Vittorio De Sica teamed up with David O. Selznick and his
studio to make another vehicle Selznick hoped would further launch the career
of his beloved Jennifer Jones, who he was going to make into a big star no
matter what. When Indiscretion Of An
American Wife was finally released in 1953, Selznick (though at least some
of his infamous memos, no doubt) had the film chopped down from 87 minutes or
to a B-movie 63 minutes. Criterion
recently issued the film in its full length, as restored in 1983, known as Terminal
Station, while Passport has issued the shorter cut for posterity (I guess).
Jones is a Pennsylvanian wife with a son who meets an Italian
she is immediately enamored with. For
him (Montgomery Cliff), the feeling is mutual.
Things get involved, hot and heavy fast. However, they are at a train station for much of the film and
should have got a hotel room. The
result is all kinds of unexpected trouble and the usual conflict between the
two. From this cut, you can see De Sica
playing with issues of guilt, but it is also very obviously choppy, cutting out
broader ideas and more well-rounded extents of what is here and it is a lame
cut. As compared to the Criterion DVD,
it is much cheaper to check out, so it has some uses, but should not be seen as
a full version by any means.
The full frame image is soft and had its moments of
scratches and artifacts, but the Video Black and Grey Scale is not a disaster,
though no match for Criterions’ DVD, which has Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono. This DVD has Dolby 2.0 Mono, but has plenty
of background noise, drop-offs and is not as good. The only extras are trailers to cover a little of both of the
star’s careers, which include Raintree County, I Confess, The
Song Of Bernadette, From Here To Eternity, Red River, Duel
in The Sun and Love Is a Many Splendored Thing. That’s something Criterion does not offer,
but it is too bad there were not more trailers available, as both stars made
far more films. At least it is a good
bonus for film fans.
- Nicholas Sheffo
