Passage to Marseille (1944)

Director:

Michael Curtiz

Writers:

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

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:

Ship | French | England | Murder | 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
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Fred Aldrich	...	Seaman (uncredited)
Charles Andre	...	Navigator (uncredited)
Robert Appel	...	Guard (uncredited)
John Bagni	...	Seaman (uncredited)
Albert Baldo	...	Seaman (uncredited)
Bobby Barber	...	Frenchman (uncredited)
Carmen Beretta	...	Petit's Wife (uncredited)
Monte Blue	...	Second Mate (uncredited)
Walter Bonn	...	Prison Official (uncredited)
Frederic Brunn	...	Bijou (uncredited)
Peter Camlin	...	French Sergeant (uncredited)
André Charlot	...	Judge (uncredited)
Hans Conried	...	Jourdain (uncredited)
Marcelle Corday	...	Grocer's Wife (uncredited)
Harry Cording	...	Chief Guard (uncredited)
John Daheim	...	Seaman (uncredited)
Adrienne D'Ambricourt	...	Rosalie - Mayor's Wife (uncredited)
Franklin D'Amour	...	Seaman (uncredited)
George Davis	...	Jacques - Waiter (uncredited)
Jean Del Val	...	Raoul Doulaine (uncredited)
Adrian Droeshout	...	Guard (uncredited)
Diane DuBois	...	Petit's Daughter (uncredited)
Demetris Emanuel	...	Seaman (uncredited)
Fred Essler	...	Prosper - Mayor (uncredited)
Richard Flato	...	Bombardier (uncredited)
Anatol Frikin	...	Crazy Convict (uncredited)
Harold Gerard	...	Guard (uncredited)
Fred Graham	...	Thug Wrecking Newspaper Office (uncredited)
Charles La Torre	...	Lieutenant Lenoir (uncredited)
Oscar Loraine	...	(uncredited)
Harro Meller	...	German Pilot (uncredited)
Louis Mercier	...	Engineer (uncredited)
Victor Metzetti	...	Guard (uncredited)
Peter Miles	...	Jean Matrac Jr. (uncredited)
Suzette O'Neill	...	Flower Woman (uncredited)
Alex Papana	...	Lookout (uncredited)
Tony Paton	...	Emil (uncredited)
David Powell	...	English Radio Operator (uncredited)
Frank Puglia	...	Older Guard (uncredited)
Georges Renavent	...	Guard (uncredited)
Sylvain Robert	...	Lieutenant (uncredited)
William Roy	...	Mess Boy (uncredited)
Harry Semels	...	Cayenne Prison Colony Guard (uncredited)
Konstantin Shayne	...	First Mate (uncredited)
Jay Silverheels	...	Sailor Crewman on Boat Deck (uncredited)
Bernard Sommer	...	Bombardier (uncredited)
Raymond St. Albin	...	Medical Officer (uncredited)
Maurice St. Clair	...	Dompierre (uncredited)
Mark Stevens	...	Lieutenant Hastings (uncredited)
Jack Stoney	...	Seaman (uncredited)
Donald Stuart	...	Military Driver (uncredited)
Sándor Szabó	...	Sergeant of the Guards (uncredited)
Louis Trevis	...	Bombardier (uncredited)
Roger Valmy	...	Rocroi (uncredited)
Juan Varro	...	Gunner at Field (uncredited)
Hans Heinrich von Twardowski	...	French Airfield Radio Man (uncredited)

Directed by
Michael Curtiz

Writing credits
Casey Robinson		(screenplay) and
Jack Moffitt		(screenplay)
Charles Nordhoff		(novel) and
James Norman Hall		(novel)
Elick Moll		contributor to screenplay (uncredited)

Produced by
Hal B. Wallis	....	producer
Jack L. Warner	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Max Steiner

Cinematography by
James Wong Howe

Film Editing by
Owen Marks

Art Direction by
Carl Jules Weyl

Set Decoration by
George James Hopkins

Costume Design by
Leah Rhodes		(gowns)

Makeup Department
Perc Westmore	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Eric Stacey	....	unit manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Frank Heath	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
Everett A. Brown	....	sound

Special Effects by
Jack Cosgrove	....	special effects director (as Jack R. Cosgrove)
Edwin B. DuPar	....	special effects (as Edwin Du Par)
Roy Davidson	....	special effects (uncredited)
Byron Haskin	....	special effects (uncredited)
Rex Wimpy	....	special effects (uncredited)

Stunts
Harvey Parry	....	stunts (uncredited)
Buster Wiles	....	stunt double: Humphrey Bogart (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Ben Colman	....	assistant camera (uncredited)

Music Department
Leo F. Forbstein	....	musical director
Leonid Raab	....	orchestral arranger

Other crew
Herschel Daugherty	....	dialogue director
James Leicester	....	montages
Sylvain Robert	....	technical advisor

Production Companies

• Warner Bros. Pictures (as Warner Bros.-First National Pictures)

Distributors

• Warner Bros. Pictures (1944) (USA) (theatrical)
• Dominant Pictures Corporation (1956) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Key Video (video)
• MGM/UA Home Entertainment (video)
• Warner Home Video (2006) (USA) (DVD)

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:

One of the few films to employ a flashback within a flashback within a flashback. This film is often seen as an attempt to recapture the magic of Casablanca (1942), to which many key players were also a part of. Some "usual suspects" include director Michael Curtiz, stars Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains, supporting and bit players Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Helmut Dantine and Corinna Mura, writer Casey Robinson, composer Max Steiner, producer Hal B. Wallis and executive producer Jack L. Warner (both films were made by the studio Warner Bros.). Also, Michèle Morgan was originally cast as Ilsa in Casablanca (1942), but her salary demand was too big, so Ingrid Bergman was cast instead.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Mattrac is pointing his fifty cal. machine gun out the waist gun window, we hear machine gun sounds, but the gun is not firing. The 50 cal. M2 machine gun produces a great deal of vibration when it is being fired. The gun did not vibrate one bit.

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:

Someday I'll Meet You Again

Bogart's character not always saintly

I think some people have been unduly unfair on this film.

There is quite a complex sequence of flashbacks. But as a matter of fact, I didn't find them at all difficult to follow. My brain only hurts when I try to work it out afterwards. Maybe it's another of those things which work better in a cinema than on TV.

There is a scene where Bogart's character commits a war crime. I think we have to remember that Bogart did not always play saintly characters. He was not exactly saintly in the "Maltese Falcon" or "Casablanca". He was even less saintly in "The Caine Mutiny". I am sure that the audience in 1944 would have been shocked by the war crime just as we are

now; even Nazi propaganda sometimes emphasised the importance of being gentlemanly to prisoners. The easy and boring option would have been for

Bogart to play the all-American (or all-French) hero throughout; I find it

more interesting that in this case he isn't. I think the circumstances to some extent explain what Bogart's character does. The fact is war crimes happen in war. They happened then, and they happen now, and the perpetrators are not as through-and-through evil (or different from us) as we would like to think.

I agree with those who say this film is not as good as "Casablanca" or the "Maltese Falcon". The plot is a lot more lumpy and uneven than those films. But I've seen those two films several times already, and I can't watch them every night. "Passage to Marseille" is worth at least one viewing. In fact I would like to see it again, if I get a chance.