PASSAGE TO MARSEILLES
US, 1944, 110 minutes, Black and white.
Humphrey Bogart, Michelle Morgan, Claude Rains, Philip Dorn, Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Helmut Dantine, George Tobias, John Loder, Victor Francen, Eduardo Ciannelli.
Directed by Michael Curtiz.
Passage to Marseilles was Humphrey Bogart's only film of 1944. It came after his great success in The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca. The film reflects the atmosphere of World War Two and the impending end of the war very strongly. At times it is fierce, almost too fierce, propaganda.
Co written by Casey Robinson, the film had all the elaborate Warner Bros. production values with photography by James Wong Howe, Max Steiner score etc. Bogart led a strong Warner Bros. cast including actors he had worked with often, including Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. French actress Michelle Morgan had an opportunity to appear in a number of American films during the war period.
The screenplay is complex - relying not only on flashbacks, but flashbacks within flashbacks. The film has an interesting basic plot - but veers between explicit propaganda and entertaining melodrama. It was directed by Michael Curtiz - a veteran of so many action adventures of the 30s and 40s.
1. Interesting entertainment? A Humphrey Bogart vehicle? Its impact at its time? Now - especially the propaganda tone?
2. Warner Bros production values: black and white photography, the use of studio for Devil's Island, France, shipboard? Atmospheric Max Steiner score? The strong cast? The screenplay and its complexities - especially the effect of the flashbacks, and the flashbacks within the flashbacks?
3. The title and its focus on France, French citizens, the French experience of the war, Devil's Island and its prison, escape and the return to France? The return to wartime France for its liberation?
4. Humphrey Bogart as Matrac, his credibility as a French journalist, his outspokenness, his being framed, trial, his condemnation? The relationship with his wife? Tenderness? The transportation to Devil's Island? The atmosphere of the prison, the hardships (familiar from so many such films)? The relationship to the men within the prison? The authorities? The move to make an escape? The elaborate plans, the hardships of the escape, the jungle, on sea? The clashes between the men, their supporting each other? Their memories? France and their involvement in the war? Matrac flying over his home? The final fight - and Matrac's violence and shooting? The contrast between a man of principle and a man of violence - the mood of World War-Two?
5. The sketch of Matrac's wife? The bond between the two? The child? Separation? His flying over the home? The humane touch in the film?
6. The other prisoners - especially Marius? Their presence in the prison, their experiences, the oppression, the plan for the escape, the difficulties of the escape, shipboard, their various memories? The stereotyped stories - but with interest?
7. The fascists on the ship, as personified by Major Duval? The film's antagonistic attitude towards fascists? Their presumption, attitude towards the war, the take-over of the ship?
8. The portrait of the French and their resistance? Captain Freycinet? Claude Rains and his presence? The journalist, the telling of the story? The blend of the past with the present?
9. Themes of war, desperation, injustice, victimisation? Resistance, the waging of war?
