88% (3) The Fallen Idol 95 min, [Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery] [Carol Reed] [25 Oct 1948]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 78%, Rotten Tomatoes: 100%, Metacritic: 88%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 7 wins & 5 nominations.
Actors: Bobby Henrey, Michèle Morgan, Ralph Richardson, Sonia Dresdel
Writer: Graham Greene (story "The Basement Room"), Graham Greene (screenplay), Lesley Storm (additional dialogue), William Templeton (additional dialogue)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, French Country: UK
Plot: Philippe, a diplomat's son and good friend of Baines the butler, is confused by the complexities and evasions of adult life. He tries to keep secrets but ends up telling them. He lies to protect his friends, even though he knows he should tell the truth. He resolves not to listen to adults' stories any more when Baines is suspected of murdering his wife and no-one will listen to Philippe's vital information.
Rotten Tomatoes: Adapted from the Graham Greene story The Basement Room, director Carol Reed's The Fallen Idol is told almost completely from a child's eye view-but it isn't a children's story. Young Bobby Henrey idolizes household butler Ralph Richardson. Therefore, when it seems as though Richardson might be implicated in a murder, Bobby does his best to throw the police off the track. The boy succeeds only in casting even more suspicion upon Richardson. As the story progresses, Henrey's hero worship is eroded by Richardson's shifty behavior, and even more so when the boy discovers that the butler's boasts of previous heroism are just so much hot air. The ending of the film differs radically from Greene's story. While it would seem that director Reed was merely paying homage to the "happy ending" philosophy (hardly likely, given the doleful climaxes of such films as Odd Man Out and The Third Man), the director had very solid reasons for altering the story: he was more fascinated by the concept of the boy's imagination nearly sending his idol to the gallows, rather than having the butler entrapped by facts. And though the ending is happy for the boy, the butler's fate is much more nebulous. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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86% (2) Port of Shadows 91 min, Not Rated, [Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller] [Marcel Carné] [29 Oct 1939]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 77%, Rotten Tomatoes: 96%, External Reviews
Awards: 6 wins & 1 nomination.
Actors: Jean Gabin, Michel Simon, Michèle Morgan, Pierre Brasseur
Writer: Pierre Dumarchais (novel), Jacques Prévert (scenario and dialogue)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Website Language: French Country: France
Plot: Life's a rotten business, says Jean, a deserter who arrives at night in Le Havre, looking to leave the country. He lucks into civilian clothes, a little bit of money, a passport, and a dog, and he also meets Nelly, a 17-year-old who's grown up too fast. She's the object of lust of men: including a boyfriend Maurice, her putative protector Zabel, and Lucien, a local hood. Jean falls for her, faces down Lucien, and gives her courage to stand on her own feet. A ship is leaving for Venezuela; can at least one of them be on it, or is that just a dream?
Rotten Tomatoes: When Jean (Jean Gabin), a deserter from the Colonial Army, hitchhikes his way into Le Havre, he's only looking for a place to hide until he book ship's passage. He never expects to become embroiled in a dispute between local "tough" guy Lucien (Pierre Brasseur) and wealthy but shady shopkeeper Zabel (Michel Simon). Nor does he expect to fall in love with the beautiful Nelly (Michèle Morgan), who Zabel also "keeps" What was supposed to be a stopover on his way to a better life turns into a fight against petty jealousies, buried obsessions, and unpleasant pasts. One of Marcel Carné's most revered films, Port of Shadows explores the foggier aspects of identity, love, and the possibility, or perhaps impossibility, of escape.
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73% (1) Remorques 91 min, [Action, Drama, Romance] [Jean Grémillon] [15 Jun 1946]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 73%, External Reviews
Actors: Charles Blavette, Jean Gabin, Madeleine Renaud, Michèle Morgan
Writer: Roger Vercel (novel), Jacques Prévert (scenario), André Cayatte (adaptation), Jacques Prévert (dialogue)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: French Country: France
Plot: Andre Laurent, the captain of a tugboat, married Yvonne ten years ago. She has a heart disease but does not want to tell him. She dreams he quits the job for they can live quietly. One night, during a sea rescue, he meets Catherine. She wants to leave her husband, the captain of the rescued ship. She is a beautiful and unusual woman...
