In Hollywood exile over the war years, Jean Gabin went from three or four films per year in France to a mere two in five; no wonder he looks so grumpy. This one improves over the first, MOONTIDE/’42, switching from it’s doomed attempt to graft French Poetic Realism in Hollywood (Archie Mayo inadequately replacing announced director Fritz Lang), to a heroic tale of defeated French soldiers regrouping in Africa to build an airfield and, as reward, reclaim Gallic Gloire on the field of battle. With Julien Duvivier writing/directing, you’d expect more French flavor, but between meager resources @ Universal Pictures and a rather theatrical supporting cast awkwardly joined to Gabin’s naturalism, it’s nearly as unconvincing as the earlier film. No doubt, finding a courageous angle on the French military wasn’t a given in 1944, so Duvivier came up with a renewal fable for Gabin, saved at the last minute from execution when a bomb destroys his prison, giving him a chance to reinvent himself as a man with a purpose, fighting for his country under an assumed identity he’s stolen off a corpse.* Surprisingly talky until the final battle scenes, it gets by on speed & construction. Duvivier doesn’t sit around, confronting difficult moments with blunt efficiency (note brusque, ritual public demotion when the truth comes out), but can’t make the pieces fit.
SCRWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Like French directors from Renoir to Truffaut, Duvivier’s ear doesn’t always pick up odd line readings in English. Something that doesn’t affect his other Hollywood pics.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *The opening, with prisoner Gabin saved from execution by a bombing, was used to better effect later this year in UNCERTAIN GLORY/’44 (Errol Flynn; Raoul Walsh). https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2011/03/uncertain-glory-1944.html
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