BERLIN CORRESPONDENT
US, 1942, 70 minutes, Black-and-white.
Virginia Gilmore, Dana Andrews, Mona Maris, Martin Kosleck, Sig Ruman.
Directed by Eugene Forde.
Berlin Correspondent is very entertaining in its way, a brief film full of espionage, final action with a touch of romance.
However, it covers events of November-December? 1941, America not involved in World War II that stage but the change coming with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.
The story is that of an American war correspondent living in Berlin, played by Dana Andrews. He provides regular broadcasts which are supervised by the Gestapo but which have sufficient codewords in them so that his newspaper can get information about the progress of the war and the collapse of German morale. The Gestapo chief is continually on the case, using a detective to follow the correspondent (but with some comedy as the detective continues to bumble and the correspondent often gives him information as to his whereabouts.)
There is a complication when the correspondent is very gallant to a woman in a restaurant without her food card (Virginia Gilmore) – but she is a set up by the Gestapo chief. She finds out how the correspondent is getting his information, on the back of stamps which he buys at a certain shop. Too late, she discovers that her father, not a Nazi sympathiser, is supplying information and he is arrested. He saves her by pretending that she has informed on him.
While the correspondent is shocked by his discovery, he has respect for the father and so does an elaborate trick, disguising himself as a Nazi psychiatrist, going to the institution where the father has been interned, playing to the vanity of the supervising doctor, and effecting an escape, consolidating the situation by appearing without trousers and borrowing a pair from the supervisor and then getting his car to escape.
There are complications with the Gestapo chief and his infatuation with the young woman and the jealousy of his assistant (Argentinian actress, Mona Maris). While the correspondent is interned in a concentration camp, after December 7, the Gestapo chief engineers an escape situation so that the man can be killed. The correspondent is shrewd, escapes with the help of the young woman, takes the Gestapo chief’s plane at the airport and flies to freedom.
The film is interesting in the light of subsequent postwar films and the presentation of the Nazis, the touch of caricature in some of the officials, the concentration camps – but it is interesting to note the information in this film which is available to the public in 1942.
1. An American propaganda film for World War II? Events of 1941? Release in 1942 – with the war having three more years to go? Impact in its time? Revelation about Nazis, Germany, concentration camps? In hindsight?
2. The idea of the Berlin correspondent before America’s entry into the war? Working and living in Berlin, texts prepared for overseas broadcasts, censorship, yet the Americans having codes to convey information? German suspicions? Spying? And the news of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the change towards the United States?
3. The plot, the propaganda material? The work of the correspondent in Berlin? The role of the Gestapo? Nazi loyalties? The combination with romance, betrayal, female jealousies, concentration camps, institutions and the killing of the insane through “mercy killing�, adventurous escapes from camps? Flight out of Germany?
4. Bill Roberts, Dana Andrews style, his presence in Berlin, the broadcasts and his delivery, the codes? His interactions with the Gestapo? His being followed – the comic touches of his giving advice to the spy where he could be found? The set up in the restaurant, Karen and her card, his gallantry, the date, the meal at home? His getting the information through the stamps? The light to reveal the information on the back? Karen discovering it, giving the information to the Gestapo chief? Seeing her at home, the irony of her father supplying information?
5. Karen, loyalty, Nazi philosophy, saying that her father and older people did not understand? Her working for the official? His romantic intentions? The attraction of Bill? Discovering the truth about her father, his arrest? His setting her up that she had betrayed him? Her concern, going to the Gestapo chief, the information? The encounter with Bill, his distrust, wanting to save her father?
6. The Gestapo chief, as interpreted in 1941-42, in the light of various characterisations in postwar films? His intensity and loyalty? His secretary, her devotion, his not seeing this? Infatuation with Karen? The rest of her father? His being sent to the institution? Ordering his death?
7. Bill, the impersonation of the psychiatrist, going to the institution, his bravado over the resident psychiatrist, the ruthlessness of the ideology of mercy killings? The plan, the change of clothes, the escape, Bill demanding the doctor’s trousers and the car to escape? His passport, the train journey to Zürich, the escape?
8. The passport, Gestapo checking the control, Carla and her getting the information, Karen and her reading out the information?
9. Carla, her jealousy, wanting the Gestapo chief? The information? Her being rejected? Her helping Karen, the advice, the car? And her final betrayal of the chief?
10. Bill, German laws, in the concentration camp, hard labour, the Englishman and his electrocution on the wall? The arrangement of the escape? The superintendent – with the orders to electrocute Bill? Bill, the shrewdness, watching the superintendent, getting over the wall, tearing his coat, the electricity going back on, his escape, the shots, Karen arriving in the car, her information during her visit to him, the escape, to the airport, the different identities, taking the plane? the pilot wanting to escape Germany?
11. Gestapo chief, Carla ringing the general, the orders for his arrest?
12. A popular way of informing the American public about the situation in Nazi Germany? And the production by 20th Century Fox?
