— Personally, I’ve never subscribed to that old Egyptian custom.
— What Egyptian custom?
— Of walling up the widow alive in the funeral chambers of her dead husband along with his other possessions. The theory being that she was a possession too. She was supposed to journey into dead with him. The community saw to it. Of course it doesn’t happen anymore.
— Doesn’t it?

Highly recommended. Sirk’s damning portrait of small town, bourgeois discriminations and hypocrisies — a sumptuous, romantic melodrama, with beautiful, pregnant mise en scène and moving performances — is tarnished only by the (happy?) ending, which is perhaps something of a cop-out. — Iain Stott