★ 6 / 10
Despite featuring one of my favourite actors
CinemaSerf
Despite featuring one of my favourite actors - Charles Laughton ("Haake"), Ingrid Bergman manages to drag this wartime drama down to an almost soporific pace…
Despite featuring one of my favourite actors - Charles Laughton ("Haake"), Ingrid Bergman manages to drag this wartime drama down to an almost soporific pace as her character "Joan" is rescued from almost certain suicide by compassionate Czech doctor "Ravic" (Charles Boyer). Both are refugees fleeing the rise of the Nazis in Eastern Europe. She has what can only be described as a bit of a chequered past and the two now embark on what I felt to be rather a disjoined romance that didn't really convince me. When he is apprehended by the police - without papers, she takes up with a wealthy person and the intrigue rather loses it's way. Laughton is better as the brutal Nazi sophisticate upon whom "Ravic" intends revenge - but he features quite sparingly as the narrative ploddingly meanders towards a rather predictable conclusion. It must be said, though, that this is a really good looking film. Lewis Milestone and cinematographer Russell Metty really do create a seamy and gritty pre-war Paris - especially as their new occupiers move in, and life becomes extremely perilous for these two escapees. At times it is compelling and exciting, but for the most part it just burbles along providing little more than a vehicle for two stars who didn't really gel and for a third we don't see enough of.
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★ 3 / 10
I can see why this one was a box office loser...
MartinHafer
Ouch. I noticed on IMDb that this film cost $5,000,000 yet earned a paltry $1,500,000--making it a HUGE loser at the box office. After seeing the film I can…
Ouch. I noticed on IMDb that this film cost $5,000,000 yet earned a paltry $1,500,000--making it a HUGE loser at the box office. After seeing the film I can think of two main reasons for this. First, it's a drama about French just before and at the beginning of WWII. It's the sort of subject that would have played well DURING WWII--but by 1948, it was not exactly timely. Second, the characters are just a mess--an unlikable and confusing mess. It's a shame, as it should be a lot better considering it stars Charles Boyer and Ingrid Bergman.
The film starts in Paris. Boyer plays, inexplicably, an Austrian refugee who is living in the country illegally (why did they do this with his wonderful French accent?!). Apparently, he's fled Austria and is an anti-Nazi. Because he has no passport or visa, he tries to keep a low profile. However, when he meets a young woman who is lost in the rain, he takes her in and cares for her. Now comes the first goofy part of the film. When Boyer finally takes Bergman home, it turns out her lover killed himself in her absence. This is odd--but there's more oddness to come.
Soon Boyer and Bergman fall in love and they cavort about Paris and southern France for a bit. However, when he is caught by the police and deported, she is forced to wait and hope he can sneak back in the country. Well, despite her being desperately in love with him, after a couple months, she shacks up with a guy(?). When he returns, he's naturally not happy but she keeps coming to him--saying the other man isn't important and she really loves Boyer! This is not exactly romantic and by now, Boyer has become rather cold towards her. For the next half hour or so, both are bathed in ennui...LOTS.
In the meantime, there is a subplot involving Charles Laughton who is an undercover Nazi agent in Paris. Boyer can identify him since Laughton was the man who had previously tortured him--and Boyer is determined to exact revenge.
After Boyer gets his revenge, he gets a phone call from Bergman. Apparently she was shot by her lover and the lover also arrives at Boyer's apartment seeking his help--after all, Boyer is a doctor (how fortuitous). He operates on Ingrid but it turns out to be one of those lingering nasty film injuries and she's paralyzed and begs him to put her out of her misery. Whether or not he kills her is uncertain but she is soon dead. And soon the film fizzles towards its confusing conclusion--focusing, for no obvious reason, on the Arc du Triomphe.
As you read, you probably can tell I didn't like the movie. It's not just because the plot is too thick with disparate plot elements, but because the two main characters are really annoying. Boyer broods too much but the real problem is Bergman--who plays a really confusing mess of a woman. Her mood is all over the place and her actions often make no sense at all. All in all, a romance with little real romance and a script that seems like it was written by someone who had lost their mind. A huge misfire and a very unsatisfying film.
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6.3/10
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