We Were Strangers

There is more irony in this film than ten Shakespearean plays.. The film stars John Garfield and Jennifer Jones as two socialist rebels in 1933 Cuba. Historically, this revolt was known as the Sergeants Revolt, an alliance of sergeants and university students (with two different agendas). This bizarre revolt was successful in overthrowing the Fascist government of Quesada, and was replaced with that wild-eyed Socialist, Batista......that's right folks, the same Batista that became a fascist himself for the next 25 years and was a puppet of the American political machine. Oddly enough, three years later, Viva Zapata, with Marlon Brando, would mirror the same type of revolution in Mexico, with the same bizarre results.

The film is above average in suspense, and has a hell-raising conclusion, but it is the eerily feeling that we have seen something like this before (in 1959?) that keeps our interest in the film. A clear example of how history repeats itself.

John Huston directed this 1948 thriller about a group of revolutionaries trying to overthrow the brutal right wing Cuban Regime in 1933 when it was a crime, promulgated by their "parliament", for more than four people to gather in public or criticise its government.

John Garfield (Tony Fenner), stars as the ex-Cuban who comes back from the U.S. to set up the revolution.He meets and is assisted by Jennifer Jones (China Valdez) who gives him active support after her 19 year old student younger brother is gunned down on the steps of his university by the evil secret policeman (Pedro Armendariaz).Tony devises a plot to assassinate the head politico hoping his family and the heads of government and their family attend his funeral at a cemetary near where China and her family live.They decide to dig a tunnel from her house and place explosive under the grave to get the hated government in one fell swoop.At least that's the plan (no spoiler here).

Yet again Jennifer Jones is in a completely new role speaking with a convincing Cuban accent.She works in a bank but cannot escape the attention of the secret police who keep hounding and threatening her for information on Tony Fenner whom she has now grown to love.Assisting them both are a group of committed partisans including Gilbert Roland who plays a simple dock worker (his brother was killed by the government).He steals this picture by his acting and by singing topical calypsos about their revolutionary activities;(I find myself singing these verses or even making up new ones!).Another member "goes off the rails" and nearly gives the game away.

I suppose if you know Cuban modern history you can guess the outcome as Huston has to stick to the facts.The final showdown with Thompson sub-machine guns is almost surreal.This title is hard to find and is not available from main stream video dealers.Occasionally it comes up for auction on "e-Bay".If like me you love quality 1940's films you will enjoy this actioneer.

Can anyone tell me where I can find a copy of this? I haven't seen it in thirty years, and if it is half as good as I remember, this is a must-see! What's up with Columbia holding back their classics? The Reckless Moment, made the same year (1949) by Columbia is also unavailable. These are major films directed by, respectively, John Huston and Max Ophuls, starring the likes of Jennifer Jones, John Garfield, Gilbert Roland, Joan Bennett, and James Mason. The Reckless Moment was recently remade decently as The Deep End, but it still doesn't compare. If anyone knows where I can get We Were Strangers, please post it here. Thanks, movie lovers!

Dealing with Cuban revolutionaries a few years before Castro, the story line is tough, thoughtful, ironic. Jones(especially good as China Valdez) and Garfield are well teamed. Roland provides humor and bravado in a performance(one of his best)that balances the pace of the film's drama and action. The Mexican and American supporting players are all on the mark, a pleasure to watch. Huston directs with a consistent, steady hand; with knowledge and empathy in canvassing territory not easily accessed by the war weary now grown complacent audiences of 1949.

The part of a fiery revolutionary in 1933 Cuba seems tailor made for John Garfield. Both his politics and screen persona mesh nicely in the role of Nick Fenner for him in We Were Strangers. As for his lack of Hispanic accent, we are told that he is of mixed Cuban and American parentage. I'm glad Garfield didn't try an accent, he looked downright silly doing one as Porfirio Diaz in Juarez.

John Huston directed We Were Strangers and even second drawer Huston is better than first drawer of most directors. The film is about a really far out plot for a Coup d'etat against President Gerardo Machado of Cuba in 1933. Garfield has sold them one a plan to assassinate the president and his entire cabinet by means of a bomb at a funeral internment. As it happens Jennifer Jones's house is located across from Havana's main cemetery. The idea is to first kill a right-wing Senator and then when the funeral takes place and the deceased is interred at the family mausoleum, to blow up the place as the president and a lot of top bigwigs are sure to attend.

The scheme involves tunneling from Jen's house to the mausoleum and We Were Strangers starts to resemble The Great Escape at this point. Jen's cooperative because her brother was killed by Machado's secret police, but something terribly unforeseen spoils things and the assassins are forced to flee.

In fact the something that is unforeseen should have been foreseen and Garfield should have come up with a better idea. But the drama of this film is the tension of these conspirators working together in close quarters and we the audience getting to know them. We Were Strangers at first, but they all become comrades during the shared experience of conspiracy. Besides John Garfield and Jennifer Jones, the other in the plot are Gilbert Roland, Wally Cassell, and David Bond.

Best performance in the film by far though is that of Pedro Armendariz as the secret police lieutenant. Huston might have seen Armendariz in a similar role in John Ford's The Fugitive which was set in Mexico. It was a good stroke of typecasting then because Armendariz is a truly hateful figure.

I looked up Gerardo Machado who was the president of Cuba at the time and he was overthrown in 1933 but not by these guys. Wikipedia describes him as an equal opportunity tyrant who had all factions hating him by 1933. He started out as a fighter and youngest general in the Cuban war for independence against Spain in the 1890s. But last year's freedom fighter has a way of turning into today's tyrant.

We Were Strangers in the Huston career comes between Key Largo and The Asphalt Jungle, both better films, but this one while the assassination plot is far fetched is carried along by the skilled direction of a fine group of players.