"Temptation harbor" is actually the remake of Henri Decoin's " l'homme de Londres" (1943) one of the twenty or so movies produced by the German La Continentale in the French occupations days.
The American screenplay ,based on Georges Simenon 's book ,has undergone some changes : the hero is a widower whereas in the French movie he had a whole family ; Camelia was a prostitute (with a big heart) whereas she's a "mermaid" at the fair in Lance Comfort's work.
Gone are religion, the colleague in the signal box who mentioned the Bible and the difficulties for man to stay on the straight and narrow .
But the gist of the movie is the same ;both heroes ,with their man-next-door look (Robert Newton is an ideal successor to Fernand Ledoux ) , are haunted by the lure of gain but smitten with remorse ; if religion is absent in Comfort's effort, one attends "a tempest in a skull" a la Victor Hugo : the frames of mind in voice over ,and Robert Newton's face reflect an unbearable feeling of guit.
The character of Camelia was thoroughly rewritten and developed ; one should note that they reverse the countries : the action which took place in France in Simenon 's book and in the first movie is now situated in England: and Camelia is played by French actress Simone Simon who had already two masterpieces under her belt ("Renoir's "la bête humaine" and Tourneur's "cat people") , her character is French although she appears as a stateless person ,not really a femme fatale ,who dreams of a little home in her native land .
Decoin 's movie focused on the atmosphere ;Comfort's effort is more action with a good sense of rhythm and scenes full of contrasts (the opening scene is the fair ,and the hero's daughter and his new love get along very well (not the usual jealous cliché)) ; the scene in the shack by the sea where only the lighter shows the face is even superior to Decoin's .
Both Decoin's and Comfort's version sufficed ,although Bela Tarr's 3rd adaptation turned it into highbrow stuff in 2008.