Femmes traquées

The timing of this film is unfortunate. It came out in October, 1945--several months after the war in Europe had ended. Had it come out during the war, it would have been an excellent propaganda film for the folks at home. Instead, it just seems a bit odd to come out when it did.

As far as the casting goes, it IS unusual. Constance Bennett plays the lead and over the years she tended to play a variety of rich society ladies. Co-starring is Gracie Fields, a British music hall singer and comedienne. It's a strange pairing but it worked..particularly since they de-glamorized Bennett for the part.

The story begins just as France is falling to the Nazis in 1940. An American woman (Bennett) and her companion (Fields) are trapped in Paris. They also accidentally come upon a pilot of a downed British plane...and through this help to create an underground organization which repatriates pilots through the course of the war. Naturally, the Germans are more than a bit anxious to catch them.

The film's biggest strength might just be because it came out when it did. Instead of snarly, over-the-top Nazis, the Germans in this one are more believable than ones you would have seen in films just a short time earlier. Plus, a restrained performance by Bennett (one of her better ones actually) help to make this an enjoyable and well made film.

I happen to be a fan of Constance Bennett's, and also an admirer - she was not only a fine actress and a beautiful, glamorous woman, but a crackerjack businesswoman and someone who worked hard for the war effort.

Having hit 40, Bennett was no longer in demand for leads; in fact, in Two-Faced Woman, she'd had a supporting role. "Paris Underground" is a film she produced herself in England, and it's very good. It's the story of the American wife, Kitty de Mornay (Bennett) of a Frenchman (George Rigaud) who is swept into the Resistance when she's asked to help get an English flier back to London. The work excites and intrigues her so much, she decides not to leave France and instead, continues helping fliers escape. She is assisted in this by a nervous friend (Gracie Fields).

I found this a suspenseful and interesting film, and although it wasn't shot in France, some of the sets, like the baker's, were quite good. The performances are excellent. Rigaud as Kitty's husband is suave and likable; Kurt Krueger is excellent as a German officer who takes an interest in Kitty, and Gracie Fields, in her last role, though she lived until 1979, is wonderful as Kitty's friend.

This is a little known gem, and I thought it was well done.

Paris Underground is the US title for the British film originally titled Madame Pimpernel. Hollywood distributors were pretty savvy about advertising and marketing these types of films, and thought that Madame Pimpernel was a bit too obscure for the vast majority of American film viewers. They were most likely right on the money. Both Constance Bennett and Gracie Fields give outstanding performances in a film basically carried by two leading female characters; a real rarity in film, and almost a non-existent rarity in Hollywood. That is why Bennett had the film produced in England; a very wise move.

The story of two women in Paris in the early days of Paris occupation by the Germans is quite a compelling story. One marvels at the dramatic effectiveness of Gracie FIelds, who would become much better known for her teaming with George Burns for classic US television comedy. FIelds carries off the dramatic role without missing a beat. Bennett is also very effective. George Rigaud does a competent job as the French husband of Fields in Paris, as his wife begins a series of underground adventures, rescuing over 200 fallen airmen, one at a time, over a period of years, until the American liberation of Paris. Although the film has a few stops and starts, and the conclusion occurs faster than a German blitzkrieg, the main body of the film is very entertaining and is very solid. Don't miss it.

Gregory Ratoff's Academy Award-nominated "Paris Underground" is one of the movies released immediately after WWII that took an almost absurdly heroic view of things. In this case, two women - one from the US, the other from England - are in France when the Nazis invade, and they start coming up with ways to smuggle British troops out. In this day and age it'll probably remind us of "Dunkirk", but obviously lacks the brutal realism. It's not any sort of masterpiece, but it still manages to be intense enough to hold the viewer's attention (especially the apartment scenes).

Worth seeing, if only once.

Constance Bennett tells her old governess that the Germans will never take Paris, but Gracie Fields bundles her into her saloon car and they try to get out, along with an English flyer who winds up with them. However, the German infantry blocks their route and escorts them back to Bennett's home. Fortunately, her husband George Rigaud has connection with the burgeoning Underground, so it's back to the coast.... where through a mishap, the flier winds up getting away, but the women don't. Another effort to get out with another captured flier goes well.... so they decide to stay and go into the business of smuggling out fallen British fliers.

It's a beautifully written script for star Constance Bennett, as she gradually goes from a self-centered playgirl in a failing marriage to someone who actually cares and does something about it. Gracie also gives a fine performance, but it's a supporting one. She had spent five years trying to parlay her stardom in Britain into one in Hollywood. The result was four roles, good ones, but after playing love interest for Monty Woolly, and now governess to Constance Bennett (in reality six years her junior), she and husband Monty Banks decided to pack it up and return to the music halls where she was a welcome sight until the end of her days.

Miss Bennett had also reached the end of her career as a glamorous movie star. Over the next twenty years, she would appear in only seven more movies; the less revealing gaze of the television camera and stage footlights would be her professional home.