Les conspirateurs

You know that Warner Brothers - once they have their hands on a hot property, they slice it, dice it, and put it in the Mixmaster. Just look at the three versions of "The Maltese Falcon." Now it's wartime, and that hot property is, of course "Casablanca." In "The Conspirators," part of that magnificent cast is reunited - Paul Henried, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre - in this story of a Dutch freedom fighter, Vincent Van der Lyn, in neutral Lisbon and having trouble figuring out who wants to help him and who wants to hurt him. The suspects are Greenstreet, the head of a resistance group, Lorre, one of its members, and the exquisite Hedy Lamarr, married to a Nazi official.

The story is harder to follow and ultimately, the film is not as good as "Joan of Paris," another World War II film starring Henried, but it still has great atmosphere and is fairly intriguing. There just isn't enough of Greenstreet or Lorre, one of the great screen teams. Paul Henried, a very useful actor during World War II while the stars were away, does a good job as Van der Lyn. Lamarr is positively outrageously beautiful - no, she's not much of an actress - it's a face made for the closeup, and one can just look at her forever. What she brings is a certain enigmatic quality, probably by default, but who cares.

If this pops up on TCM, you won't be sorry you saw it, but you won't be swept away either.

OK, if you want Casablanca then watch Casablanca!. I could never completely understand the fuss people make over that film. Yes, I know it has many very good qualities, but some shaky ones as well (alright, perhaps it's time I looked at it again). As for this particular movies attempt to capitalise on the success of the earlier film (Hollywood has always followed the proved formula method - and even more so now) so it might also be said, if this film had come along before Casablanca, it may just have received all the accolades. I'm assuming 'Conspirators' would have been given the bigger budget (it has a more expensive look about it) and as it seems Casablanca was not anticipated to be the hit it turned out, so Warner's would then have hoped to follow up with another winner.

Arthur Edeson's standout Cinematography is mesmerizing. The knockout classic lighting coupled with the great Direction of Jean Negulesco (others have called him insensitive and pedestrian - how unobservant they show themselves to be! best look again is all I can say to them) The strong Max Seiner music score is quite unique to many of his other works ~ with the masterful Orchestrations of veteran arranger Leonid Raab giving the score a potent sound that's perfect for this story. If anything, the post production alterations would have contributed to the movies hard to follow moments and contrivances, but this was typical with many films from this otherwise spot on studio. That said, let's face it, Hedy and Paul do make the most of their exhausted and very scared characters...theirs were strained times to be living through.

Look at it on it's own entertainment merits, the script may have some unevenness and some characters a little familiar, but overall this is not nearly as bad as some might have us believe. Some will, some won't.......KenR

All the ingredients that made CASABLANCA such a mega-hit are present in THE CONSPIRATORS, but not one of the ingredients is able to put the film over the top as a story of intrigue, espionage and romance.

What's surprising is that the film fails to sustain interest despite a great supporting cast that includes PETER LORRE, SYDNEY GREENSTREET and VICTOR FRANCEN. Also surprising is the fact that it's directed by Jean Negulesco, who did such a brilliant job on the direction of JOHNNY BELINDA. The script is a talky, muddled bit of contrivances and clichés, with Henried as a Dutch freedom fighter in Lisbon clashing with the Nazis and falling under the spell of a beautiful woman who guards her secrets.

HEDY LAMARR is lovely, of course, but her characterization is so paper-thin that all we can really see is her exotic glamor, without much passion or feeling below the make-up. Nor is PAUL HENRIED seen at his best, more remote than usual in what should have been a much stronger role but is dulled by a witless script and a co-star with whom he has very little chemistry.

The convoluted plot doesn't give the supporting actors much to do and it's somewhat of a relief when the story comes to downbeat ending.

A fine cast throughout. Lorre, Greenstreet, Lamarr, Heinreid. I had even heard of this film before I saw it on Turner Classic Movies. It is certainly not in the class of Casablanca, but it is an excellent WWII thriller. Yes, Lamarr shines in every scene she is in. In fact, she is the main reason to watch this film. She is never more beautiful than in this film, and she certainly is one of the film beauties of all time. But Heinreid is perfect for the lead. It is a bit melodramatic, but we should remember the times when this film was made. The plot is complicated, and this is not a film to "sample" -- the writing is fine, but with few memorable quotes. The black and white photography is excellent. All in all, an excellent film of its type. I recommend it.

In order to counter the unbelievably negative previous review I shall first disagree with ALL of the "I spy" review.

Jean Negulesco (Humoresque) directs an all-star cast in "The Conspirators", a truly remarkable film, and a MUST SEE!! This film resembles "Casablanca" in that it has much of its feel--the cast, setting (WWII Portugal), romantic music, this film has it all! Strangely enough, this film bears some similarity to Hedy Lamarr's life in Germany before her escape. She worked extensively against the Nazi's. The fact that she was to be cast in Casablanca instead of Ingrid Bergman goes to show that the chemistry between Paul Henreid was definitely strong. Unfortunately, Lamarr was not able to take the role so it was given to Bergman.

Lamarr's enigma-like qualities is trademark of her style and adds to the film's appeal.

Henreid is in his own element here and the man he was hinted at being in Casablanca comes to life.

Sentimentality evidently fails to appeal to everyone. However, I will conclude with stating how much the messages this film carries appeal to me--the love story filled with strife, as well as fighting against all odds whatever the cost.