Themes: Love Triangles, Life Under Occupation, Otherwise Engaged
Main Cast: Joan Crawford, John Wayne, Philip Dorn, Reginald Owen, Albert Basserman
Release Year: 1942
Country: US
Run Time: 104 minutes
Plot
Better known as Reunion in France, this women's-magazine-style romantic melodrama was the first major production for director Jules Dassin -- who was promptly demoted back to the MGM "B" department when the picture tanked at the box office. Joan Crawford stars as Frenchwoman Michele de la Becque, who comes to believe that her fiancé, wealthy munitions manufacturer Robert Cortot (Philip Dorn) is a Nazi collaborator. When her suspicions are apparently corroborated, Michelle falls in love with Pat Talbot (John Wayne), a downed American aviator stranded in occupied Paris. Only then does Michelle discover that she's been all wrong about Cortot -- but what to do about Talbot, who has been marked for death by the Gestapo? Ava Gardner has a tiny role as a Parisian shopgirl. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Daniel B. Cathcart - Art Director, Cedric Gibbons - Art Director, Irene - Costume Designer, Jules Dassin - Director, Elmo Vernon - Editor, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco - Composer (Music Score), Franz Waxman - Composer (Music Score), Robert Planck - Cinematographer, Joseph L. Mankiewicz - Producer, Henry W. Grace - Set Designer, Edwin B. Willis - Set Designer, Warren Newcombe - Special Effects, Leslie Bush-Fekete - Screen Story, Marvin Borowsky - Screenwriter, Marc Connelly - Screenwriter, Charles Hoffman - Screenwriter, Jan Lustig - Screenwriter, Leslie Bush-Fekete - Screenwriter
Michele de la Becque (Joan Crawford) is a career woman in love with industrial designer Robert Cortot (Philip Dorn). Together they enjoy a luxurious lifestyle unfazed by the approach of World War II. Michele discovers her lover is socializing with Nazi officers and his plants are manufacturing weapons for the Nazis. She confronts him and he does not deny her evidence. She is outraged. She aids a downed American flyer Pat Talbot (John Wayne) and finds herself falling in love with him. Later, she discovers Cortot is turning out defective weapons for the Nazis and organizing a French fighting force. Michele is happily reunited with Cortot.
Film Daily noted, "The film, directed capably by Jules Dassin, has been given a first-rate production by Joseph L. Mankiewicz."[1]
T.S. in the New York Times observed, "If Reunion in France is the best tribute that Hollywood can muster to the French underground forces of liberation, then let us try another time. [The film]...is...simply a stale melodramatic exercise for a very popular star. In the role of a spoiled rich woman who finds her "soul" in the defeat of France, Joan Crawford is adequate to the story provided her, but that is hardly adequate to the theme."
