Ophuls’ arrival in Hollywood in 1941 ended his years of hopscotching across Europe in flight from the Nazis. After several years of false starts, Ophuls was finally given a chance to direct by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., who hired him for The Exile, a film that the actor was producing as his own star vehicle. Ophuls’ admiration for Fairbanks' charisma shows in this film, which is as charming as its leading man. A rich costume drama, The Exile’s title character lands into a very Ophulsian dilemma—forced to choose between love and duty—and exiled in Holland, much like Ophuls himself, just a few years earlier.