Reunion in France (1942)

Though he's second billed in the credits, John Wayne doesn't make his appearance in the picture until about the forty two minute mark. I kept wondering how his character, Pat Talbot, managed to evade arrest and detainment in the story, seeing as how he just showed up with no credentials to show for it in case the Nazis started asking questions. Maybe that's the problem, Talbot was never really put on the spot as he squired Michele de la Becque (Joan Crawford) after she learned that her fiancé was a Nazi collaborator.Or was he? Seems Philip Dorn's character Robert Tortot, was assuming a dual role, sort of a double agent as it were without getting into the espionage racket. Even though this picture preceded "Casablanca" by a scant month or so, the parallels are obvious enough to make it look like this lesser known film might have been pulling off a cheap imitation. You had the French Resistance angle personified by Crawford's character, complete with 'exit papers' signed by the military governor of Paris, much like Ingrid Bergman's 'letters of transit'. Wayne is no Bogey of course, nor is Philip Dorn, though John Carradine takes a pretty good stab at Conrad Veidt's Major Strasser. And if you want to make a stretch of it, J. Edward Bromberg resembles a poor man's Claude Rains as a French policeman.I didn't have too much problem with all of this, except for Crawford's see-sawing relationship between her two leading men. At one point she excoriates Tortot with that quote above in my summary line, but still sidles up to him when it's to her advantage. For his part, Wayne managed to call her 'Mike' more than a couple times with no one raising an objection. I don't know how the French or Germans would have understood the translation.With Talbot whisked away aboard a rescue plane, the film closes on a firm, patriotic note, though I highly doubt that the pilot would have had the time or resources to sky write the word 'COURAGE' in the air above Paris. It ends the picture on a high note, but it seems to me a more likely outcome would have had a German plane knock it out of the sky.

Reunion in France is excruciating to listen to because of the lame attempts at German, French and British accents and the pathetic pronunciations of German and French names and words. It begins with a speech by a "French" general in which the American actor playing him can barely restrain his southern accent (I expected him at any minute to say y'all). I understand that there probably was a shortage of German and French actors in Hollywood at the time. But surely there were actors who could do believable foreign accents? Several times "Germans" speak several sentences in German and the pronunciation is so bad that it comes off as gobbledygook.The film is a heavy-handed propaganda piece: The Germans are fat and coarse. The French are noble and self-sacrificing. They lost the war not because of poor planning, insufficient defenses and inept military and political decisions, but because France was "betrayed." It's all a bit overblown and accompanied by stabs of dramatic background music.It's always interesting to see John Wayne in an early, non-western role. In this film, however, he seems unnecessary and the film slows down drastically once he arrives. If he was intended to be the patriotic opposite of the Nazi sympathizer character and the second man in a love triangle, he arrives in the film too late to register strongly as either.

This should not be taken seriously.Michele de LA Becque 's(sic)adventures in a chocolate box occupied France can net only horselaugh! A propaganda movie,and what is worse ,like Renoir's "This land is mine" -Renoir who had left France at the beginning of the war-a BAD propaganda movie.Who could believe Crawford a French would be Joan of Ark?These Nazis full of bonhomie and stupidity? John Wayne as a British pilot? Or worse as an American student(at 35!)?The final twist ,you could see it from a mile off.Even the streets of Paris, in the studios, are ugly and the man who sells nice Nazi souvenirs on these streets is ludicrous.But,as far stupidity is concerned,the singer who sings " I'll be glad when you die and Adolf too" ,wins hands down.If you take that to learn something about French Resistance ,be prepared for a F minus for your History test.During the McCarthyism ,Dassin came to real France where he made an estimable film "Du Rififi Chez les Hommes"

Joan Crawford is OK as a disillusioned and confused french Mademoiselle coming to grips with the German occupation of France in WWII. The movie is everywhere - downed pilots, civilian collaboration with the Nazis and love. Joan falls for a couple of guys...a Frenchman and a downed RAF pilot (John Wayne - on screen for only about half of the movie and unfortunately miscast). He tries to disguise himself as a college student with Joan's help. Too much of the movie is about German carpetbaggers shopping for high fashion and looting the Louvre of French art treasures. If the movie had focused on Joan and her travails, it would have been better.