Marlene Dietrich dons dusky body make-up to play a European gypsy in Nazi Germany in this pre-World War II espionage thriller. Ray Milland takes the lead as Colonel Ralph Denistoun, a British soldier captured while on a mission to retrieve information about a secret weapon developed by the Nazis.
When he and his partner escape, they split up and Ralph meets Lydia (Dietrich), a gypsy woman traveling alone through the German countryside. She volunteers to help him travel to his rendezvous point to complete his mission by disguising him as a gypsy, complete with pierced ears, the golden earrings of the title, and darkened skin.
The "brownface" may be offensive to some modern audiences but was widely accepted in Hollywood up through the 1960s and, for all the reductive stereotypes the film uses (from superstition to folk customs), it is not used malign the gypsies.
When she applies it to the British officer, however, it is not just acknowledged as a form of make-up, it makes a point about how he becomes practically invisible to the Aryan Nazis, no longer considered worth their attention except as an entertaining distraction or an annoyance to be treated like an animal. While hardly a vehicle for civil rights, the film offers a rare commentary on how dark-skinned people are treated as less than human by whites in power. Not bad for 1948.
The rest of the film is a mix of a spy thriller, exotic adventure, and romantic drama as the proper British officer is welcomed into the gypsy community and falls in love with Lydia. His story is told in a flashback, framed by Ralph receiving a pair of golden earrings in the post in 1946. The song "Golden Earrings," which was written for the film and became a pop hit, is hummed by Dietrich, sung by costar Murvyn Vye (playing the king of the gypsies), and woven through the score.
It's a minor but enjoyable piece of romantic Hollywood adventure with an exotic dimension, shot mostly in a studio recreation of a forest. Golden Earrings is ably directed by Mitchell Leisen, a talented studio filmmaker whose affection for the outcast gypsy characters comes gives the film its heart. Features commentary by film historian David Del Valle.