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.
