Joan of Paris

I have no problem with the casting of Mitchell or Henreid as Frenchmen, or Hans Conreid as a Gestapo agent. This was a generally engaging story of Allied flyers hiding out in German-occupied Paris in World War Two and their attempts to escape aided by Joan, played by the lovely and charming Michele Morgan. Watch for a young Alan Ladd in a small role. Stealing the show is the great Laird Cregar as the chief Gestapo agent. Cregar was a superb actor, but he must have tired of all the evil people he was forced to play owing to his weight; Henreid would get the girl and he'd get slapped. Cregar, a young man, went on a crash diet that apparently lacked needed nutrients - he died suddenly. And it was a shock and great loss to Hollywood, and to us all.

Paul Henreid (Paul) leads a troop of 5 British fighter pilots shot down over France by the Nazis. They must reach Paris and then find a way back to England. Father Thomas Mitchell is there to help in his capacity as a man of the Church, as is waitress Michele Morgan (Joan) who gets heavily drawn into the plot. Gestapo agent Alexander Granach is a constant menace throughout the film as is the more measured Laird Cregar (Herr Funk). Can the Brits stay one step ahead…..?

The cast are all good in this effort including May Robson (Mlle Rosay) as a contact in the Resistance. All are good with the exception of Alan Ladd (Baby)as one of the shot down pilots. What an idiot he is. He gets a scene in a sewer in which we are meant to sympathize. No chance. Thank God for that. There is also a cheesy scene with some children that is way over the top. The whole singing of the Marseillaise was done with far more impact in "Casablanca" from the same year. Those two scenes aside, it is a story that keeps you watching with a couple of sinister bad guys. They don't give up and are not so naïve as they come across as. Not everyone gets out of this one alive.

This is a beautifully made, written and directed movie. Paul Henreid (you may remember him from Now Voyager lighting the two cigarettes for himself and Bette Davis - or in Casablanca as the Czech resistance figure with Ingrid Bergman whom she is helping to escape the Continent to fight again) is very moving and believable as a French squadron leader based in England with the Free French forces.

Henreid always comes off well in European roles - he SEEMS foreign, very romantic in a rather exotic Continental manner.

He and four other fighter pilots based in England were clearing the way for the first British bombing raids on Germany, when they were shot down over France. They are trying to return to England via Paris (where Henreid's childhood teacher is now the dean of a cathedral and may help) - but only if they can contact British intelligence agents whom they must first identify and try to locate. Even with the help of the British intelligence and French secret agents, they must then evade the Gestapo that haunts Henreid's path through Paris.

Henreid meets and is harbored by Michelle Morgan playing the title character, and who only gradually comes to understand who Henreid is. The simplicity, modesty, and religious and romantic nature of her barmaid are shown so lovingly. She falls in love very quickly - yet this seems completely a part of this girl's makeup - throughout you sense the enormity of this one great thing in this girl of poverty who lives alone on the top floor, above the cafe, with her tiny shrine to Joan of Arc.

The sets are astonishing - one feels as if one really is in Paris and one of its great cathedrals, in its sewers, its steam baths, its cafes.

Henreid's attempts to lose the Gestapo agent (a "postage stamp" sticking to him) is suspenseful and imaginative - a wonderful game of cat and mouse throughout Paris to join his comrades.

The movie is extremely and wonderfully romantic - the discourse of the two lovers - one doomed - is terribly moving and painful. I rented this one week, and could not resist renting it again when I entered the store.

This is a wonderful and underrated movie.

Five pilots are shot down over France and escape to Paris. Their mission is to contact British Intelligence and escape back to Britain. This movie makes you feel that you are indeed in Paris. Most of the action takes place at night and then makes brilliant use of shadows to heighten the suspense. The movie centers around a barmaid, Joan, and her growing relationship with Paul. Surrounding this is the Gestapo's growing presence as they work at catching the fliers. With all that is happening, the movie takes time for Paul and Joan to look to the future and grow ever more in love. The last 1/3 of the movie deals with Paul's attempts to get away from a Gestapo agent intent on following him and capturing the other fliers. Very suspenseful. Finally, one of the great roles in the movie, that of the Nazi chief in Paris, is Herr Funk (played by Laird Cregar. He dominates every scene that he is in. He truly adds a great touch to the movie. The movie would not have been as dramatic as it was without him. 8/10

This little known film released the same year as CASABLANCA is a minor gem among Hollywood's wartime romances, teaming Paul Henried and Michele Morgan very effectively in the leads. Despite some odd casting choices (Thomas Mitchell as a French priest) or Henried as a French squadron leader based in England, it tells an absorbing espionage tale of the French resistance against the Nazis.

Released by RKO, it seems more like one of the typical Warner Bros. melodramas popular at that time. Even some of the supporting cast seem like Warner contract players--notably John Abbot as a prisoner about to be executed and May Robson.

A tale of one woman's noble sacrifice to aid members of an RAF squadron in their attempt to return to England, it holds the viewer with its shadowy B&W photography and creates an atmosphere suggesting a French village during World War II. Paul Henried is excellent as the man trying to rid himself of a Gestapo agent who "sticks to him like a postage stamp".

Other notable roles are filled by Laird Cregar, as a cunning Gestapo who snares Henried in his trap, and Alan Ladd as "Baby", one of the downed flyers who is injured. Ladd was on the brink of major stardom and his performance here shows why--it's a brief but memorable supporting role. Shortly after this film, he was signed for his star-making role in "This Gun for Hire".

Well worth watching...an absorbing example of a well scripted and directed wartime espionage film with only an occasional false note that does no major harm to the movie. The scene with the children in the schoolroom lacks credibility throughout.