Most movies are either good, bad or in between. The Earrings of Madame de . . . is just perplexing. Its actors take themselves so seriously that a spectator never knows whether to take them seriously or not. Hunched in his Brattle seat, he has the embarrassed feeling that their emotions were not meant for his eyes in the first place. The result is a movie that is almost unreal, and unfortunately, rather slow moving.

The plot itself is lucid. In late nineteenth century Paris a general, his wife, the Countess, and her admirer affably intrigue. A pair of diamond earrings, which precipitates every crisis among them, exchanges hands constantly. Each gentleman strives to impress the Countess, either by giving them to her or by taking them away, until the earrings themselves come to symbolize her love.

The Countess ultimately finds herself loyal to her husband but devoted to another man. Yet she never focuses this dilemma upon herself. The movie remains a story rather than a study, and this limitation is its chief fault. Although passions are continually involved, their dramatic opportunities go unheeded.

The actors are obviously to blame, yet they are only partly responsible; they have played as directed. Charles Boyer is a general who better resembles a priest. His deliberateness makes him dispirited in a part which calls for shrewdness. Seeing his wife off on a train, his rapt expression conveys no idea of what he is thinking. Vittorio De Sica as the Countess' admirer, misses the irony of his position. Only the Countess, Danielle Darricux, seems to have understood her role, but even she fails to exploit it fully.

The real weakness is the film's direction, done by Max Ophuls. Because the picture does seem to have a theme running through it, its light-touch scenes are somewhat distracting. His conclusion, however, achieves just the right degree of understatement. The two men duel, one gun is fired, and the Countess, who is rushing to the scene, is stricken by the shot's implication. Yet had the movie not been underplayed, this ending by contrast would have been twice as forceful. As it is, The Earrings of Madame de . . . is simply unfulfilled.