Uncertain Glory (1944)

After a career criminal is recaptured and knows he faces the guillotine, he offers to exchange his life for 100 hostages slated for execution by the Nazis.

Director:

Raoul Walsh

Writers:

László Vadnay (screenplay), Max Brand (screenplay),

Stars:

Errol Flynn, Paul Lukas, Lucile Watson

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Errol Flynn	...	Jean Picard / Emil DuPont
Paul Lukas	...	Inspector Marcel Bonet
Lucile Watson	...	Mme. Maret
Faye Emerson	...	Louise
James Flavin	...	Captain of Mobile Guard
Douglass Dumbrille	...	Police Commissioner LaFarge (as Douglas Dumbrille)
Dennis Hoey	...	Father Le Clerc
Sheldon Leonard	...	Henri Duval
Odette Myrtil	...	Mme. Bonet
Francis Pierlot	...	Father La Borde - Prison Priest
Jean Sullivan	...	Marianne

Storyline

During WWII, in France, Jean Picard is a criminal who is about to be executed via the guillotine, but an air raid interrupts it and allows him to escape. Inspector Bonet tracks him down and brings him back. But along the way, they hear that a railway bridge vital to the Germans has been destroyed, supposedly by allied agents. The Germans take 100 Frenchmen and are threatening to execute them unless the saboteurs come forward. Picard who would rather die at the hands of the firing squad as oppose to the guillotine, offers to go to the Germans and say that he is the saboteur. Bonet accepts and so they go the village near where the bridge was to learn all that they can so that Picard can convince the Germans that he is the saboteur. While there Picard, a womanizer, meets a young woman and falls in love with her.

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Plot Keywords:

guillotine | saboteur | criminal | france | escape | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Romance | Thriller | War

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English German

Release Date:

22 April 1944 (USA)

Also Known As:

Auf Ehrenwort

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros, Thomson Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Errol Flynn was criticized for playing heroes in World War II movies. Tony Thomas in his book 'Errol Flynn: The Spy Who Never Was' states that Flynn had tried to enlist in every branch of any armed services he could but was rejected as unfit for service on the grounds of his health. Flynn had a heart condition, tuberculosis, malaria and a back problem. Flynn felt he could contribute to America's war effort by appearing in such films as Edge of Darkness; Northern Pursuit; Dive Bomber, Objective, Burma!, and Uncertain Glory. Reportedly, Flynn was at his most professional and co-operative he ever was whilst working on Second World War movies. The studios apparently did not diffuse the criticism of Flynn's state-of-health as they wished to keep it quiet for fear of his box-office draw waning.

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Quotes

Train Conductor: [Noticing that Bonet and Picard are handcuffed] Oh! Oh, which one of you gentlemen is the prisoner?
[Bonet nods toward Picard]
Train Conductor: Ah. of course! A bad type! What did he do?
Jean Picard: I killed a conducter for asking too many questions.
[the conductor nervously makes a quick exit]

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Connections

Featured in Warner at War (2008)

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Soundtracks

"Plaisir D'Amour"
(uncredited)
Written by Jean Paul Egide Martini (1780)
Hummed by Jean Sullivan

User Reviews

The reluctant martyr

Debonair French thief, and accidental manslaughterer, Jean Picard is being led by police commissioner Bonet to the guillotine in Occupied France, but he persuades Bonet to let him give himself up to the Gestapo who are looking for a saboteur who blew up a bridge and who have taken 100 innocent Frenchmen as hostages to force the saboteur to come forward.

Made in Hollywood during the war and set among Frenchmen 'Uncertain Glory' is uncertain about its loyalties, now that there is no American in sight. The Vichy regime is no discernible problem, although the apparent lack of French civil courage is. The real saboteur is not about to give himself up, it seems, whereas Picard, who is a thief and not a saboteur, is expected to do no less. It is implied that he owes this to France, but the logic is a bit hard to follow, and Paul Lukas as Bonet is so self-righteous and Old Testamentish of countenance as to be downright annoying. In the end then, Picard, newly in love and what not, sees that he must do as a man must do, and surrender to "something bigger than (himself) for which he is willing to die, perhaps even happily". I, for one, was utterly unconvinced.

Having said that, even a half-bad, often very staid, even tame movie by Raoul Walsh is a decent movie by any other director's standards, and Errol Flynn at this stage in his career couldn't go wrong. He is heartbreakingly handsome as the dapper Picard, and his nobility at the very end doesn't fail to impress.