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Passage to Marseille

Alternate Title: Message to Marseille Director: Michael Curtiz (Dir) Release Date: 11 Mar 1944 Production Date: late Jul--early Nov 1943 Duration (in mins): 110 Duration (in feet): 9,853			Print this page Display Movie Summary

Cast:	Humphrey Bogart	(Jean Matrac)
	Claude Rains	(Captain Freycinet)
	Michèle Morgan	(Paula Matrac)
	Philip Dorn	(Renault)
	Sydney Greenstreet	(Major Duval)
	Peter Lorre	(Marius)
	George Tobias	(Petit)
	Helmut Dantine	(Garou)
	John Loder	(Manning)
	Victor Francen	(Captain Patain Malo)
	Vladimir Sokoloff	(Grandpère)
	Edward Ciannelli	(Chief engineer)
	Corinna Mura	(Singer)
	Konstantin Shayne	(First mate)
	Louis Mercier	(Second engineer)
	Monte Blue	(Second mate)
	Stephen Richards	(Lieutenant Hastings)
	Hans Conreid	(Jourdain)
	Frederick Brunn	(Bijou)
	Billy Roy	(Mess boy)
	Charles La Torre	(Lieutenant Lenoir)
	Donald Stuart	(Military driver)
	Walter Bonn	(Prison official)
	Carmen Beretta	(Petit's wife)
	Diane DuBois	(Petit's daughter)
	Jean Del Val	(Raoul)
	Alex Papana	(Lookout)
	David Powell	(English radio operator)
	Juan Varro	(Gunner at field)
	Maurice St. Clair	(Dompierre)
	Roger Valmy	(Rocroi)
	Tony Paton	(Emile)
	Raymond St. Albin	(Medical officer)
	Gerald Perreau	(Jean)
	Peter Camlin	(French sergeant)
	Anatol Frikin	(Crazy convict)
	Sandor Szabo	(Sergeant of guards)
	Frank Puglia	(Older guard)
	Harry Cording	(Chief guard)
	Georges Renavent	(Guard)
	Robert Appel	(Guard)
	Harold Gerard	(Guard)
	Victor Metzetti	(Guard)
	Adrian Droeshout	(Guard)
	Sylvain Robert	(Lieutenant)
	Adrienne D'Ambricourt	(Mayor's wife)
	Fred Essler	(Mayor)
	Marcelle Corday	(Grocer's wife)
	Suzette O'Neill	(Flower woman)
	George Davis	(Waiter)
	Andre Charlot	(Judge)
	Charles Andre	(Navigator)
	Harro Meller	(German pilot)
	Albert Baldo	(Seaman)
	Demetris Emanuel	(Seaman)
	John Bagni	(Seaman)
	Franklin D'Amour	(Seaman)
	Bernard Sommer	(Bombardier)
	Louis Trevis	(Bombardier)
	Richard Flato	(Bombardier)
	Oscar Loraine

Summary:

Somewhere in England, war correspondent Manning arrives at the home base of a Free French air squadron led by Captain Freycinet and is particularly impressed by Jean Matrac, a gunner. Later, he asks Freycinet for Matrac's story: At the outbreak of the war, Freycinet receives orders to return to France from Southeast Asia. Also on board the ship, the Ville de Nancy , is Major Duval, a follower of Marshal Philippe Pétain, and some of his men. They soon receive word that the Germans have broken through the Maginot Line. Shortly after passing through the Panama Canal, the crew spots a suspicious boat containing five nearly dead men. The men--Matrac, Petit, Renault, Marius and Garou--claim to be Venezuelan miners trying to return to France, but Duval suspects that they have actually escaped from the penal colony at Devil's Island. Captain Patain Malo refuses to lock up the men as Duval demands and they are allowed to work for their passage. After Freycinet warns the men of Duval's suspicions, Renault admits that they are fugitives from Devil's Island and explains how they escaped: Petit was imprisoned for killing a policeman while defending his farm; Garou murdered his sweetheart during a lover's quarrel; Marius is a safecracker; and Renault is a deserter from the Army. On Devil's Island, the horrible conditions drive them to plan an escape with the help of Grandpère, an older convict who served his term but is not allowed to leave the island. As their leader, the men choose Matrac, who was sentenced to Devil's Island for his political activities in France: In 1938, Matrac is a journalist and fervent anti-Nazi. His newspaper is destroyed after he denounces Édouard Daladier for signing the Munich Pact with Adolf Hitler. Matrac and Paula, his girl friend, escape to the countryside where they are married, but soon discover that Matrac is accused of murdering a pressmen who was killed during the attack on the newspaper. Matrac is convicted of murder and sent to Devil's Island. As the men prepare to leave, Grandpère, a patriotic Frenchman, insists that each one swear to fight for France should they succeed in their escape attempt. When Freycinet hears their story, he agrees to help them. After Pétain signs an armistice with Germany, Malo fears that his cargo--valuable nickel ore--will fall into German hands if he docks in Marseille, so he changes course for England. When Duval discovers the change in plans, he and the Pétain loyalists try to take over the ship, but are thwarted by the other sailors and the convicts. One of Duval's men manages to radio their position to the Germans, however, and several men are killed in an aerial attack before Matrac shoots down the German plane. On his arrival in England, Matrac learns that he has a son whom he has never seen. Whenever possible on a mission, he flies his plane over Paula's house in France and he drops a letter to her. Tonight, however, Matrac's plane is badly damaged and he dies holding a letter to his son, which Freycinet later reads at his graveside.

