Femmes traquées

In a late example of a fading Hollywood star going to England for a career boost, delectable Constance Bennett plays a madcap, irresponsible Yankee stuck in occupied France. She's uses her glam appeal to aid the resistance & help Allied troops escape with the help of co-hort Gracie Fields, the Brit Music Hall star in her final screen perf. The whole unlikely enterprise is done with reasonable flair under surprisingly lively direction from Gregory Ratoff and stellar lighting from lenser Lee Garmes. Too bad no one was able to turn the corner for the last act when the film tries for a darker, more serious tone, but it's well worth a gander. As is the still jolie Mme Bennett.

The film has what would later come to be regarded as the workmanlike but sometimes 'cheap' characteristics of TV films, in that its 'look' (tight camera shots for supposedly outdoor scenes etc) is often borne of budgetary necessity. In other ways it reflects the two leading ladies very different professional personas, and because of this it hovers between the styles of American and British films of the time. That said, the leading ladies both bring their specific charms to their roles and there is an awkward but believable fondness between their characters.

Before too long the true stories of many real heroines would emerge and be filmed ('Odette', 'Carve her name with Pride' etc) and this film would be forgotten. It's tone is at odds with those very reverential films, it has the feel of fiction often, because it uses so many existing film conventions (scene setting etc) which were eschewed by the filmakers who later transferred the true stories to celluloid (creating new cliches along the way).

All that aside, it has some charm, pathos, tension, shock and genuine feeling in it, and I enjoyed it. Both ladies worked very hard for the war effort in real life, though Gracie had to prove it at home in the UK being married to an Italian at the outbreak of hostilities. And you can still feel their star power for all the 'fish out of Hollywood comedy' feel that Bennett sometimes has, or the humdrumness of Fields' character. Worth viewing. Note especially Fields in the last scenes, who really does a lovely job in a very difficult scene.

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.

Paris Underground (aka: Madame Pimpernell) is a solid British entry in the war/intrigue genre produced immediately after cessation of hostilities with Germany in 1945 by aging, but still glamorous, American star Constance Bennett and distributed in the United States by United Artists.

Ms. Bennett, a somewhat flighty American married to a French foreign office official, and her middle-age spinster pal Gracie Fields, while fleeing the city during the fall of Paris in 1940, find themselves by happenstance carrying a downed British aviator in the trunk of their automobile. Turned back to Paris by a German road bock, they have to take the flier back to hiding in Gracie's apartment. One of the best and most suspenseful scenes occurs when the girls have a flat with the pilot in the car's rear, and a Nazi officer stops to assist them! By hook and crook they eventually manage to smuggle the young aviator to Free France. Delighted with their success, they establish and underground railroad that eventually gets hundreds of allied airmen back to their bases. With a combination of American audacity and British pluck, these two brave and resourceful women cause the occupying Germans a big headache.

Sharply directed by Gregory Ratoff and atmospherically photographed by Lee Garmes, Paris Underground is tense, exciting, and believable. Acting by the two female leads is first rate with good support coming from Argentine actor George Rigaud as Ms. Bennett's husband, Kurt Kreuger as a suave but cruel Gestapo captain who would like to be more than friends with the ripely beautiful Ms. Bennett, and Eily Malyon as the grouchy concierge of Ms. Field's hotel. Editing is a little untidy in places, with some scenes taking too long to unfold. However, the story is never draggy, but engaging and exciting from beginning to end. Alexander Tansman's florid but stirring score, which drew an Academey Award nomination, drives the action along at a gallop.

This picture bears some resemblance to glitzier Joan Crawford vehicle Reunion In France (1942). While not up to competing head-up with that big hitter in the entertainment department, the more staid Paris Underground is somehow more believable and is an enjoyable, inspiring little potboiler in its own right for fans of the war/intrigue thriller.

This is much better than it seems. It appears to be a rather flimsy female travesty on "Pied Piper", two ladies in Paris getting stuck in the war and unvoluntarily becoming involved in smuggling British pilots and spies out of the country, an enterprise they carry on successfully, until they are caught and taken under treatment by the Gestapo; but the story is actually quite good, one of the ladies, the American one (Constance Bennett) being married to a Frenchman, the film starting with their quarrelling, but he plays an important part throughout the film and adds to the dramatic thriller of the finale. It is well made with a great score by Alexander Tanzman, and although much of it may seem rather petty and over-wrought with female concerns, it is worth waiting for the development of the drama.