24 Hours of a Woman's Life

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. It is loosely based on the novella by Stefan Zweig.[2][3][4]

24 Hours of a Woman's Life
U.S. poster
Directed by	Victor Saville
Produced by	Ivan Foxwell
Written by	Warren Chetham Strode
Based on	novella Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman by Stefan Zweig
Starring	Merle Oberon Richard Todd
Music by	Robert Gill Philip Green
Cinematography	Christopher Challis
Edited by	Richard Best
Production company	ABPC Allied Artists
Distributed by	Associated British-Pathé
Release date	10 September 1952 (1952-09-10) (London)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Box office	£95,702 (UK)[1]

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 Illing as Monsieur Blanc
• Peter Reynolds as Peter
• Isabel Dean as Miss Johnson
• Yvonne Furneaux as Henriette
• Joan Dowling as Mrs. Barry

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

1. Vincent Porter, 'The Robert Clark Account', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 20 No 4, 2000 p499
2. 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.
3. Affair in Monte Carlo at TCMDB
4. "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.
5. "CINEMA » 11 Sep 1952 » The Spectator Archive". Archive.spectator.co.uk. 11 September 1952. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
6. "Affair In Monte Carlo Review". Movies.tvguide.com. Retrieved 5 April 2014.

External links

• 24 Hours of a Woman's Life on IMDb