Joan of Paris

An under-rated but excellent film is 1942's "Joan of Paris."

While it is still another World War 11 story of allied soldiers, trying to get back to their homeland from an occupied France, it is certainly worth seeing.

The acting by Michele Morgan, Paul Henried and Thomas Mitchell is first rate.

Cornered by the Gestapo, Morgan acts like the true Joan of Arc.

May Robson, who was so good in "Lady for A Day," shines this time in a supporting role, as an elderly teacher who is also a member of the French resistance. Look for a young Alan Ladd is a brief but pivotal role as one of the group of soldiers.

Just as we saw in Casablanca, the year after this film, there is a memorable scene; this time children are singing the Marseilles at a time of adversity.

Obviously, the film is timely as it was made during the war when the free French fought alongside the British to combat the Nazi menace.

Paul Henried and Michele Morgan star in "Joan of Paris," a 1942 film also starring Laird Cregar, Thomas Mitchell and May Robson. Henried is a Frenchman wanted by the Gestapo who escapes to England and joins some British pilots. Flying into France, they are all shot down and separate. Henried, who plays Paul Lavallier, ends up hiding in the rooms of a café waitress Joan (Morgan), whose patron saint is Jeanne d'Arc. Joan and Paul fall in love, and she, with the help of a priest (Mitchell) get messages to the other pilots about plans for escape. All the while, a man trails Paul, and the Gestapo, headed up by Funk (Cregar) watches in hopes that he will lead him to the other men.

"Joan of Paris" marked the U.S. debut of Paul Henried and Michele Morgan, a lovely French actress. Henried is photographed very well and is excellent as Paul Lavallier, and Morgan plays the sweet, courageous and devoted Joan beautifully. The movie is very atmospheric; the black and white photography employs great use of shadows and darkness.

This is one of those films the studios cranked out that one doesn't hear much about, right up there with one of my personal World War II favorites, Escape - though this isn't quite as good. "Joan of Paris" has the advantage of attractive leads, great atmosphere and some marvelous performances, a standout being Laird Cregar as the suave but evil Funk. Unfortunately, Cregar would die at the age of 28, two years after this film. A huge man, a fine actor, and an out of the closet gay who wasn't afraid to bring gay overtones into a role, he was the chief villain at Twentieth Century Fox, actually scheduled to play Waldo Lydecker in "Laura." What a loss, as is obvious from this film. May Robson, in a small role, is also a standout. Alan Ladd plays one of the fighters, and instead of being a stalwart, hardboiled detective, he's allowed to act. Though his role is a small one, he makes an impression.

All in all, a wonderful film that TCM showed on Paul Henried's 100th birthday. Hopefully they will show it again.

Celebrated French pilot Paul Lavallier (Paul Henreid) is one of the survivors after their bomber gets shot down. He is hunted by the Nazis and has been convicted in absentia by the Vichy government. He arrives in Paris and finds help from his former teacher Father Antoine (Thomas Mitchell). Cafe waitress Joan (Michèle Morgan) helps him to escape back to Britain.

This was released a couple of months after Pearl Harbor. One could see how this propaganda of heroism and self-sacrifice nails the zeitgeist of the times. By the title, the ending could be easily assumed. There are moments of thrills although I want more of them. Of course, there is a scene with La Marseillaise although Casablanca is a more emotional rendering. This is fine but there are better classics of its kind.

Joan of Paris is best known for the joint debut of both Michelle Morgan and Paul Henreid on the American cinema. Henreid is a member of the Free French flying with the RAF and he and the crew are shot down over occupied France. Henreid and the group including a wounded Alan Ladd make their way to Paris where he tries to contact either the French underground or any British intelligence operatives.

When Henreid came, he came to stay in America, becoming a citizen years later. Morgan made a few films and went back to France after the war where she resumed her star status. She and Jean Gabin are probably the two most well known French players who managed to flee the occupation and continue their careers on foreign soil.

Henreid displays all the charm later put to full advantage in Casablanca and Now Voyager. Their romance is tender and all too tragically brief. Like Casablanca, Henreid wants to get back in the fight. Morgan, who's patron saint is Joan of Arc, will sacrifice all to aid him.

The best performance in this film is that of 20th Century Fox loan out to RKO, Laird Cregar. Cregar, a clever and epicene occupier who's bulk suggests Herman Goering, is the relentless pursuer of the downed fliers. Alan Ladd scored a notable success as the kid flier although he tries at times to affect a British accent. They should have just made him Canadian as they did all the other American actors who played in British locations and situations. It wasn't as bad as Gregory Peck's in The Paradine Case though.

Joan of Paris is a good, but routine product from RKO, one of the minor studios. In her next film Morgan would be opposite that American icon making his feature film role debut, Frank Sinatra in Higher and Higher. Still she and Henreid acquit themselves well, albeit in a minor key.

This is a beautifully made, written and directed movie. Paul Henreid (you may remember him from Now Voyager lighting the two cigarettes for himself and Bette Davis - or in Casablanca as the Czech resistance figure with Ingrid Bergman whom she is helping to escape the Continent to fight again) is very moving and believable as a French squadron leader based in England with the Free French forces.

Henreid always comes off well in European roles - he SEEMS foreign, very romantic in a rather exotic Continental manner.

He and four other fighter pilots based in England were clearing the way for the first British bombing raids on Germany, when they were shot down over France. They are trying to return to England via Paris (where Henreid's childhood teacher is now the dean of a cathedral and may help) - but only if they can contact British intelligence agents whom they must first identify and try to locate. Even with the help of the British intelligence and French secret agents, they must then evade the Gestapo that haunts Henreid's path through Paris.

Henreid meets and is harbored by Michelle Morgan playing the title character, and who only gradually comes to understand who Henreid is. The simplicity, modesty, and religious and romantic nature of her barmaid are shown so lovingly. She falls in love very quickly - yet this seems completely a part of this girl's makeup - throughout you sense the enormity of this one great thing in this girl of poverty who lives alone on the top floor, above the cafe, with her tiny shrine to Joan of Arc.

The sets are astonishing - one feels as if one really is in Paris and one of its great cathedrals, in its sewers, its steam baths, its cafes.

Henreid's attempts to lose the Gestapo agent (a "postage stamp" sticking to him) is suspenseful and imaginative - a wonderful game of cat and mouse throughout Paris to join his comrades.

The movie is extremely and wonderfully romantic - the discourse of the two lovers - one doomed - is terribly moving and painful. I rented this one week, and could not resist renting it again when I entered the store.

This is a wonderful and underrated movie.