Passage to Marseille (1944)

A little trickie in the fact that a triple flashback is used. If you’re confused, pay attention & watch it again. It’s a great story. As the movie unreels: England, a ship at sea, Devils Island, France pre-war & back to war-time England, the one constant thread is Bogart. Check out the cast. You have Raines, Greenstreet, Lorre & of course Bogie. It’s the gang from Warner Brothers. With Michael Curtiz directing, you have the atmospherics from Casablanca. Bogies’s love in this one is played by the lovely Michelle Morgan, pretty obscure in the US. She even tested for the part of Ilsa in Casablanca. Bogart is a Frenchman, but still world weary, cynical & of course does the right thing.
Convicts escape from the penal colony to go & fight for France. They find themselves adrift at sea & are rescued by a French freighter headed for (where else?) Marseille. Enroute they discover France is no more, it has surrendered unconditionally to Germany. Now what? Excellent war movie, excellent cast.

Extras include: Vintage newsreel, Oscar-winning patriotic short ‘I Won’t Play’, Oscar nominee ‘Jammin’ the Blues’, Classic cartoon ‘The Weakly Reporter, Trailers for Passage to Marseille and Uncertain Glory, The Free French: Forgotten Unsung Victors featurette, Studio Blooper Reel.

1942, B&W, 109 minutes