Paris Calling

"The Germans bombed her mother... There wasn't even enough left for a good ragout... She was a fine cow!" That's the kind of sentiment that the wealthy "Marianne" (Elisabeth Bergner) encounters as she and her mother attempt to flee Paris ahead of the encroaching Nazis. Thing is, isn't not just the cow that gets killed - her mother, too, and so she vows to return and do what she can for the resistance. Initially, she helps stranded American pilot "Nick" (Randolph Scott) with whom she soon falls in love, but somehow she also manages to arouse suspicions amongst her own camp that only a special mission can assuage. That involves her becoming the mistress of a Vichy French government minister "Benoit" (Basil Rathbone) whom everyone suspects is about to cave into the invaders. Things quickly turn distinctly perilous for the young woman, and she and her beau must try to escape the country for the safety of Britain before the net of the menacing "Schwabe" (Lee J. Cobb) closes in on them. It's all pretty standard fayre this, with Bergner rather a fish out of water but not so much as the oddly cast Cobb and there isn't enough of Rathbone to make much difference. Scott actually acquits himself ok, but then again he really only has to smile and play the handsome hero. It does raise the interesting issue of collaboration and the relative merits of those who wanted to fight on against those who wanted to stop further bloodshed, but that theme is rather more waved at us than explored fully. In the end, it's a perfectly watchable wartime morale booster that passes the time fine.

Hollywood made some great movies as part of the effort to win World War II. In fact, my all-time favorite movie, and one of the greatest of American movies, Casablanca, was at least in part a result of that effort.

But Hollywood also made some poor films in the same category, and this, I'm afraid, is one of them.

There's nothing wrong with the acting, though the mix of accents is disconcerting at times. Elisabeth Bergner, a Viennese whose English reminds me on occasion of Luise Rainer, plays a French aristocrat. Basil Rathbone plays a French politician. Lee J. Cobb plays a Nazi officer. Only Randolph Scott, playing an American pilot, comes off naturally as what he is supposed to be. Some of the lower-ranking Nazi soldiers sound too colloquially American. I suspect that Universal just didn't have the means to hire a more convincing cast, though Rathbone and Cobb were certainly good actors. (Rathbone was a Universal staple, since that's where he made the Sherlock Holmes movies.) As others have explained, it is basically the story of Bergner, who plays a very naive woman in love with a French politician and collaborator. She at first believes the lies he tells her. With the fall of France, she sees the light, however. Thereafter she becomes involved in a Resistance cell, and works to fight the Nazis.

The script isn't great, however, and sometimes the action seems disjointed. The end, as a previous viewer remarked, happens too fast and is not at all convincing. It's rather like the end of Mel Brooks' remake of "To Be or Not to Be," but to be taken seriously.

Some things make no sense at all. Why, for example, would Bergner's character play very dramatic classical music in a low-life bar? If you're interested in World War II movies, you might enjoy this. It's not embarrassing. It just isn't very convincing.

There are many familiar faces here. Gino Coraddo once again plays a waiter. Eduardo Ciannelli gets to play a good guy for a change. Elisabeth Bergner in the lead is devoid of any personality. On the other hand, Gale Sondergaard is wasted; she has almost nothing to do. It would have been interesting if their parts had been swapped. Basil Rathbone is fine, but Randolph Scott is a bit too--and too constantly--flippant as an American pilot. Some of the scenes are a bit jumpy, whether due to bad direction and/or bad editing.

"Paris Calling" is an American film brought out after WWII started but only a few days before the USA joined in on the war in December, 1941. It's an unusual movie in that few American films had been brought out at this point that were pro-Allies. Most of the movies from 1939-1941 barely mentioned the war...and some of this was due to a ridiculous neutrality law which seemed to prevent studios from taking sides in WWII. But by 1941, several studios had started making anti-German movies, as it was hard to ignore the German actions during the war...and it appeared as if the US would eventually enter the fray.

The story begins during the fall of France in 1940. A well to do woman, Marianne (Elisabeth Bregner) is fleeing Paris with her mother, but when her mother is killed by Germans, she decides to return to Paris and joins the Resistance.

At the same time, American Royal Airforce volunteer, Lt. Nick Jordan (Randolph Scott), is stranded between the lines. Instead of trying to escape to Britain or some neutral nation, Jordan joins up with the Resistance as well. You know that eventually the Lieutenant and Marianne's paths will cross.

In the meantime, Marianne's fiance, Andre (Basil Rathbone), is cozy with the Germans...and eventually Marianne realizes that Andre has been working with the enemy for some time...well before the war began. So she does what any good, loyal Frenchwoman would do....

This is a modestly entertaining propaganda film...enjoyable but also easy to predict. No among Scott's better movies, but still worth your time.

Clearly Elizabeth Bergner wasn't thinking of posterity when she did her one and only Hollywood film. As a person of Jewish background who had the good sense to flee the Nazis in the early Thirties I'm sure she felt that doing this film about the early French resistance movement was patriotic in some way. Patriotic maybe, but bad and not a product that wears well, no doubt.

In Paris Calling Bergner is an entertainer in love with Basil Rathbone an official of the French government. What she doesn't know, but finds out is that Rathbone has been a collaborator for years plotting to bring the Nazi ways to France. He's not even a collaborator after the fact of the invasion. In other words, a traitor and a rat. It doesn't help that Bergner's mother is killed on the way to Bordeaux where the French government and Rathbone have fled.

Though it takes some time for them to accept her Bergner becomes quite the resistance worker. She's aided and abetted by downed RAF flier Randolph Scott, an American in their Eagle Squadron.

Watching the film I was convinced that I was seeing a routine World War II era flag waver. But at the end when a mass escape of resistance fighters is affected after the Nazis have discovered them I just said to myself this was way too much. I had always considered Errol Flynn's escape in Desperate Journey was the ultimate in Hollywood lunacy, but this one may have topped it. I won't reveal a word, you'll have to see it evaluate for yourself.

For her fans in Europe who might have got to see this after the war this had to be a painful experience. Equally so for fans in the English speaking world who saw her in Escape Me Never, Catherine The Great, or As You Like It.

I'm sure Bergner wanted to forget it and it may be why she never did another Hollywood film.