Too much of everything

Overrated

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

In the opening credits for "Betrayed," MGM states clearly that the movie is fictitious, with the standard disclaimer. That being the case, the writers did a marvelous job of tying it to some real history. First, the Dutch resistance and underground, including incidents of traitors. Second, the rescue of the 2,500 plus men of the British First Airborne division who had been surrounded and cut off near Remagen in Operation Market Garden. The movie, "A Bridge Too Far," gives a fairly detailed and accurate portrayal of that operation, including the rescue of the men who were cut off. In this film, of course, the incidents that lead to the rescue are fiction, but the movie does a good job of linking the fictitious story to real events of the time and place during World War II. That lends it that much more of a sense of reality. Along with that, most of the film was shot at locations in The Netherlands. Some scenes show the unmistakable lowland countryside. One very poignant scene shows Carla and The Scarf driving to his mother's home. They are on a long Holland dike that separates the open sea from an inland body of water. The cast for this film is excellent. The main leads have about the same amount of film time. Clark Gable is Col. Pieter Deventer, a member of the Dutch army in exile and the head of Dutch intelligence working with British intelligence. Lana Turner is Carla Van Oven, a notorious black-market operator in Holland whom the British recruit and Deventer trains for espionage work. Victor Mature is The Scarf, a free- wheeling leader of a resistance faction. He resists coordination with the British and seems to enjoy the killing and destruction of German facilities. A fine supporting cast includes well-known British actors, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Louis Calhern and Ian Carmichael. Other reviewers note that this is the last film Gable made with MGM, ending a 24-year contract under which he was its prime male star for much of the time. He made nine more films before his death from a heart attack in 1960. All of them were box office successes, and some are excellent films and highly regarded. Turner was active in films into the early 1970s, after which she turned to TV series until finally retiring in 1985 at age 64. This film has some good action scenes along with the espionage intrigue. And, of course, the Gable and Turner characters fall in love for the Hollywood romantic aspect. While the story and movie are very good and interesting, this isn't a model production. The direction seems to be weak. The film editing is not what it could be. The movie is choppy in places, and at times, some of the actors seem a little wooden. Still, it's an interesting wartime espionage and action thriller that most people should enjoy.

Picture would have been better with the original casting - Gregory Peck, Richard Widmark and Ava Gardner - although Gable is quite believable.Scenery and locations are great, and add a lot to the film. I wish there were more languages spoken, with sub-titles or perhaps a fade to English after the nationality has been determined.Is any of this based on a true story? And it seems that if this was filmed just nine years after the end of the war, there would be more bombing ruins. I know when we lived in England and travelled throughout Europe during 1964 and 1965, we still saw signs of the destruction everywhere. Especially in the small villages and countryside.Strange to say, West Germany looked the most recovered and the young soldiers I spoke with in the huge Munich Biergärten said, "Just wait, we will all be one Germany again soon."

Am I getting senile? Is this what Alzheimer feels like? It was hard to follow this movie - and I mean a mere silly little 50s movie at that. For a while there I thought I was losing my mind, or that someone slipped a drug into my drink, or something or other. Scenes seem to be randomly attached for the most part.This old-school cheese also features three leads who all act as if in different genres. Lana Turner thinks she's in a soaper, over-acting her way through this thing with the pathos of one hundred King Kong blonds. She maintains only one facial expression and that's one of a tortured soul, selflessly risking her life for the common good, always with that warm-hearted, worried look: so annoying. Nevermind the fact that her seedy past in no way shape or form fits this kind of behaviour. (We're talking comic-book-like characterization here.) Victor Immature, as childish as ever, lends some much-unneeded lack of seriousness to the proceedings. He must have thought he was filming a broad comedy, grinning like a moron, being as animated as as a pair of breasts in a porn film. Sometimes he was so over-the-top that I half-expected him to impersonate an ape by climbing a telephone poll... Seriously, they should have given him a couple of bananas; that might have helped calm him down a bit, because his thespianism is out of control. Only Clark Gable plays it like it should be played, namely as spy drama requires it.The plot-twist about Victor Immature having become a traitor is okay. What isn't okay is that he became one because they shaved his Mommy's head! That's a bit lame, isn't it?... One would think that double agents and traitors were in it for the money, and occasionally perhaps for idealistic reason, too, but not because their Moms had been turned into skinheads. Besides, we never find out why his mother is suspected of being a Nazi accomplice. Also absurd was having an experienced, competent agent such as Gable hiring a woman who judging by her past couldn't be trusted with keeping a banana away from Victor, let alone a secret.The movie is visually great, but one thing that did bother me regarding appearances is that Gable and Turner had practically the same hair-style! Lana has never looked worse, thanks to the crappy, short-haired, brunette look that some demented producer or insane hair-stylist cooked up here...Someone here complained about the American accents. I disagree. It's the lesser of two evils. Or do some people in all earnestness think that the actors here should have lent even more of a cheese factor to this somewhat hokey movie by sounding laughable, doing unconvincing Dutch accents?

As someone working on creative and interesting plotting, I saw this intrigue movie as outstanding. I had to stay and watch just to find out who the 2-way spy was: was it Turner, was it Mature, oh my could it be Clark? I had no problem with the directing; I thought the last scene with Turner looking at Gable, searching his face for signs of hate or love was good.I had a problem with the one word title, although it was relevant; it did seem to point to one character as the good guy, so it was misleading if that was the intent. (I don't think this is a spoiler, let me know). I was glad the movie was in color; usually I prefer black and white on the older movies, however, the scenery et all was great in color.