Uncertain Glory (1944)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Raoul Walsh

Writers:

László Vadnay (screenplay) and
Max Brand (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

22 April 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Thriller | War

Plot:

During WWII, in France, Jean Picard is a criminal who is about to be executed via the guillotine, but...

Plot Keywords:

Guillotine | WWII | France | Criminal | Escape

Cast

Errol Flynn	...	Jean Picard
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

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #9760) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | Finland:K-16

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Several cast members in studio records/casting call lists did not appear or were not identifiable in the movie. These were (with their character names): Charles La Torre (Restaurant Keeper), Adele St. Mauer (Woman on Bus), Sarah Padden (Peasant Woman on Bus), Art Miles (Bus Driver), Trevor Bardette (First Passenger on Train) and Michael Mark (Second Passenger on Train).

Movie Connections:

Featured in Warner at War (2008) (TV)

Soundtrack:

La Marseillaise

WW2 drama lacks conviction .

With so many terrific Warners WW2 melodramas - EDGE OF DARKNESS, WATCH ON THE RHINE, CLOAK & DAGGER, OBJECTIVE BURMA, it's alarming to come upon this piece of unconvincing exhortation.

Flynn is terrible as the escaped murderer who middle aged family man detective Lukas has no trouble tracking down and over coming Our hero is never plausible convincing the Sureté Inspector that he should replace the wanted saboteur, for whom the Gestapo have taken a hundred hostages.

We expect it to play better because it has all those great production values we knee jerk to admiration on - brassy score, wipe dissolves and detailed art direction - dipping bread in wine, two wire electrics, signs in French and studio built, sandbagged plaster building streets but along with this we get totally phony dialogue - "What heart? That cold lump you feel in your chest is fear."

Curious the way it shows a craven, corrupt France with the Garde Mobile (the admirable James Flavin is unrecognizable) subservient to the Germans and villagers plotting to denounce an innocent man. Put this one alongside CASABLANCA and PASSAGE TO MARSEILLE which the French authorities banned at the end of the war.