Sick Product of a Sick System

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Michael Curtiz's Passage to Marseille (1944) has a different story than most war movies but still in my eyes the story was very good and very interesting at the same time. The movie stars Humphrey Bogart as Jean Matrac a convict who after serving 15 years in solitary confinement has bitter memories of hating France because of being found guilty of a murder he didn't commit to one of his co-workers, then after his sentence is completed he and his other convict friends (played by Peter Lorre, George Tobias,etc.) plan to go out to sea in order to help the French army with the WWII effort but at first in order to join they had to tell their convict life story from before they got to the ship to Captain Freycinet (played by Claude Rains) who was one of the few soldiers who trusted them along with the ship's Commanding officer, and there was a particular soldier who didn't like them which was Major Duval (played by Sydney Greenstreet)who thought they enlisted just to continue their criminal lifestyle for which he was proved wrong. This was a war movie with very good military spirit with echoes of The Great Escape (1963) and many other well made WWII movies.

. . . as all the Frenchmen except Sydney Greenstreet's Major Duval character seem hellbent on killing every Nazi or Hitler sympathizer they can get in their machine gun sights during PASSAGE TO MARSEILLE. (If Fox News were around in 1944, I'm sure they would deride this flick for NOT being fair and balanced, no doubt labeling it a ploy of the liberal media and pinko Hollywood designed to win support for Russians and other enemies of capitalism.) While it is true that the one thing Nazi forces do in MARSEILLE that gets under everyone's skin is strafing the freighter full of nickel ore that Humphrey Bogart's Jean Matrac character and his comrades are defending (resulting in Bogie machine gunning the surrendering plane crew minutes AFTER he's brought down their aircraft), the Nazi approach here seems counter-productive. Major Duval and his ship's radio officer henchman had informed the German high command that the freighter carried raw materials vital to the Nazi war effort, so why in the heck would they try to sink this ship?

This film was a great document for the resistance of France during Nazi occupation in France during WWII in 1940 and the courage of Charles Degaulle after his refuse for the decision of general Philip Bataan the president of Vichi french government under occupation in 1940 and he went to England at the time of Primier Churchill that he supported Degaulle in his resistance to give France her liberty under (Le Croix Lorinne) the cross of (Joan of Arc) during her resistance against English occupation in France in 15th century.Degaulle used this cross in the french flag of the (French Free government) that was presented by him in england and after this way that was transported in Tchad and Algeria to make a collection for the different departments of French army to make the french Independence by their shoulders.That,s the end of final massage at the end of this film that Boggy sent with his corpse a massage for his son to complete with his friends and partners the french dream of making liberty to France under the spiritual leading by Degaulle the (Taste of freedom) after that in 1944 that made a liberty of France by french shoulders by the allies of England , U.S.A , soviet union but the under french responsibility in (Normandi) to be French forever.

Michael Curtiz made this movie as a propaganda movie. Bogart is playing well, but the weak script does not give him the ability for a good performance. The scene on the boat where he is shooting at the German pilots and navigators is a shame: shoot at people without defense! At war, it happened, so it is realistic that it is in the film. It is also true that some crew members were loyal to the London government (which had to be build up) and that they refused to give their ships to the Vichy government. The dispute between the commanders (army, navy an air) is realistic and well done. The shooting of the plane is a remarkable battle scene. The end with the Handley-Page planes coming back is moving.