E as Luzes Brilharão Outra Vez

Celebrated French pilot Paul Lavallier (Paul Henreid) is one of the survivors after their bomber gets shot down. He is hunted by the Nazis and has been convicted in absentia by the Vichy government. He arrives in Paris and finds help from his former teacher Father Antoine (Thomas Mitchell). Cafe waitress Joan (Michèle Morgan) helps him to escape back to Britain.

This was released a couple of months after Pearl Harbor. One could see how this propaganda of heroism and self-sacrifice nails the zeitgeist of the times. By the title, the ending could be easily assumed. There are moments of thrills although I want more of them. Of course, there is a scene with La Marseillaise although Casablanca is a more emotional rendering. This is fine but there are better classics of its kind.

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

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.

Paul Henried and Michele Morgan star in "Joan of Paris," a 1942 film also starring Laird Cregar, Thomas Mitchell and May Robson. Henried is a Frenchman wanted by the Gestapo who escapes to England and joins some British pilots. Flying into France, they are all shot down and separate. Henried, who plays Paul Lavallier, ends up hiding in the rooms of a café waitress Joan (Morgan), whose patron saint is Jeanne d'Arc. Joan and Paul fall in love, and she, with the help of a priest (Mitchell) get messages to the other pilots about plans for escape. All the while, a man trails Paul, and the Gestapo, headed up by Funk (Cregar) watches in hopes that he will lead him to the other men.

"Joan of Paris" marked the U.S. debut of Paul Henried and Michele Morgan, a lovely French actress. Henried is photographed very well and is excellent as Paul Lavallier, and Morgan plays the sweet, courageous and devoted Joan beautifully. The movie is very atmospheric; the black and white photography employs great use of shadows and darkness.

This is one of those films the studios cranked out that one doesn't hear much about, right up there with one of my personal World War II favorites, Escape - though this isn't quite as good. "Joan of Paris" has the advantage of attractive leads, great atmosphere and some marvelous performances, a standout being Laird Cregar as the suave but evil Funk. Unfortunately, Cregar would die at the age of 28, two years after this film. A huge man, a fine actor, and an out of the closet gay who wasn't afraid to bring gay overtones into a role, he was the chief villain at Twentieth Century Fox, actually scheduled to play Waldo Lydecker in "Laura." What a loss, as is obvious from this film. May Robson, in a small role, is also a standout. Alan Ladd plays one of the fighters, and instead of being a stalwart, hardboiled detective, he's allowed to act. Though his role is a small one, he makes an impression.

All in all, a wonderful film that TCM showed on Paul Henried's 100th birthday. Hopefully they will show it again.

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.