Vendetta

A typical Howard Hughes folly, begun in 1946, in which his aim of making Faith Domergue as mean, moody and magnificent as Jane Russell ran him through an intriguing palette of directors (Max Ophüls, Preston Sturges, Stuart Heisler, Hughes himself) before Ferrer made whatever grade he was after. It also led to a betrayal of Prosper Mérimée's source novella Colomba, a coolly ironic account of a Corsican blood feud which here becomes imbued with heavy-breathing romanticism. Overblown and somewhat turgid, the film is quite striking visually, with Franz Planer's moody camerawork making the most of the rocks, gaunt trees and desolate moorlands that stand in for the Corsican exteriors.