Jean Gabin is to be guillotined. Before that happens, the Germans enter Paris, the prison he is kept in is bombed, and Gabin is out, picking up the identification of a dead man on the road. Then it's out of Metropolitan France, headed for the safety of anonymity of Brazzaville. But as he gets off the boat, the promise of a free meal and a position in the Free French Army -- with pay! -- suckers him in, and now he's stuck with the fake identity, and a year of working on a radio installation with other Frenchmen who want a chance to fight, and who mistake his simple pleasure at being alive and not in harm's way for a deeper sort of patriotism. Gradually, he comes to realize they are right.
Under the direction of Julien Duvivier, Gabin gives a very simple performance in this movie that seems far afield from the roles he played for the director in France. It's a standard tale of wartime redemption a la CASABLANCA, and the role could have been played by Cagney or Bogart, or Power or Gable (if he hadn't been off fighting the war), and they would have had more lines; given that Gabin's "countrymen" are players like Allyn Joslyn and John Qualen, his lines are short to hide his accent and the others' lack. Even so, it's a canny choice. It makes his quiet seem more thoughtful, his redemption through action rather than words, and truer for that.
The result isn't great. It seems one of a pack of similar films, and the rumor is that the unnamed writer who sold the idea to be developed also sold it to Warners for UNCERTAIN GLORY. Still, with a cast that includes Ellen Drew, Ralph Morgan and Fritz Leiber, it's a solid programmer.
