Merle Oberon: she walked in beauty...

Perhaps it was a matter of being caught young. I first saw Merle Oberon when I was about 12 or 13 and A Song to Remember (Charles Vidor, 1945) came to rural Victoria some years after a very long run at Melbourne's Savoy Theatre. I have never forgotten how she looked in that, and every time I've seen it since it brings back that indelible, life-changing image she imprinted on my young mind. Hers was a face of great delicacy, exquisitely oval, framed with lustrous dark hair, with eloquent eyes and bright red lips and she was unforgettably dressed in pale grey trousers, scarlet waistcoat, generous bow-tie, black cutaway coat and grey top hat on first appearance. As novelist George Sand, she swung down a Parisian street (that's Paris, Hollywood) with 'friend' Liszt (Stephen Bekassy), and came into a cafe where Chopin (Cornel Wilde) and his mentor-teacher, Professor Elsner (Paul Muni), sat at a table. She said little in this scene, but as she and Liszt move on to their own table she inclined her head to look provocatively at Wilde to say, 'I hope you will like Paris, Monsieur Chopin. I'm sure Paris will like you.' Simple words of courtesy maybe, but on Merle's lips charged with subtle sexual promise.