Rotten Tomatoes: Originally filmed and released in 1941 as Remorques, this heavy-breathing French melodrama was distributed stateside in 1946 as Stormy Waters. The film was a typical Jean Gabin vehicle, replete with two-fisted action, star-crossed romance and intense emotional turbulence. Gabin plays Laurent, a salvage-boat captain who rescues a merchant vessel from a storm-tossed sea. The vessel's far-from-grateful captain (Jean Marchat) manages to skip without paying Laurent his salvage money, leaving behind his wife Catherine (Michele Morgan). Tending to Catherine's injuries until they reach port, Laurent falls in love with the woman, despite the fact that he is already married to the seriously ill Yvonne (Madeleine Renaud). It takes a lot of doing, but Laurent eventually ends his affair and allows his own wife to expire believing that he's been 100% faithful. An enormous success in France, Stormy Waters was picked up for American distribution by MGM, which surprisingly buried the film in its second-string houses. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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69% (1) Passage to Marseille 109 min, Approved, [Adventure, Drama, War] [Michael Curtiz] [11 Mar 1944]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 69%, External Reviews
Actors: Claude Rains, Humphrey Bogart, Michèle Morgan, Philip Dorn
Writer: Casey Robinson (screenplay), Jack Moffitt (screenplay), Charles Nordhoff (novel), James Norman Hall (novel)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, French, German, Spanish Country: USA
Plot: As French bomber crews prepare an air raid from a base in England, we learn the story of Matrac, a French journalist who opposed the Munich Pact. Framed for murder and sent to Devil's Island, he and four others escape. They are on a ship bound for Marseilles when France surrenders and fascist sympathizer Major Duval tries to seize the ship for Vichy.
Rotten Tomatoes: Designed as a followup to the enormously successful Casablanca, Passage to Marseille utilizes the talents of many of the on- and off-screen personnel of the earlier Warner Bros. classic. Unfolded in a complex flashback-within-flashback structure, this is the story of Matrac (Humphrey Bogart), a freedom-loving French journalist who sacrifices his happiness and security to battle Nazi tyrrany. The film opens as French liason officer Freycinet (Claude Rains), stationed in London, tells Mantrac's story to a British reporter (John Loder). Freycinet reveals that Mantrac, happily married to Paula (Michele Morgan), was framed by pro-fascists and sentenced to Devil's Island. Here he engineered a daring escape with such lost souls as Marius (Peter Lorre), Garou (Helmut Dantine), Petit (George Tobias) and Renault (Philip Dorn). Adrift in a lifeboat, the escapees were picked up by a French vessel commandeered by pro-fascist Major Duval (Sydney Greenstreet). With the help of Mantrac and the prisoners, the ship's patriotic captain (Victor Francen) thwarted Duval's evil machinations, enabling Mantrac to continue his battle against Nazism as a member of the RAF. By modern standards, Passage to Marseille is overproduced, overdirected, overacted and overscored (by Max Steiner); however, it filled a definite need in wartime America, and proved a huge financial success.
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67% (1) The Chase 86 min, APPROVED, [Crime, Film-Noir, Thriller] [Arthur Ripley] [10 Mar 1947]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 67%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 nomination.
Actors: Lloyd Corrigan, Michèle Morgan, Robert Cummings, Steve Cochran
Writer: Philip Yordan (written for the screen by), Cornell Woolrich (book)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, Spanish Country: USA
Plot: Returning a lost wallet gains unemployed veteran Chuck Scott a job as chauffeur to Eddie Roman, a seeming gangster whose enemies have a way of meeting violent ends. The job proves nerve-wracking, and soon Chuck finds himself pledged to help Eddie's lovely, fearful, prisoner-wife Lorna to escape. The result leaves Chuck caught like a rat in a trap, vainly seeking a way out through dark streets. But the real chase begins when the strange plot virtually starts all over again...
Rotten Tomatoes: Chuck Scott gets a job as chauffeur to tough guy Eddie Roman; but Chuck's involvement with Eddie's fearful wife becomes a nightmare.
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66% (1) Lost Command 129 min, Approved, [Action, Drama, War] [Mark Robson] [01 May 1966]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 66%, External Reviews
Actors: Alain Delon, Anthony Quinn, George Segal, Michèle Morgan
Writer: Jean Lartéguy (novel), Nelson Gidding
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, Vietnamese Country: USA
Plot: In 1954 during the final days of French military involvement in Indochina French Army Colonel Pierre-Noel Raspeguy is leading his paratroopers in the decisive battle of Dien Bien Phu. A weakened French garrison faces a major assault by Communist Viet Minh troops. Colonel Raspeguy's frantic calls for reinforcements only brings a token force of a planeload of paratroopers and ammunition. When their position is overrun by the enemy Raspeguy and his men are taken prisoners. After the peace treaty they are released and they return to France where Colonel Raspeguy receives the command of a new airborne regiment bound for Algeria. The French are trying to prevent Algeria from obtaining full independence from France. The French Army is engaged in counter insurgency operations in both urban and rural environments against the Algerian guerrilla led by the Algerian National Liberation Front. This is Colonel Raspeguy's last chance to prove his command abilities and to save his military career.
Rotten Tomatoes: Based on Jean Larteguy's The Centurions, Mark Robson's drama is an account of French-Algerian guerrilla fighting in World War II-era North Africa.
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