Customer Reviews

Paris Underground

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It's Paris, 1940, and the Germans are just about to take the city. Kitty de Mornay (Constance Bennett) is the slightly self-centered, sophisticated American wife of a diplomat in the French foreign office. Kitty loves amusement and laughter and she thinks her husband has become too serious lately. She decides to leave him, at least for a while, and to stay with an old friend, Emmeline Quail (Grace Fields), a British citizen who owns an antique shop. With the Germans moving in they think it's best to drive to unoccupied France. Along the way, however, they encounter a downed British pilot. Kitty decides they can't just leave him, so they hide him in the trunk of her roadster. But after meeting some German troops and a Gestapo officer, they know they can't continue so they return to Paris.

From then, partly though happenstance, partly through Kitty's love of adventure, partly through luck and party through determination, they find a way to transfer the pilot from France and across the border to Vichy. The pilot is the first of 359 allied airmen the two women help send back to Britain. Eventually they are captured, tortured and imprisoned until the Allies retake Paris. The movie is based on a true story.

This is a war-based suspense film that was produced by Constance Bennett. It was largely forgotten until Image put out this DVD. It's no classic, but it's a well-made film with a number of nail-biting sequences. If it's a bit melodramatic at times, particularly toward the conclusion of the movie, this is because it now and then slips into showcasing Bennett doing drama. For the most part, however, the producer Bennett has conquered the temptation to focus unduly on the actress Bennett. Constance Bennett was a big star in the Thirties (Topper). She's a bit brittle and cool, it seems to me, but still does a good job as the high spirited Kitty who finally finds a better calling than entertaining herself. Kitty's good friend is played by Gracie Fields in her last movie. Fields was one of the most popular singer-comediennes in Britain during the Thirties. Here she's the perfect Englishwoman of a certain age, practical, sensible, indomitable. Bennett and Fields make a good team. The acting in some of the secondary roles, in my view, is a little shaky. On the other hand, the movie also features solid performances by Vladimir Sokoloff as an ingenious French undertaker and Kurt Krueger as a Nazi officer.

On balance, if you like older WWII suspense films, this is a nice one to have. It's a solid, entertaining movie. The DVD picture is just fine.

I bought this tape because I met Gracie Fields in the 1950's and she was incredibly sweet. I told her that my mother thought she was dead and cried every time she was on TV, and would she call my mom and let her know she is alive. She called my mom and even invited my mom to visit her on Capri which she did 3 times. So I loved every minute of this movie. And it has a lot of originality too.

A good movie, but read book after viewing. After seeing movie you will feel good, after reading the excellent book you will have several emotions, sad, and glad for the two women in the story. Constance Bennett, the director, was the wife of my boss (an AF General), when I a new 2nd Lt in AF in 1962 and was a great lady and a lot of fun. She told me one time that the studio made her change story line to be acceptable to public at time.

The actors speak in kind of a phony high toned British sound when they are supposed to be French and American, which is kind of disappointing. The costuming is good. The story is okay, but I can't really like the main character; she's kind of a jerk.