Francoise Arnoul plays a French resistance heroine with bewitching sexy eyes just about says it all. The flimsy story hangs limply around her performance, which managed to update the War to include a feisty Bardot-like character for a new generation.
An alluring and compact young patriot Cora is used by the Resistance to steal the Nazis plans for a new rocket but she unwittingly falls in love with a tall German spy Bernard, and vice versa; somewhat as a slinky Cat and a faithful Dog. Will Love conquer All or be conquered by War? It's all done nicely and cheaply and the grimy monochrome photography, sets and acting are passable, the music sounds like sci-fi FX only because there was no budget and not to lend period atmosphere – it's just the plot was rather feeble. If it was meant for a deep probing of relative human moral values under internal and external stress then it was far too superficial – and almost as if they were making it up as they went along.
To whom would this film appeal to in the main? As still being a red-blooded male I have to admit that if it hadn't been for Arnoul I probably wouldn't have bothered with it at all – and I almost switched it off after a few doses of director Henri Decoin's personal perversions sledgehammered out by Gestapo and Resistance alike. He made quite a few good films in the discipline of the Golden Age, especially a handful starring his then wife Danielle Darrieux - with this though he gave me the overwhelming impression of a dirty old man director and Arnoul apparently only too eager as usual to co-operate. But again I regret to admit I was extremely interested to know where she was supposed to be hiding the flashlight radio! Sadly the only things the film has left me wondering is can a tub of alcohol really burn with vim for hours on end and how on Earth does the sequel pick it all up again? Overall though, an interesting time-passer.
