La cruz de Lorena

Directed by Tay Garnett, who was a Naval pilot in WWI, this war drama has substance. French soldiers, believing that WWII is over, unwittingly surrender to German forces and are placed in a POW camp. A terrific and realistic look at being held prisoner under the thumb of the Nazis. A very good collection of talent featuring: Jean-Pierre Aumont, Gene Kelly, Hume Cronyn, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Peter Lorre, Wallace Ford and Richard Whorf.

If you thought World War II Hollywood war movies were all sweetness and Casablanca fans, just wait till you see this gut-wrenching little propaganda piece, which must have come out the week the censors were all in Palm Springs. Perhaps the most realistic Hollywood portrayal of life as a prisoner of the Nazis until "Schindler's List," it's also quite intelligent and extraordinarily well-played by an excellent cast. You don't know the meaning of shock until you've seen Gene Kelly spit a huge gob of real sputum onto Peter Lorre's face--and then wait till you see what comes next. It's not Captain Renault and the roulette table, dearie.

Very effective American propaganda piece made in the beginning of the war and centered around a couple of handfuls of French soldiers capitulating at Marshall Pétain's order and being made prisoners of war in the German part of Alsace.

Director Tay Garnett was an acknowledged master of light and shadow, and not just in the cinematographic sense. Lots of issues are at stake here, and although all the characters are somewhat larger than life, the hesitant lawyer, wonderfully, luminously played by Jean-Pierre Aumont, and the cabdriver, acted by a young, doe-eyed Gene Kelly, both help to give human texture to the admittedly rather formulaic plotline, and neither is a hero in the textbook Hollywood sense. The most interesting conflict in the film would be how to deal with the Hume Cronyn character, a French soldier who sympathizes with the Nazis and serves as a translater / snitch in the POW camp. Should he be killed without a trial, or would that, even in wartime, be a violation of basic French principles of jurisprudence and democracy?

'The Cross of Lorraine' is a very, very good film and a far cry from American WW2 movies we see today, they are all much more banal and onesided.

The film was obviously inspired by Jean Renoir's ultimate antiwar movie, 'The Grand Illusion', and in its turn inspired Stuart Rosenberg's tough prison movie 'Cool Hand Luke'.

Basically the story of the French resistance during the early '40s when the Nazis overtook France, THE CROSS OF LORRAINE is a forerunner of films like STALAG 17, but without the humor. Instead, it's a straightforward dramatic tale of the harsh treatment meted out to the French POWs in a German prison camp.

There are no real surprises in the plot--you know from the beginning that there will be an escape plan being hatched by JEAN PIERRE AUMONT, who takes over when the former translator/informer HUME CRONYN meets his fate at the hands of prisoners. Aumont and GENE KELLY have the leading male roles and both give earnest performances in this gritty drama directed by Tay Garnett.

Although it appears to be a low-budget film, there's a splendid supporting cast including SIR CEDRIC HARDWICKE, RICHARD WHORF, PETER LORRE (as a despicable German sergeant), WALLACE FORD and Joseph CALLEIA.

Film is engrossing all the way through but suffers from an ending that pushes the propaganda envelope too far as the French resistance overcomes the Nazi recruiters while Aumont and Kelly take aim with machine guns to help destroy a bunch of bad Nazis.

Summing up: A flag waving tribute to the French resistance, it's well done for most of the way but that ending is too over-the-top to be taken seriously.

Jean-Pierre Aumont, Gene Kelly, Peter Lorre, Hume Cronyn, and Cedric Hardwicke star in "The Cross of Lorraine," a 1943 propaganda film.

I mean a propaganda film in the best way. Propaganda films made by the U.S. during World War II were often intended to inspire and show the people back home that their sacrifices meant something.

The Cross of Lorraine, referencing Joan of Arc's standard, adopted by Charles de Gaulle during World War II to mean the Free France, tells the story of French soldiers who surrender to Nazis and are lied to, and taken to a prisoner of war camp. There they endure terrible conditions and for some, death.

Hume Cronyn portrays a sniveling collaborator whom the Germans use as an interpreter. Cedric Hardwicke is a priest, whom he portrays with great dignity and quiet courage. Gene Kelly plays a defiant soldier put into solitary confinement. Jean-Pierre Aumont decides to cooperate with the Nazis on the surface only; he has another agenda. Aumont was older than God when he was still working in the '90s, and to see him as a young, gorgeous man, robust with incredible hair, is really something! The bravery of the French people is exhibited at the end of the film, when they make a decision to take action before the Nazis arrive at their town.

A really stirring film.