Geheimaktion Marseille

Flacid spy thriller shows thirties leftists struggling to adhere to Moscow dictates as the situation becomes more and more treacherous - excluding the Spanish Socialists and Anarchists from aid, rumors of a an alliance with the Nazis and the elimination of former comrades.

Brasseur gets the film's best scenes - the attempt to recruit him by a National Socialist, who represents them as fellow battlers against privilege, the prisoner exchange where his fellow is shot and revealed as a turncoat and his monologue in the cabaret, about the old comrade who resists all attempts to make him confess to unreal crimes - "the thirteen who confessed were the heroes!" The other celebrity players make little impression, though Mlle Baye's unnecessary nudity does catch attention - nice body.

Handling is flat, with the dull dialogs barely connected to a few nice scenics. The two mob action scenes are laughably badly filmed. The Vera Belmont ROUGE BAISIR is a more penetrating and more involving study of misplaced loyalty.