Land of mine chicago
In retrospect, Bogart's subsequent first film with Lauren Bacall, TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT, was better in presenting the threat of Vichy France in the performances of Dan Seymour and Sheldon Leonard as the local Vichy policemen in Martinique.
#Land of mine chicago free#
The end result was a mishmash of flashbacks, which failed to deliver the message of our brave allies the Free French. It was directed by Michael Curtiz, and starred "CASABLANCA" alumni Humphrey Bogart, Claude Rains, Sidney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre. In 1944 Warner Brothers produced, as a pro-Free French propaganda movie, PASSAGE TO MARSEILLE. In this situation, the townsfolk may get a true picture of what it means to be a coward or a hero. When the supposed saboteur is discovered and shot by the Nazis, Albert gets caught in the middle, with his life on the line. If he is unable, he will not hesitate to imprison and execute innocent people to make them examples to the townsfolk. As such, von Keller is determined to find out the person or people behind these acts. In addition, an act of sabotage at the railway yard which was intended to thwart the Nazis resulted in two German soldiers being killed. Someone or some faction in town has been clandestinely printing and distributing anti-Nazi leaflets. Albert is secretly in love with Louise, which most in town know, it being more of a joke to them than anything as they know he will never admit such in his cowardice. Louise's fellow schoolteacher, middle-aged Albert Lory, is a timid man, his self-admitted cowardice exacerbated by his overbearing mother, Emma Lory, coddling him, she in return expecting that he never leave her.
On the other side, the school head master, well-respected Professor Sorel, and young schoolteacher Louise Martin, Paul's sister and George's fiancée, openly but quietly resist although do not totally defy Nazi orders. Paul Martin, a railway switch man and George's best friend, has gone even further by befriending occupying German soldiers.
Some of the town's leading citizens, such as Mayor Henry Manville and the railway station master George Lambert, encourage that citizen cooperation outwardly to maintain peace, while such persons are able to profit individually in being in von Keller's proverbial back pocket. Like other such occupied towns, the Nazis are keeping it a supposed free city in return for citizen cooperation. The Nazis have just invaded and are now occupying another Western European town in an Allied country, the Nazi District Commadant being Major Erich von Keller.