1h 42min | Crime, Drama, Romance | 22 April 1944
Director: Raoul Walsh
Stars: Errol Flynn, Paul Lukas, Lucile Watson
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037414/
One of 2 films covered in the Warner at War (2008) documentary that I didn't yet own and wanted to see.
The concept is covered in the synopsis, and is sufficiently interesting to be a topic of discussion without watching the movie. But the film provides extra twists that might not come up in every such discussion.
Spoiler: I must say that I don't really understand why EF, playing Jean Picard (not Jean Luc, for ST:TNG fans), decides to complete the confession. He's not an "honorable" criminal. We see him "fall in love" with a girl, and apparently lie to her about coming back the next day, only to turn himself in as planned. Maybe I missed a vital bit of info the film provided.
The script weaknesses that bothered me most are that EF & PL happen to be in the right place/time to overhear crucial information spoken inappropriately in public more than once. So the time/place was right AND the inappropriate discussion was in public? Oy. And then the Nazis trot out the real saboteur as some sort of confrontation with EF &PL, thinking he will expose them as his co-actors, only to believe PL when he says the saboteur is an undercover cop working on the case too. So the Nazis are doubly stupid in this scene. (I'm starting to talk myself out of a 7 rating.)
I've never appreciated EF in anything other than Robin Hood ('39). His light/breezy personality matches his swashbuckling prowess, and the supporting cast could have carried a corpse through the role (but didn't have to). Here he confirms my impression of him as an actor who lacks depth onscreen. PL acts tornadoes around him just by frowning.
But, as I said, it's an interesting idea, and a terrific quandary for PL, as the police official, to decide whether to allow EF to save the 100 hostages, and then to provide him sufficient support to succeed. So I do recommend it.
Warner, dir. Walsh; 7-
