Ava Gardner is at her most magnetic as Pandora Reynolds, an American nightclub singer vacationing in ’30s Spain to whom men swarm like bees to honey, and whose diffidence is easily mistaken for cruelty. Then into Pandora’s elegantly wasted life sails a stranger (James Mason) whose true identity is slowly revealed, along with the grandly mythic premise: if only the death of the woman he loves can secure this mariner’s salvation, is it too high a price to pay?
In the hands of cinematographer Jack Cardiff, Albert Lewin’s deliriously romantic, richly woven tapestry becomes a Technicolor dream, fully deserving of this digitally restored re-release.