No, this isn't Casablanca. It's not a great movie. But it is a good one.
It gives us a somewhat ambivalent view of the French in the 1940s, a people whom many Americans saw as having given up before the German onslaught in 1940. (Why Americans viewed the French armistice in this manner I don't know. The Dutch and Belgians both got overrun as well, and there was no significant American sentiment that they had given up.) This was important, because during the Occupation (1940-44), France was not able to produce its own movies about its attitudes toward the Germans, and so not able to present its own view of itself and its people.
That's what this movie tries to do at the end. After an hour and a half of Jean (Eroll Flynn) being portrayed as an amoral, self-centered criminal, he finally decides to turn himself in to the Germans as the man they are looking for, the man whose surrender will save 100 French hostages. As a self-sacrificing hero, in other words.
It's the most important part of the movie, and it could have used better dialogue than what Flynn is given. Because yes, as a previous reviewer pointed out, Jean suddenly becomes Sydney Carton from *A Tale of Two Cities* : he sacrifices himself to save others. But whereas Dickens gave Carton - and Ronald Coleman - some of the greatest lines in the English language to explain why he did it, Jean/Flynn gets only a very flimsy and not really convincing short monologue. There needed to be something more than the very general "Sometimes a man realizes that there are things more important than just himself." This scene needed a great speech, and it doesn't get one. It also needed to be prepared much better in the scenes leading up to it.
On the other hand, Paul Lukacs gets the final line of the movie, and it is a masterpiece. It suddenly makes Jean a symbol of all Frenchmen, and a very powerful and positive symbol, for which the movie did nothing to prepare us. Still, it is so well done that we don't stop to analyze it.
You should definitely see this movie if you have any interest in World War II and how Hollywood made us see it. Flynn, Lukacs, and Lucille Watson all give great performances. The love story seems pasted on, but it's easy enough to ignore, as the actress involved - given the symbolic name of *Marianne* - makes no impression at all.
It gives us a somewhat ambivalent view of the French in the 1940s, a people whom many Americans saw as having given up before the German onslaught in 1940. (Why Americans viewed the French armistice in this manner I don't know. The Dutch and Belgians both got overrun as well, and there was no significant American sentiment that they had given up.) This was important, because during the Occupation (1940-44), France was not able to produce its own movies about its attitudes toward the Germans, and so not able to present its own view of itself and its people.
That's what this movie tries to do at the end. After an hour and a half of Jean (Eroll Flynn) being portrayed as an amoral, self-centered criminal, he finally decides to turn himself in to the Germans as the man they are looking for, the man whose surrender will save 100 French hostages. As a self-sacrificing hero, in other words.
It's the most important part of the movie, and it could have used better dialogue than what Flynn is given. Because yes, as a previous reviewer pointed out, Jean suddenly becomes Sydney Carton from *A Tale of Two Cities* : he sacrifices himself to save others. But whereas Dickens gave Carton - and Ronald Coleman - some of the greatest lines in the English language to explain why he did it, Jean/Flynn gets only a very flimsy and not really convincing short monologue. There needed to be something more than the very general "Sometimes a man realizes that there are things more important than just himself." This scene needed a great speech, and it doesn't get one. It also needed to be prepared much better in the scenes leading up to it.
On the other hand, Paul Lukacs gets the final line of the movie, and it is a masterpiece. It suddenly makes Jean a symbol of all Frenchmen, and a very powerful and positive symbol, for which the movie did nothing to prepare us. Still, it is so well done that we don't stop to analyze it.
You should definitely see this movie if you have any interest in World War II and how Hollywood made us see it. Flynn, Lukacs, and Lucille Watson all give great performances. The love story seems pasted on, but it's easy enough to ignore, as the actress involved - given the symbolic name of *Marianne* - makes no impression at all.