BETRAYED
US, 1954, 108 minutes, Colour.
Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Victor Mature, Louis Calhern, O.E. Hasse, Wilfrid Hyde- White, Ian Carmichael, Niall Mac Ginnis, Norah Swinburne, Roland Culver.
Directed by Gottfried Reinhardt.
Betrayed is a very interesting and rather glamorous spy story, set in Holland during World War Two. The film uses the Dutch landscapes to great advantage.
The film focuses on Clark Gable as a Dutch intelligence officer, Lana Turner as a widow who is considered to have collaborated with the Nazis and who wants to vindicate her reputation by serving as a spy for the allies, and Victor Mature as a local Resistance fighter. The three stars work very well together and are supported by Louis Calhern and a group of English actors. The film was directed by Gottfried Reinhardt, who directed Invitation and The Story of Three Loves in Hollywood and then returned to Germany to make a few films.
The film was made within ten years of the end of the war, so memories of the Resistance and betrayal were very much to the fore. Audiences who have seen Paul Verhoeven’s The Black Book (2006) with its story of a woman who is able to act as a double agent and get information for the allies and Dutch Resistance but is betrayed by somebody from the Resistance will realise that there are strong similarities in the screenplays of the two films.
Clark Gable was moving towards the end of his career and had just made Mogambo with Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly. He was to freelance for the next six years before dying in 1960, his last film being The Misfits with Marilyn Monroe. Lana Turner was at the peak of her glamorous screen presence during the 1950s after being a glamour girl as well as a femme fatale in the 1940s. She was to continue to act as older women in such films as Peyton Place in the 50s and Madame X in the 1960s. At this time Victor Mature made The Robe and Demetrius and the Gladiators.
1. Was this a successful war fi1m? Its impact in the fifties - ten years after the war, its impact now? The nations involved and attitudes towards them now?
2. What did the film have to say about patriotism? The Dutch and their support for occupied Holland? The Germans as the occupiers? The United States and Britain as helpers of the Dutch? The importance of loyalty for the Dutch?
3. How did the film portray spying? Wan it interesting. realistic or far-fetched? The dangers of spying, the arrests, the effect on people’s lives, the detailed training, keeping one's wits, the unpredictable? How necessary is spying during a war? Why?
4. What did the film have to say about betrayal? The temptation to disloyalty and saving oneself, the possibilities of betrayal for each of the main characters? What judgment did the film make about betrayal? Was this convincing? did it correspond to suspense in the film?
5. How important was the Dutch setting, the scenery, the towns, the various locations, the importance of the Dutch Resistance and their style?
6. Peter Deventer, a suitable hero for the film? Clark Gable’s style, was he ever suspected of disloyalty? The importance of his communication at the beginning, his capture, interrogation, his judgment on characters, especially of the German Commander, his escape? The importance that hostages gave their lives for him? His concern and plan for espionage? His training of Carla? His emotional involvement with her, his doubts about her, his saving her at the end? Was his character well explored or was he conventional?
7. Carla, Lana Turner’s performance, the background of the easy life in Holland, the impact of her husband dying as a hostage, her dedication to her work and training, the hard interrogation by Deventer, her collaboration with 'The Scarf’, the impact of the massacre of the Germans, her emotional response to Deventer, the temptation to betrayal and her awareness of ‘The Scarf’? Her atoning for her husband's death and her way of life? Was she a convincing character?
8. Was ‘The Scarf’ a credible character? His schoolboy attitude towards Resistance? His love of adventure and leading his men? Independence? His behaviour towards Carla? His attitude towards his mother and the disillusionment when her head was shaved? Was this convincing for him to become a traitor? To execute so many of his fellow Resistance men? The nature of his dramatics with the Germans? The melodrama of his death?
9. How well drawn wore the British military people, the American General, the German General and his exploits, his ultimate death?
10. How successful an adventure film was this? How well did it present its main themes?