Production Company:	Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Production Text:	A Hal B. Wallis Production
Brand Name:	A Warner Bros.--First National Picture
Distribution Company:	Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Director:	Michael Curtiz	(Dir)
	Herschel Daugherty	(Dial dir)
	Frank Heath	(Asst dir)
Producer:	Jack L. Warner	(Exec prod)
Writer:	Casey Robinson	(Scr)
	Jack Moffitt	(Scr)
	Elick Moll	(Contr to scr)
Photography:	James Wong Howe	(Dir of photog)
Art Direction:	Carl Jules Weyl	(Art dir)
Film Editor:	Owen Marks	(Film ed)
Set Decoration:	George James Hopkins	(Set dec)
Costumes:	Leah Rhodes	(Gowns)
Music:	Leonid Raab	(Orch arr)
	Leo F. Forbstein	(Mus dir)
	Max Steiner	(Mus)
Sound:	Everett A. Brown	(Sd)
Special Effects:	James Leicester	(Mont)
	Jack R. Cosgrove	(Spec eff dir)
	Edwin Du Par	(Spec eff)
Make Up:	Perc Westmore	(Makeup artist)
Production Misc:	Sylvain Robert	(Tech adv)
Country:	United States

Songs:	"Someday I'll Meet You Again," music by Max Steiner, lyrics by Ned Washington.
Composer:	Max Steiner
	Ned Washington
Source Text:	Based on the novel Men Without Country by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall (Boston, 1942).
Authors:	James Norman Hall
	Charles Nordhoff

Copyright Claimant	Copyright Date	Copyright Number
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.	11/3/1944 dd/mm/yyyy	LP12525

Physical Properties:	b&w:
	Sd:	RCA Sound System


Genre:	Drama

Subjects (Major):	Air pilots
	Ex-convicts
	French
	Patriotism
	Reporters
	World War II

Subjects (Minor):	Bombing, Aerial
	Devil's Island (French Guiana)
	France--History--German occupation, 1940-1945
	Letters
	Murder
	Nazis
	Newspapers
	Prison escapes
	Ships
	Soldiers
	Weddings

Note:	The film begins with the following written statement: "This is the story of a Free French Air Squadron. It is also the story of France. For a nation exists not alone in terms of maps and boundaries, but in the hearts of men. To millions of Frenchmen, France has never surrendered. And today, she lives immortal and defiant, in the spirit of the Free French Air Force, as it carries her war to the skies over the Rhineland." Marshal Philippe Pétain signed an armistice on 25 Jun 1940. He headed the collaborationist Vichy government until 1944. The film is structured in a Chinese box-like series of flashbacks that was criticized by contemporary reviewers as a confusing device. Although the film was not a sequel to Warner Bros.' popular 1943 film Casablanca , it reunited many of the cast members of that film in a similar story about a seemingly cynical idealist. According to information in the file on the film at the AMPAS Library, technical advisor Sylvain Robert was the vice-president of the Fighting French movement in Southern California and Jean Gabin was considered for the role of "Matrac." A 26 Jul 1943 HR news item notes that some scenes were shot on location in Victorville, CA. A 17 Sep 1943 HR news item reports that a full-scale Merchant Marine vessel modeled after the French ship the Ville de Nancy was built by Warner Bros. for the film. The ship took three months to build.

Bibliographic Sources:	Date	Page
Box Office	19 Feb 1944.
Daily Variety	16 Feb 44	p. 3.
Film Daily	17 Feb 44	p. 6.
Hollywood Reporter	17 May 43	p. 15.
Hollywood Reporter	26 Jul 43	p. 6.
Hollywood Reporter	17 Sep 43	p. 7.
Hollywood Reporter	16 Feb 44	p. 3.
Hollywood Reporter	23 Feb 44	p. 17.
Motion Picture Herald Product Digest	19 Feb 44	p. 1761.
New York Times	17 Feb 44	p. 12.
Variety	16 Feb 44	p. 10.

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The American Film Institute is grateful to Sir Paul Getty KBE and the Sir Paul Getty KBE Estate for their dedication to the art of the moving image and their support for the AFI Catalog of Feature Films and without whose support AFI would not have been able to achieve this historical landmark in this epic scholarly endeavor.



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