Her Last Affaire

Her Last Affaire was playing at MoMA the other day as part of a Michael Powell retrospective and I decided to give it a viewing. With Michael Powell directing and this somewhat familiar cast of British regulars for this time, I was expected a pleasant enough screening. Unfortunately, in the end, and at times before that, I was generally disappointed. One of the main follies of the film that does not work is the male leading fleeing to get away from a crime that he clearly did not commit (and it would have been very easy to prove). At first I kept thinking that I'd missed something. Or that I missed a few keys words of explanation due to the at times fast pacing and/or English accents. But I stuck with it and no, I actually didn't miss a thing. The male lead really did act out in a way that completely undercut the credibility of the film, and as a result robbed it of much of the entertainment value.