Reunion in France

Infobox Film
name = Reunion in France


image_size =
caption = Original theatrical poster
director = Jules Dassin
producer = Joseph L. Mankiewicz
writer = Story:
Leslie Bus-Fekete
Screenplay:
Jan Lustig
Marvin Borowsky
Marc Connelly
Contributing Writer:
Charles Hoffman
(uncredited)
narrator =
starring = Joan Crawford
John Wayne
Philip Dorn
music = Franz Waxman
cinematography = Robert H. Planck
editing = Elmo Veron
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
released = flagicon|USA December 25, 1942
runtime = 102 min.
country = USA
language = English
budget =
gross =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0035250

"Reunion in France" (1942) is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer feature film starring Joan Crawford, Phillip Dorn, and John Wayne in a story about a woman who, suspecting her well-heeled lover has Nazi connections, aids a downed American flyer. The screenplay by Jan Lustig, Marvin Borowsky and Marc Connelly was based upon an original screen story by Leslie Bush-Fekete. The film was directed by Jules Dassin and produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.

Plot and cast

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 doesn't 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. Cast includes Reginald Owen as a Gestapo agent, John Carradine as Head of the Paris Gestapo, Moroni Olsen as Gerbeau, Ava Gardner in an uncredited role as shopgirl Marie, Natalie Schafer as Amy Schröder, and Henry Daniell as Fleuron.

Reception

"Film Daily" noted, "The film, directed capably by Jules Dassin, has been given a first-rate production by Joseph L. Mankiewicz." [Quirk, Lawrence J.. "The Films of Joan Crawford". The Citadel Press, 1968.]

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."

ee also

* Joan Crawford filmography
* John Wayne filmography (1941-1960)

References