The Conspirators
Director: Jean Negulesco
Year: 1944
Rating: 6.0
Well, you can’t
accuse Warner Brothers of not trying to cash in on the unexpected success
of Casablanca with a few films but none perhaps more obvious than this one.
But if you are going to rip off a film, Casablanca (1942) is a pretty good
choice. Paul Henreid who played Victor Laszlo, the noble resistance fighter
that Ingrid sticks with in Casablanca plays a noble resistance fighter here
as well but he also sort of plays a version of Rick. The woman he falls in
love with is Hedy Lamarr, a brave refugee playing a double game. There is
also a police man who looks the other way and though he never says “I’m shocked
that there is gambling in this establishment” there is plenty of gambling
going on and if Henreid never says “This looks like the beginning of a beautiful
friendship”, it comes pretty close. Throw in Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet
, Nazis, espionage and betrayals and you keep getting closer. It doesn’t
end with a sad goodbye at the airport but instead at a harbor.
The cast in the film is a great group of
nearly all exiles who came to Hollywood from Europe. Henreid was born in
Austria (I always thought he was French) and when he did the two cigarette
trick with Bette Davis became one of the leading romantic men – he had been
a fierce anti-Fascist and was later blacklisted by McCarthy, Lorre came from
Hungary, Hedy Lamarr escaped her Nazi husband from Austria, the policeman
was played by Joseph Calleia who came from Malta, Lamarr’s husband in the
film is Victor Francen from Belgium, Miguel at the seaside town is played
by Vladimir Sokoloff, who was born in Russia but had moved to Berlin when
he got out because of the Nazis, Greenstreet who didn’t begin acting in films
until he was over 60 in his debut in The Maltese Falcon with Lorre of course
– they appeared in a few films together – was from England. All immigrants.
All adding to America. Something to recall on July 4th amid these miserable
xenophobic times.
Van der Lynn (Henried) is a resistance
fighter in the Netherlands blowing up trains, killing Germans and so on for
three years constantly on the run and hiding from pursuers. He decides he
needs to leave as the Germans are closing in on him and join the Netherland
resistance in England. To do so he works his way to Lisbon, neutral territory
where he feels safe and sits down to a steak dinner when plop – Irene (Lamarr)
sits at his table – on the run from the cops. Sparks fly and Van der Lynn
basically stalks her even though he is leaving the next day. The Germans
find out who he is – the legendary underground fighter and want him captured
and tortured. A group of anti-Nazis with Greenstreet and Lorre help him but
within the group is of course a traitor. Isn’t there always?
It gets suspenseful near the end as they
try and ferret out the traitor, but the big romance sits in the middle of
this like a punctured tire. They have no chemistry, the love dialogue is
beyond bad and stilted and Henreid is an ass for chasing after her when it
is clear that she doesn’t want his attentions. But we have some nice casino
action, everyone smokes with grace, the Lisbon sets are decent enough, the
black and white cinematography is fine and the score from Max Steiner (from
Austria) is lush. The direction by Jean Negulesco (from Romania) is sleek
- but the film would have been better without the love triangle but then
it wouldn’t have been Casablanca light.