Perfect Understanding

6/13/2022

I can't help thinking that Cyril Gardner may have done better with this had it been a silent film. There are some stunning photographic scenes and at times, it verges on the travelogue as Gloria Swanson ("Judy") and a very dashing Laurence Olivier ("Nick") meet, fall in love and engage in an early thirties version of a "open marriage". They travel the length and breadth of Europe before he ends up in Cannes visiting a friend whilst she decants home to prepare their flat in London. In Cannes, "Nick" gets a bit sozzled and hooks up with old flame Nora Swinburne ("Lady Fitzmaurice") after getting injured in a high speed (and quite entertaining) power boat race... Riddled with guilt, he goes home and tells his wife. Ostensibly she forgives him, but does she? Does she, really - or is the green