Marianne Jannetier, a well-to-do Parisian, engaged to Andre Benoit, a high-ranking government official, flees the city when the goose-stepping Nazi storm-troopers arrive. When her mother dies on the road to Bordeaux as a result of Nazi bombing, she returns to Paris and joins the underground movement. Nicholas Jordan, an American member of the RAF, stranded in Paris after the evacuation is also working with the Paris underground. Marianne kills her former fiancée, a pro-Nazi informant, for the traitorous state papers he is carrying, and she and Jordan try to flee over a French seaport...
Acting
Bergner's transformation from socialite to killer is *chef's kiss*.
Costume
Gowns in the apocalypse—1941 Hollywood understood assignment.
Production
Paramount backlot Paris looks surprisingly convincing.
Director
Edwin L. Marin
Elisabeth Bergner
Marianne Jannetier
Randolph Scott
Flight Lt. Nicholas "Nick" Jordan
Basil Rathbone
Andre Benoit
Eduardo Ciannelli
Mouche, the bartender
Gale Sondergaard
Madame Colette
Lee J. Cobb
Captain Schwabe
Charles Arnt
Nazi Lt. Lantz
William Edmunds
'Professor', the bar owner
J. Pat O'Malley
Sgt. 'Mack' McAvoy
Gene Garrick
The Panicked German Co-Pilot [script name: Wolfgang Schmidt]
Pedro de Cordoba
Fiery Speaker at Jannetier House
Otto Reichow
Gruber, Nazi raid parties lead officer
Georges Renavent
The Jennatier Butler
Elisabeth Risdon
Madame Jennetier
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made during America's 'phony war' neutrality period, this was among the first Hollywood films to explicitly condemn Nazi occupation—Bergner, an Austrian Jewish émigré, brought raw personal stakes to Marianne's radicalization.
Rathbone filmed this between Sherlock Holmes entries; his Andre was originally written as more sympathetic until test audiences demanded full villainy.
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