Passage to Marseille

Infobox Film
name = Passage to Marseille


caption = Spanish film poster for "Passage to Marseille"
director = Michael Curtiz
producer = Hal B. Wallis
Jack L. Warner (executive producer)
writer = Casey Robinson
Jack Moffitt
Charles Nordhoff (novel)
James Norman Hall (novel)
starring = Humphrey Bogart
Michèle Morgan
Claude Rains
Sydney Greenstreet
Peter Lorre
Helmut Dantine
music = Max Steiner
cinematography = James Wong Howe
editing = Owen Marks
distributor = Warner Brothers
released = flagicon|USA 16 February 1944
runtime = 109 min
country = USA
awards =
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0037166

"Passage to Marseille" is a 1944 war film made by Warner Brothers, directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Hal B. Wallis with Jack L. Warner as executive producer. The screenplay was by Casey Robinson and Jack Moffitt from the novel "Sans Patrie" ("Men Without Country") by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. The music score was by Max Steiner and the cinematography was by James Wong Howe.

The film reunited much of the cast of "Casablanca" (1942), also directed by Curtiz, including Humphrey Bogart, Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Helmut Dantine. Michèle Morgan (who had been the original choice for "Casablanca"), Victor Francen, Philip Dorn and George Tobias are also featured.

Plot

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 in England during World War II. Captain Freycinet, a French officer (Claude Rains), is telling a story of the French pilots who serve at a particular airbase.

This opens into the first flashback onboard the tramp steamer "Ville de Nancy" just before the German invasion of France. Five convicts are picked up, adrift in a small canoe. Taken aboard, they tell the officer the story of their escape from the French prison colony at Cayenne in French Guiana, which begins the next flashback. During that flashback, the convicts tell the story of Matrac (Humphrey Bogart) in pre-war France which starts the next flashback, concerning Matrac's small newspaper and his railroading to prison on a false charge of murdering Édouard Daladier.

By the time that the "Ville de Nancy" reaches European waters, the French government has come under the control of Nazi Germany-collaborating Petainist government.

Cast

As appearing in screen credits (main roles identified): [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037166/fullcredits Passage to Marseille Full credits] ]

A full cast and production crew list is too lengthy to include, see: IMDb profile.

Production

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. [ Mayers 1997, p. 156.]

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 Metrac was in jeopardy with Jean Gabin being touted as a replacement. [Sperber and Law 1997, p. 217–218.] Although the issue was decided, Bogart's portrayal was hampered by marital difficulties and a lack of commitment to the project. [Sperber and Law 1997, p. 218.]

Although the flying sequences show the Free French Air Force _fr. 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. [Hardwick and Schnepf 1983]

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Dolan, Edward F. Jr. "Hollywood Goes to War". London: Bison Books, 1985. ISBN 0-86124-229-7.
* Hardwick, Jack and Schnepf, Ed. "A Buff's Guide to Aviation Movies". "Air Progress Aviation" Vol. 7, No. 1, Spring 1983.
* Meyers, Jeffrey. "Bogart: A Life in Hollywood". London: Andre Deutsch Ltd., 1997. ISBN 0-233-99144-1.
* Sperber, A.M. and Lax, Eric. "Bogart". New York: William Morrow & Co., 1997. ISBN 0-68807-539-8.

External links

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