Main Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Michèle Morgan, Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Philip Dorn
Release Year: 1944
Country: US
Run Time: 110 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Designed as a followup to the enormously successful Casablanca, Passage to Marseille utilizes the talents of many of the on- and off-screen personnel of the earlier Warner Bros. classic. Unfolded in a complex flashback-within-flashback structure, this is the story of Matrac (Humphrey Bogart), a freedom-loving French journalist who sacrifices his happiness and security to battle Nazi tyrrany. The film opens as French liason officer Freycinet (Claude Rains), stationed in London, tells Mantrac's story to a British reporter (John Loder). Freycinet reveals that Mantrac, happily married to Paula (Michele Morgan), was framed by pro-fascists and sentenced to Devil's Island. Here he engineered a daring escape with such lost souls as Marius (Peter Lorre), Garou (Helmut Dantine), Petit (George Tobias) and Renault (Philip Dorn). Adrift in a lifeboat, the escapees were picked up by a French vessel commandeered by pro-fascist Major Duval (Sydney Greenstreet). With the help of Mantrac and the prisoners, the ship's patriotic captain (Victor Francen) thwarted Duval's evil machinations, enabling Mantrac to continue his battle against Nazism as a member of the RAF. By modern standards, Passage to Marseille is overproduced, overdirected, overacted and overscored (by Max Steiner); however, it filled a definite need in wartime America, and proved a huge financial success. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Carl Jules Weyl - Art Director, Leah Rhoads - Costume Designer, Michael Curtiz - Director, Owen Marks - Editor, Max Steiner - Composer (Music Score), Max Steiner - Songwriter, Ned Washington - Songwriter, Perc Westmore - Makeup, James Wong Howe - Cinematographer, Hal B. Wallis - Producer, George James Hopkins - Set Designer, Jack Cosgrove - Special Effects, Roy Davidson - Special Effects, Edwin DuPar - Special Effects, Byron Haskin - Special Effects, Rex Wimpy - Special Effects, Casey Robinson - Screenwriter, John C. Moffitt - Screenwriter, Jack Moffitt - Screenwriter, James Norman Hall - Book Author, Charles Nordhoff - Book Author
It is one of the few films to use a flashback within a flashback within a flashback, following the narrative structure of the novel on which it is based. The film opens at an airbase in England during World War II. Free French Captain Freycinet (Claude Rains) tells a journalist the story of the French pilots stationed there.
Bogart as Jean Matrac
This opens into the first flashback, set on the tramp steamerVille de Nancy just before the defeat of France by the Germans. Five convicts are found adrift in a small canoe in the Caribbean Sea: Marius (Peter Lorre), Garou (Helmut Dantine), Petit (George Tobias), Renault (Philip Dorn) and their leader, Matrac (Humphrey Bogart). Taken aboard, they tell Captain Patain Malo (Victor Francen) the story of their escape from the French prison colony at Cayenne in French Guiana. They had been recruited by Grandpère (Vladimir Sokoloff), a fervently patriotic ex-convict, to fight for France in her hour of need. That leads to another flashback, in which the inmates recount Matrac's troubles in pre-war France to convince the old man to choose Matrac to lead the escape. A crusading newspaper publisher, Matrac had been framed for murder to shut him up.
By the time the Ville de Nancy nears the port of Marseille, France has come under the control of Nazi Germany and a collaborationist Vichy government. Upon hearing the news, the captain secretly decides to keep his valuable cargo out of the hands of the Germans. Pro-Vichy passenger Major Duval (Sydney Greenstreet) organizes an attempt to seize control of the ship, but is defeated, in great part due to the efforts of the escapees. When they reach England, the convicts join the Free French forces.
Matrac becomes a gunner on a bomber. His wife Paula (Michèle Morgan) and their son, whom he has never seen, live in occupied France. So, after each mission, he flies over their house and drops a letter. This time however, there is no message; Matrac has been killed in combat.
Although exotic locales were called for, principal photography by James Wong Howe actually took place at the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden in Arcadia, California with further location shooting at Victorville, California. Based on a Nordhoff-Hall novel, the story veered into propaganda near the end, although censors actually cut a scene in the foreign version that showed Bogart's character machine gunning German pilots.[2]
Before Bogart began work on the film, preproduction had been underway for six months, but due to a conflict with Jack Warner over another prospective film Conflict, his starring role as Matrac was in jeopardy, with Jean Gabin being touted as a replacement.[3] Although the issue was decided, Bogart's portrayal was hampered by marital difficulties and a lack of commitment to the project.[4]
Although the flying sequences show the Free French Air Force (French: Forces Aériennes Françaises Libres, FAFL) using B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, the production took liberties with the actual bombing campaign carried out by the Free French units. The use of the ubiquitous B-17 was due to its being recognizable to American audiences.[5]
