Strange Confession

Jean Gabin's second Hollywood film is practically an updated remake of his earlier French "La Bandera" (1935), also directed by Julien Duvivier. You can sort of see the general trajectory his character will go through early on (from cynical and opportunistic to noble and ultra-patriotic), but the film is well-produced on a big scale and has several stirring moments. Technically the two most impressive sequences come near the start (the bombing of a prison and the explosion of a truck), but dramatically it becomes more involving at its later sections. *** out of 4.