Joan of Paris

1942 "Lured By Love Into The Relentless Grip Of The World's Most Dreaded TERROR!"
6.8| 1h31m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 20 January 1942 Released
Producted By: RKO Radio Pictures
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

An RAF squadron is brought down over occupied France. The flyers get to Paris in spite of the fact that the youngest, Baby, is injured. He must be hidden and his wounds cared for. The Gestapo has already issued orders for their arrest.

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Reviews

Rijndri Load of rubbish!!
GrimPrecise I'll tell you why so serious
Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film
Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Alex da Silva Paul Henreid (Paul) leads a troop of 5 British fighter pilots shot down over France by the Nazis. They must reach Paris and then find a way back to England. Father Thomas Mitchell is there to help in his capacity as a man of the Church, as is waitress Michele Morgan (Joan) who gets heavily drawn into the plot. Gestapo agent Alexander Granach is a constant menace throughout the film as is the more measured Laird Cregar (Herr Funk). Can the Brits stay one step ahead…..? The cast are all good in this effort including May Robson (Mlle Rosay) as a contact in the Resistance. All are good with the exception of Alan Ladd (Baby)as one of the shot down pilots. What an idiot he is. He gets a scene in a sewer in which we are meant to sympathize. No chance. Thank God for that. There is also a cheesy scene with some children that is way over the top. The whole singing of the Marseillaise was done with far more impact in "Casablanca" from the same year. Those two scenes aside, it is a story that keeps you watching with a couple of sinister bad guys. They don't give up and are not so naïve as they come across as. Not everyone gets out of this one alive.
Jem Odewahn If someone were to ask me what I thought were the four greatest romantic films from 1942, I would say, without hesitation, CASABLANCA, RANDOM HARVEST, NOW, VOYAGER and JOAN OF Paris. The first three are acknowledged classics with large fan bases and a DVD release. Yet JOAN OF Paris is just as romantic and touching as the rest of them, and deserves to be better known and more widely seen. This little RKO gem is wonderful! Paul Henreid, who had quite the romantic year in 1942 starring in two of the films above- the smooth, seductive, gentle and irresistible Henreid made a perfect romantic leading man), stars as Paul Lavellier, a flyer for the Free French who is holed up in Paris after his RAF squadron plane is brought down. Henreid manages to stay one step ahead of the Nazis (led by Laird Cregar, oozing villainy),thanks to the help of a determined Priest (Thomas Mitchell, playing a Frenchman-and it didn't bother me at all)and a beautiful young woman, Joan (Michele Morgan, divinely beautiful and all of 22).It's a marvellously romantic film, with Henreid and Morgan hitting all the right notes as the lovers. Morgan in particular is amazing- her scenes where she speaks to her beloved Saint Joan are on a par with Jennifer Jones' simple, beautiful acting when she sees visions of the Virgin Mary in THE SONG OF BERNADETTE, filmed a year later. Director Stevenson and photographer Metty seem to worship Morgan's heavenly face, shown to best advantage in many close-ups. Given it's low shooting budget, this is a remarkably well-made film. The lighting and shadow-making is terrific, and the night scenes late in the picture where Morgan rushes to save her lover Henreid feel very atmospheric. Morgan's final scene (I won't spoil it to you), with the ominous shadows across her face, is breathtaking.The supporting cast is also very note-worthy, with Mitchell giving his usual excellent performance. I've never seen Laird Cregar in a film before, and what a find! Truly a charismatic screen presence if there ever was one. Veteran May Robson does some memorable work, as does a young-looking Alan Ladd as flyer in Henreid's crew.There is a wonderful scene two-thirds of the way into the picture, when a group of school children break out into a version of La Marseille. And it's release date pre-figures CASABLANCA by approximately a year! I wonder who was inspired by whom......Seek this one out. It's worth it!
trpdean This is a beautifully made, written and directed movie. Paul Henreid (you may remember him from Now Voyager lighting the two cigarettes for himself and Bette Davis - or in Casablanca as the Czech resistance figure with Ingrid Bergman whom she is helping to escape the Continent to fight again) is very moving and believable as a French squadron leader based in England with the Free French forces.Henreid always comes off well in European roles - he SEEMS foreign, very romantic in a rather exotic Continental manner.He and four other fighter pilots based in England were clearing the way for the first British bombing raids on Germany, when they were shot down over France. They are trying to return to England via Paris (where Henreid's childhood teacher is now the dean of a cathedral and may help) - but only if they can contact British intelligence agents whom they must first identify and try to locate. Even with the help of the British intelligence and French secret agents, they must then evade the Gestapo that haunts Henreid's path through Paris.Henreid meets and is harbored by Michelle Morgan playing the title character, and who only gradually comes to understand who Henreid is. The simplicity, modesty, and religious and romantic nature of her barmaid are shown so lovingly. She falls in love very quickly - yet this seems completely a part of this girl's makeup - throughout you sense the enormity of this one great thing in this girl of poverty who lives alone on the top floor, above the cafe, with her tiny shrine to Joan of Arc.The sets are astonishing - one feels as if one really is in Paris and one of its great cathedrals, in its sewers, its steam baths, its cafes.Henreid's attempts to lose the Gestapo agent (a "postage stamp" sticking to him) is suspenseful and imaginative - a wonderful game of cat and mouse throughout Paris to join his comrades.The movie is extremely and wonderfully romantic - the discourse of the two lovers - one doomed - is terribly moving and painful. I rented this one week, and could not resist renting it again when I entered the store.This is a wonderful and underrated movie.
Kirasjeri I have no problem with the casting of Mitchell or Henreid as Frenchmen, or Hans Conreid as a Gestapo agent. This was a generally engaging story of Allied flyers hiding out in German-occupied Paris in World War Two and their attempts to escape aided by Joan, played by the lovely and charming Michele Morgan. Watch for a young Alan Ladd in a small role. Stealing the show is the great Laird Cregar as the chief Gestapo agent. Cregar was a superb actor, but he must have tired of all the evil people he was forced to play owing to his weight; Henreid would get the girl and he'd get slapped. Cregar, a young man, went on a crash diet that apparently lacked needed nutrients - he died suddenly. And it was a shock and great loss to Hollywood, and to us all.