Passage to Marseille (1944)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Michael Curtiz

Writers:

Casey Robinson (screenplay) and
Jack Moffitt (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

11 March 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Adventure | War

Plot:

As French bomber crews prepare an air raid from a base in England, we learn the story of Matrac, a French journalist who opposed the Munich Pact...

Plot Keywords:

French | Ship | France | Escape | Marseille

Cast

Humphrey Bogart	...	Jean Matrac
Claude Rains	...	Captain Freycinet
Michèle Morgan	...	Paula Matrac (as Michele Morgan)
Philip Dorn	...	Renault
Sydney Greenstreet	...	Major Duval
Peter Lorre	...	Marius
George Tobias	...	Petit
Helmut Dantine	...	Garou
John Loder	...	Manning
Victor Francen	...	Captain Patain Malo
Vladimir Sokoloff	...	Grandpere
Eduardo Ciannelli	...	Chief Engineer (as Edward Ciannelli)
Corinna Mura	...	Singer

Runtime:

109 min | France:75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French | German | Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Canada:PG (video rating) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (certificate #9359) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden - 301 N. Baldwin Avenue, Arcadia, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

During filming, Lauren Bacall was brought to the set in order to gauge her chemistry with Humphrey Bogart with whom she would soon be co-starring in To Have and Have Not (1944). This was the famous duo's first meeting, though it would be months before their romance began.

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the film, the aircraft used by the Free French squadrons are American-built Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses, and are described as such by Capt. Freycinet. There actually were two Free French heavy bomber squadrons based in England: Groupes de Bombardment GB II/23 "Guyenne" and GB I/25 "Tunisie," which were part of the Royal Air Force as 346 and 347 Squadrons respectively. However, they did not fly Fortresses. Their aircraft was the British-built Handley Page Halifax. Obviously, for Hollywood purposes, Fortresses were easier to obtain than Halifaxes.

Quotes:

Jean Matrac: Funny how much more you can say with a few bars of music then a basket full of words.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Becoming Attractions: The Trailers of Humphrey Bogart (1997) (TV)

Soundtrack:

La Marseillaise

Compelling despite a weak structure

Passage to Marseille's flashback within a flashback format is of course structurally weak, but its characters and storytelling are compelling. Most interesting is the cynical disillusionment Bogart's character experiences after his opposition newspaper confronts the French government's Nazi appeasement. His newspaper is destroyed by pro-government mobs while fascist-leaning police look on. For his trouble Bogart is falsely convicted of murder and sent to a hell-on-earth prison colony in French Guyana. Formerly the staunchest of patriots, Bogart comes to feel that the France living in his heart has finally died.

Bogart and cohorts escape with the aid of a freed prisoner who selects and compels them with a promise to return to France and fight for its freedom. The third flashback finds them adrift in the Caribbean in their river canoe where they are rescued by a French freighter bound for Marseille. Things get complicated when some passengers and crew members led by a utilitarian French Army officer played by Sydney Greenstreet attempt to seize control of the ship. The ship's captain and Claude Rains' character had plotted a course to England in defiance of their now Nazi-controlled government's orders.

As the free French loyalists retake control of the ship, a traitorous radio operator broadcasts their position which is picked up by a patrolling Nazi bomber. The prisoners' true convictions (no pun intended) are demonstrated both in retaking the ship and in fighting off the plane's attack. In leading the ship's defense, Bogart's true feelings are realized and his choice is made to once again fight for his country, this time with bombs and bullets instead of ink and paper.