Since I'm on vacation just now, I've decided to feature another contribution from site regular Gordon Gates . He frequently comes up with titles that are unfamiliar and rare, and this is no exception, a late 1950s drama with an eye-catching and evocative title, starring Richard Basehart and Edmond O'Brien.
The Restless and the Damned (1959) is also known as The Climbers , The Dispossessed and L'Ambiteuse. This Yves Allegret film is set in French Polynesia and stars Edmond O'Brien, Richard Basehart, Andrea Parisy, Nicole Berger and Reg Lye.
Basehart is the black sheep of a wealthy family of mining financiers based in France. He dumps the family life style and heads to Tahiti to make it on his own. His wife, Andrea Parisy, is less than amused with Basehart's choice. She sticks with him though, hoping he will see the light and return to France and the family wealth.
Basehart, however, just loves being his own man and Parisy soon thinks she has backed the wrong horse. Along comes Edmond O'Brien, a mid-range mine operator who has leases on several of the outer islands. O'Brien hires Basehart as a mechanic for one of his mines. O'Brien of course starts with the clutch and grab with Parisy. She never quite lets O'Brien get to home base which of course just keeps O'Brien charged up.
Parisy is doing this so she can learn what she can about O'Brien's business affairs. She discovers that O'Brien's leases on his mines come up for renewal soon. There is a catch in the lease that allows anyone to pick it up within 24 hours of expiry. She talks hubby Basehart into a plan where the two of them can snap up the leases. She bats the lashes at O'Brien and coyly suggests he send Basehart back to France on a holiday.
A loan of 50,000 francs would help send Basehart on his way. Then she hints that with hubby away they can finally get together. O'Brien swallows the bait, the line and the pole! O'Brien forks over the cash and makes plans for a bit of horizontal cha-cha. While O'Brien is busy, Basehart is actually at the government mine offices buying up the leases with O'Brien's own cash. Parisy of course changes her tune when O'Brien comes to collect.
Too late! Parisy and Basehart now control the mines. Once Parisy is in charge, she runs the business with an iron fist and the profits jump. She then talks Basehart into making peace with his family so she can sell an interest in the mine to them. That will get her what she has always wanted, cash! The two take a trip back to France where the increasingly unhappy Basehart falls for another woman.
Basehart's family buys into the mine and agrees to fund a large expansion. Parisy grabs a plane back to Tahiti while Basehart stays on in Paris on "mine" business. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, er, Tahiti, O'Brien has been plotting a little bit of payback. He hires a detective firm to follow Basehart around Paris and see if they can find any dirt. The detective firm gets a fine collection of photos of Basehart and his new love in some embarrassing poses.
O'Brien pays Parisy a visit and hands her the photos. "You know you will get nothing if he divorces you" laughs O'Brien. Parisy cables Basehart he is needed at the mine for an emergency. She has worked too long and hard to let it all slip away. One can be sure there will be double-dealing, backstabbing and perhaps murders involved.
No need to mention the noir pedigree's of Basehart or O'Brien as we all know them. The director, Yves Allegret, was the younger brother of director Marc Allegret. Yves turned out several top-flight films such as Dédée d'Anvers (1948), Une si jolie petite plage (1949), (1950), La jeune folle (1952) and Les Orgueilleux (1953).
Well worth catching IMO.
Gordon Gates