Enterprise. Director Lewis Milestone; Producer David Lewis; Writer Lewis Milestone, Harry Brown; Camera Russell Metty Editor Duncan Mansfield; Music Louis Gruenberg Art William Cameron Menzies
Charles Boyer
Ingrid Bergman
Charles Laughton
Louis Calhern
Michael Romanoff
Ruth Warrick
The Erich Maria Remarque novel, by very suggestion of authorship and the Lewis Milestone association, conjures up analogy to the now classic All Quiet, the post-First World War film, also from a Remarque work. The analogy ends there because the character of both differs strikingly. Current entry is a frank romantic item, laid in a setting of Paris intrigue just before open war with the western allies broke out.
The surcharged atmosphere of pre-Polish aggression and its repercussions in the City of Light that suddenly grows into blackout is a dramatic background for the Boyer-Bergman romance. The very atmosphere of the boulevards, from the Eternal Light underneath the Arc de Triomphe to the gaiety of the Sheherezade and kindred boites on the hill (Montmartre) make for surefire appeal.
Charles Laughton is rather wasted as a Nazi menace, obviously the victim of the cutting room shears, as was Ruth Warrick, the American dilettante. There is no question but that over $1 million of this film's cost never shows on the screen. It's reported to have hit near the $4 million negative cost.
(B&W) Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1948. Running time: 120 MIN.
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