Fact-inspired, consistently involving, underappreciated WWII spy story from British director Lewis Gilbert.* (Himself underappreciated: ALFIE; SINK THE BISMARCK!; two of the better James Bonds.) Virginia McKenna stars as a British wartime bride who becomes a wartime widow (with kid) after her very French soldier-husband is killed fighting in North Africa. That, and the French background on her mother’s side, is what pulls her into the espionage service, parachuting into Occupied France as Resistence liaison. Paul Scofield, even with his cover previously blown, runs the mission while falling for McKenna. And while they get away with the danger once, a return trip lands them both in big trouble. Trouble for the film as well, as little in these assignments match the intense feelings & love-struck rush of the prologue, an all too brief romance for McKenna and French soldier-boy Alain Saury leading to a speedy marriage, and a few days leave in a pastoral Britain before Saury gets called to the front. Compared to this sexual chemistry, daring espionage and suspense in France, even with guns ablaze on a botched mission or with Scofield longing at her side, can’t compete. And somehow, McKenna, whether in rural Normandy or chic Paris, always seems the British rose no matter how they distress her looks.
DOUBLE-BILL: A similar story in ODETTE/’50 (not seen here: w/ Anna Neagle, Trevor Howard, Marius Goring, Peter Ustinov, Bernard Lee), the same Odette (Odette Hallows) credited here as Technical Adviser. OR: As mentioned, Gilbert’s best WWII pic, SINK THE BISMARCK!/’60.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Maybe the title kept Stateside audiences off. Sounds vaguely horrific.
No comments:
Post a Comment