Passage to Marseille

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Passage to Marseille
Spanish film poster for Passage to Marseille
Directed by	Michael Curtiz
Produced by	Hal B. Wallis Jack L. Warner (executive producer)
Written by	Casey Robinson Jack Moffitt Charles Nordhoff (novel) James Norman Hall (novel)
Starring	Humphrey Bogart Michèle Morgan Claude Rains Sydney Greenstreet Peter Lorre Helmut Dantine
Music by	Max Steiner
Cinematography	James Wong Howe
Editing by	Owen Marks
Distributed by	Warner Brothers
Release date(s)	16 February 1944
Running time	109 min
Country	USA
Language	English
IMDb profile

Passage to Marseille is a 1944 war film made by Warner Brothers, directed by Michael Curtiz and produced by Hal B. Wallis with Jack L. Warner as executive producer. The screenplay was by Casey Robinson and Jack Moffitt from the novel Sans Patrie (Men Without Country) by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. The music score was by Max Steiner and the cinematography was by James Wong Howe.

The film reunited much of the cast of Casablanca (1942), also directed by Curtiz, including Humphrey Bogart, Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Helmut Dantine. Michèle Morgan (who had been the original choice for Casablanca), Victor Francen, Philip Dorn and George Tobias are also featured.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 References 4.1 Notes 4.2 Bibliography 5 External links

[edit] Plot

It is one of the few films to use a flashback within a flashback within a flashback, following the narrative structure of the novel on which it is based. The film opens in England during World War II. Captain Freycinet, a French officer (Claude Rains), is telling a story of the French pilots who serve at a particular airbase.

This opens into the first flashback onboard the tramp steamer Ville de Nancy just before the German invasion of France. Five convicts are picked up, adrift in a small canoe. Taken aboard, they tell the officer the story of their escape from the French prison colony at Cayenne in French Guiana, which begins the next flashback. During that flashback, the convicts tell the story of Matrac (Humphrey Bogart) in pre-war France which starts the next flashback, concerning Matrac's small newspaper and his railroading to prison on a false charge of murdering Édouard Daladier.

By the time that the "Ville de Nancy" reaches European waters, the French government has come under the control of Nazi Germany-collaborating Petainist government.

[edit] Cast

As appearing in screen credits (main roles identified):^[1]

Actor	Role
Humphrey Bogart	Jean Matrac
Claude Rains	Captain Freycinet
Michèle Morgan (as Michele Morgan)	Paula
Philip Dorn	Renault
Sydney Greenstreet	Major Duval
Peter Lorre	Marius
George Tobias	Petit
Helmut Dantine	Garou
John Loder	Manning
Victor Francen	Captain Patain Malo
Vladimir Sokoloff	Grandpère
Eduardo Ciannelli (as Edward Ciannelli)	Chief Engineer

A full cast and production crew list is too lengthy to include, see: IMDb profile. ^[1]

[edit] Production

Although exotic locales were called for, principal photography by James Wong Howe actually took place at the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden in Arcadia, California with further location shooting at Victorville, California. Based on a Nordhoff-Hall novel, the story veered into propaganda near the end, although censors actually cut a scene in the foreign version that showed Bogart's character machine gunning German pilots. ^[2]

Before Bogart began work on the film, preproduction had been underway for six months, but due to a conflict with Jack Warner over another prospective film Conflict, his starring role as Metrac was in jeopardy with Jean Gabin being touted as a replacement. ^[3] Although the issue was decided, Bogart's portrayal was hampered by marital difficulties and a lack of commitment to the project. ^[4]

Although the flying sequences show the Free French Air Force French: Forces Aériennes Françaises Libres, FAFL) using B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, the production took liberties with the actual bombing campaign carried out by the Free French units. The use of the ubiquitous B-17 was due to its being recognizable to American audiences. ^[5]

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] External links

• Passage to Marseille at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e The films of Michael Curtiz 1910s The Last Bohemian • Today and Tomorrow • Captive Souls • My Husband's Getting Married • The Exile • The Borrowed Babies The Princess in a Nightrobe • Prisoner of the Night • Bánk Bán • Golddigger • One Who Is Loved By Two • Seven of Spades • The Strength of the Fatherland • The Karthauzer The Black Rainbow • The Wolf • The Medic • Mr. Doctor • Master Zoard • The Red Samson • The Last Dawn • Spring in Winter • Tartar Invasion Secret of St. Job Forest • Nobody's Son • The Charlatan • A Penny's History • The Fishing Bell • Earth's Man • The Colonel • Peace's Road Jean the Tenant • The Merry Widow • Magic Waltz • A Skorpió I. • The Devil • Lulu • Lu, the Coquette • Júdás • The Ugly Boy • Alraune (with Edmund Fritz) • 99 • The Sunflower Woman • Liliom • The Lady with the Black Gloves 1920s Boccaccio • The Star of Damascus • The Scourge of God • Miss Tutti Frutti • Good and Evil • Mrs. Dane's Confession • Labyrinth of Horror Sodom and Gomorrah • Young Medardus • Avalanche • Nameless • A Deadly Game • General Babka Harun al Raschid • Moon of Israel • Red Heels • Cab No. 13 • The Golden Butterfly • The Third Degree • A Million Bid • The Desired Woman Good Time Charley • Tenderloin • Noah's Ark • Glad Rag Doll • Madonna of Avenue A • The Gamblers • Hearts in Exile 1930s Mammy • Under a Texas Moon • The Matrimonial Bed • Bright Lights • A Soldier's Plaything • River's End • Demon of the Sea God's Gift to Women • The Mad Genius • The Woman from Monte Carlo • The Strange Love of Molly Louvain • Doctor X • The Cabin in the Cotton • 20,000 Years in Sing Sing • Mystery of the Wax Museum • The Keyhole • Private Detective 62 • Goodbye Again • The Kennel Murder Case • Female • Mandalay • Jimmy the Gent • The Key • British Agent • The Case of the Curious Bride • Black Fury • Front Page Woman • Little Big Shot • Captain Blood • The Walking Dead • The Charge of the Light Brigade • Stolen Holiday • Mountain Justice • Kid Galahad • The Perfect Specimen • Gold Is Where You Find It • The Adventures of Robin Hood (with William Keighley) • Four's a Crowd • Four Daughters • Angels with Dirty Faces • Dodge City • Daughters Courageous • The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex • Four Wives 1940s Virginia City • The Sea Hawk • Santa Fe Trail • The Sea Wolf • Dive Bomber • Captains of the Clouds • Yankee Doodle Dandy • Casablanca • Mission to Moscow • This Is the Army • Passage to Marseille • Janie • Roughly Speaking • Mildred Pierce • Night and Day • Life with Father The Unsuspected • Romance on the High Seas • My Dream Is Yours (with Friz Freleng) • Flamingo Road • The Lady Takes a Sailor 1950s Young Man with a Horn • Bright Leaf • The Breaking Point • Force of Arms • Jim Thorpe -- All-American • I'll See You in My Dreams The Story of Will Rogers • The Jazz Singer Trouble Along the Way • The Boy from Oklahoma • The Egyptian • White Christmas • We're No Angels The Scarlet Hour • The Vagabond King • The Best Things in Life Are Free • The Helen Morgan Story • The Proud Rebel • King Creole • The Hangman • The Man in the Net 1960s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn • A Breath of Scandal • Francis of Assisi • The Comancheros Short films Jön az öcsém (1919) • Sons of Liberty (1939) Productions Bright Lights (1935)