Darrieux is a spendthrift and to cover debts she sells her diamond earrings, a costly wedding gift from Boyer. She then claims that her earrings were stolen at the opera. Now the buyer, jeweler Jean Debucourt, cannot legally sell the earrings. He brings them to Boyer, who purchases them. Boyer knows that Darrieux has been lying, but says nothing. He gives the earrings to Lola, who for some reason is leaving France for Constantinople.
Lola is a hopeless gambler and soon separated from the earrings. They end up in the hands of Baron Donati (Vittorio De Sica), a diplomat and romantic. Because it is a movie, Donati encounters Darrieux and is smitten. He courts her ardently, to the delight of Darrieux, though he knows she is married to Boyer, with whom De Sica has a professional relationship.
Eventually Boyer becomes displeased with Darrieux's behavior, which is more fitting for a schoolgirl than a general's wife. He is particularly annoyed when he learns that De Sica has given Darrieux the same earrings she pawned, "lost," and now claims to have found. Boyer forces a separation between his wife and De Sica, and when that devastates Darrieux, he decides to challenge De Sica to a duel that Boyer is nearly certain to win.
How others will see it. The Earrings of Madame de... made only a minor stir upon release. Director Ophüls died a few years later, and the movie was re-evaluated by critics. It was placed near the top of his oeuvre, behind only Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), from Ophüls' stint in Hollywood.
Nonetheless, today at imdb.com the user vote is modest at only 3.5K. The user ratings are high at 7.9, but women over 45 only give it a 5.9 out of 10, probably preferring a happy ending to the film's dire outcome. Older women may also lack sympathy for Darrieux, who is none too bright and falls for De Sica's bland charm all too easily, while forever testing the patience of his tolerant husband.
But most cinephiles admire the film, which has a first rate script and cast. They also take pleasure in the tracking shots, an Ophüs' specialty.
How I felt about it. It's hard to feel sorry for Darrieux. She has the pampered, idle life, and though she has socialite duties, she takes great pleasure in them, due to the attention she receives from naive young men. Her husband has a mistress, but she doesn't know about her and thus is never jealous and is spared bedroom service.
With a set-up like this, she throws it away on De Sica, a gracious and courtly but thoroughly mediocre man unable to return the depth of her passion for him. Meanwhile, at every turn she can choose her own husband, who has the patience of Job when it comes to her lies and male admirers.
Though Darrieux is the protagonist, the more interesting character is her husband, who seems to know the score at all turns. He is hardly threatened by De Sica, a man of no particular ability or insight, but is unable to get through to his wife, who always sees him solely as a means to an end: her own selfish pleasure. But Darrieux can't be all bad, since her servants adore her, especially loyal Mireille Perrey.