Desperate Journey - a 1943 World War II staple propaganda film. And a pretty good one at that. But typical. It follows the ludicrously heroic exploits of a typically Allied flight crew shot down over the German-Polish border. The by-necessity international crew (Flynn-Australian; Ronald Reagan-American; Arthur Kennedy-Canadian, Alan Hale and Ronald Sinclair-British)was a familiar sight in the wartime film genre, and lasted long afterward (See Bridge on the River Kwai, made in 1957).
Plot - ludicrously improbable. Flynn and crew are flying a one-plane bombing mission to knock out a target that could have a huge impact on the war. Really. In WWII, the Allies sent 1,000 planes against single outhouses in Dresden. They manage to make their escape, largely on foot, train, and car THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF BERLIN at the height of the war. And while they are cooling their heels in Berlin, they manage to blow up a chemical/munitions plant. They get across the Dutch border (and all the way across Germany) on Errol's Aussie-accented German, and only kill extras. In most of the hand-to-hand combat, they knock out the evil Nazis with things like shovels and heavy flashlights (why they didn't kill quite as many Nazis as they could have is a mystery probably known only to studio historians).
Interesting use of language. Raymond Massey plays the evil Nazi offcer who chases them across Europe (curiously, the more pissed off he gets, the better his accent - go figure). Much of the movie is in German, with no subtitles. To get around the language thing, Errol's Australian character speaks fluent German, which wasn't all that improbable in 1943. Improbable, though - Massey and another German officer switching to English in order to discuss secret topics they don't want other Germans to hear. That was kinda nuts. The German - quite a few native speakers, Massey and Flynn have OK accents, and there were only a few extras with speaking roles with horrible accents.
As for the costars, Flynn and Reagan teamed up well together. A definite good match. Arthur Kennedy, who played the bad guy in a couple Flynn westerns, plays a curmudgeonly Canadian good guy in this one. Alan Hale, standard comic relief figure in many Flynn movies, uncharacteristically dies heroically in this one while fending off Nazi pursuers. The female lead - with not a big role, as this was largely an all-guy war movie - was Nancy Coleman. A pretty, talented actress who left the movie world on her own accord. She made a string of decent movies in the late 1930s and 1940s. But she was married, and gave birth to twins in 1944, a year after her role in Desperate Journey. She stopped doing movies altogether in 1947, and concentrated instead on TV (which was less taxing on her home life). She did soap operas until the mid-1970s. As for Reagan, this was his last movie before his deferments ran out and he reported for active military service. He had been a reserve cavalry officer before the war, and had gotten three deferments after Pearl Harbor. He saw some duty in Australia as a staff officer, and then was transferred back to Hollywood to do propaganda and training films for the Army.
Memorable lines:
Ronald Reagan delivers a humorous line early in the movie - "Why do you have to wake me up every time I'm on a date with Ann Sheridan!" Ann Sheridan, who in addition to her acting career, was a popular pin-up girl for the troops during the war. It's not clear if Reagan or the script-writers knew at the time that Errol and Sheridan had been 'involved' (to put it gently). Let's just say Errol had more than just a few dates with Ann Sheridan. If nothing else, it must have been a great inside joke.
The last line in the movie, Errol saying "Now for Australia and a crack at those Japs!" was cut after the film was released in England. I think the idea was that Errol, who played an Australian in the movie, was anxious to transfer back to his home in Australia and fly fighter planes instead of bombers (this was a theme mentioned early in the movie). Audiences in Britain, though, laughed out loud at the line - two Americans and a Canadian (Errol played an Aussie, but was known by all to an American citizen) seemingly just killed half the German Army (with minimal British help), and were now off to finish the war single-handed. Oh, well. The line is on all curent DVDs and prints, though.
No comments:
Post a Comment