Tonight's Movie: Reunion in France (1942)

I've been gradually working my way through unseen John Wayne films, with the latest being REUNION IN FRANCE (1942). It's an interesting and somewhat unusual film from Wayne's early '40s career years.

He had broken through to stardom with STAGECOACH (1939) but was still working his way up the career ladder in the early '40s. REUNION IN FRANCE, produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz at MGM, was one of seven films Wayne starred in released in 1942.

I use the word "starred" advisedly, as while Wayne plays a key role, it's very much a supporting part. This is, more than anything, a Joan Crawford film, with Crawford in all but a handful of scenes, and Philip Dorn (ZIEGFELD GIRL, PARIS AFTER DARK) is her leading man.

Crawford plays Michele de la Becque, a wealthy Frenchwoman whose life is turned upside down when the Nazis invade France. Her home is taken over by Nazi soldiers, and she is stunned to realize her fiance, Robert Cortot (Dorn), is a Nazi collaborator.

One evening Michele meets Pat (Wayne), an American RAF pilot, on the street; he's exhausted from evading arrest. She takes him home so he can sleep and eat, and starts to work on getting him out of the country.

Robert is willing to help both Michele and Pat leave France; surprising events unfold as they begin their journey out of the country, and Michele begins to realize Robert may not be all he seems...

This is a well-done film from director Jules Dassin's first year working in feature films at MGM. His MGM films also included sweet charmers such as THE AFFAIRS OF MARTHA (1942) and THE CANTERVILLE GHOST (1944); he would, of course, later go on to direct highly regarded noir titles including THIEVES' HIGHWAY (1949), NIGHT AND THE CITY (1950), and RIFIFI (1955).

While REUNION IN FRANCE isn't a classic, it's a solid, interesting film of its era. The movie has hints of the toughness which marked Dassin's later films, particularly as it conveys the disorientation Crawford's character experiences when she returns to Paris after the Nazi invasion and discovers her old life is gone, with nowhere to go and no one to turn to. Crawford may still look amazing, gowned by Irene, but the emotional wrench she feels at the emptiness of her new circumstances is conveyed well.

Wayne has relatively little to do in REUNION IN FRANCE. Given his charisma, it's surprising his role is rather small; he doesn't appear until roughly 40 minutes into the movie. It's a bit surprising that MGM went to the trouble of borrowing him from Republic Pictures for this fairly standard part which could have been played by any of MGM's younger leading men. Perhaps MGM was short on actors as so many were headed off to the military at the time this was made in mid 1942?

Dorn was never a flashy actor, but he's fine as the man who loves Crawford but puts duty to country above all else.

According to Scott Eyman's biography of Crawford, she and Dassin clashed often on the set -- yet at the conclusion of the film she gave him a pair of nice cufflinks and they became social friends. Eyman is dismissive of the film, as were the star and director, but I think they all undersell it, particularly given the importance of the messages conveyed by the film when it was released one year after Pearl Harbor.

Besides the wartime themes, what really makes this movie special is the depth of the cast; I've often contemplated that modern films just can't put together the kinds of names and faces seen in classic-era films. It's not just a handful of names, but over a dozen well-known character players, several of whom have scene-stealing moments. I particularly enjoyed Reginald Owen and Moroni Olsen.

The supporting cast also includes John Carradine, Morris Ankrum, Henry Daniell, Natalie Schafer, Henry Kolker, Albert Basserman, J. Edward Bromberg, Howard Da Silva, Oliver Blake, Ann Codee, Arthur Space, Jaqueline White -- and Ava Gardner as a shop salesgirl! She's seen in a screenshot above.

The movie run 104 minutes and, as was often the case in this era, it was written by "committee," with several names behind the story and script. It was filmed in black and white by Robert Planck.

I watched REUNION IN FRANCE on DVD from the 6-Film John Wayne Collection. The disc also includes the Passing Parade short WE DO IT BECAUSE (1942), which includes Ava Gardner and Dorothy Morris in the cast, and the cartoon WAR DOGS (1943). The disc also includes optional English-language captions.

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