Passage to Marseille 1944

     The setting of this film is WWII.  French bomber crews prepare for an air raid over Germany from a base in England.  During the daylight hours, the planes and everything else in camouflaged in cow barns.  After sunset, the cows go back into the barns and the planes and crew emerge.  French journalist Matrac opposed the Munich Pact.  He was framed for murder and sent to Devil’s Island.  Matrac and four other men were helped to escape from the Island.  They are on board a ship the Ville de Nancy bound for Marseilles when France surrenders and fascist sympathizer Major Duval tries to seize the ship for Vichy.

     I thought this film was interesting and it seems very realistic for the war scenes and the time period.  This is one of the few films to use a flashback within a flashback within a flashback.  This effect is often seen as an attempt to recapture the magic of Casablanca of 1942.  At times the flashbacks would go five deep!!  Much of the cast is also from Casablanca because that film won a Best Picture Oscar the previous year. 

109 min, Adventure directed by Michael Curtiz with Humphrey Bogart, Claude Rains, Michele Morgan, Philip Dorn, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, George Tobias, Helmut Dantine, John Loder, Victor Francen, Vladimir Sokoloff, Eduardo Ciannelli, Corinna Mura.

Note:  Imdb 6.9 out of 10, Rotten Tomatoes 57% audience, Letterboxd average 3.3* out of 5*, Rate Your Music.com 3.03* out of 5* with 64 ratings, ranked #72 for 1944, TheAceBlackBloc.com 4* out of 5*, Amazon 4.6* out of 5* with 62 reviews. 

Special Note:  Filmed in Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden, Arcadia also Victorville and Warner Bros. Burbank Studios, California.  Warner Bros. built a full-scale Merchant Marine ship in three months and it was modeled after the French ship Ville de Nancy.  During filming, Lauren Bacall was visited the set to gauge her chemistry with Bogart.  She would soon be co-starring with him in To Have and Have Not 1944.  This was their first meeting and their romance began months later.  They were married from May 21, 1945 until he passed away in January 14, 1957 and they had two children. Previously, he was married to Mayo Methot 1938-1945, Mary Philips 1928 to 1938, Helen Menken 1926 to 1927.