Product Details

• Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Claude Rains, Michèle Morgan, Philip Dorn, Sydney Greenstreet
• Directors: Michael Curtiz
• Writers: Casey Robinson, Charles Nordhoff, Elick Moll, Jack Moffitt, James Norman Hall
• Producers: Hal B. Wallis, Jack L. Warner
• Format: Black & White, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Language: English, French, German, Spanish
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: March 7, 2000
• Run Time: 109 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 079074886X
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #104,778 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Casablanca for the tough-as-nails set..., October 13, 2000

By 

Monkey Knuckle Asteroid - See all my reviews

This review is from: Passage to Marseille [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I'll admit, I wasn't expecting much from this film when I saw it. I checked it out because it reunites the core crew of Casablanca; Michael Curtiz back as director, Humphrey Bogart, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre and Syndey Greenstreet all come back to a World War II movie that once again doesn't take place on any battlefields or any locations of infamy. The thing is, this movie is so great that you'll wonder for a moment if it can really be this good, if they could possibly re-create the magic of Casablanca, but do it in such a completely different, but altogether touching way.

They did. This movie is 5 movies all packed into one. The story of the french patriots and how they got put on Devil's Island, how they escaped to go fight for their country, their run-in and interaction with a french ship filled with military out to expose them and send them back, and their fight against the Germans. It's a mirror aimed at a mirror, because one story inevitably bleeds into another into another into another and the sheer courage of such complex screenwriting and confident directing is one of the many reasons to seek this out.

This movie also has heart. The story of Bogart's love affair with both France and his wife and son is just as powerful as the French struggle to fight the Germans and regain their homeland. From the first frame to the last, it's a film riddled with emotions and real characters with actual hearts and joy and sorrow and triumph. Plus, there is a ton of action, from machine-guns against airplanes to escaping from treacherous jungles to air-raids against the enemy.

Enough cannot be said about this extremely underrated classic. Bogart fans and Casablanca fans alike will be kicking themselves that they've gone so long without experiencing this almost essential companion piece to the film widely-regarded (and rightly so) as a classic of filmmaking and storytelling.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars They don't make movies like this anymore!, February 4, 2003

By 

S. Brand "sandra807" (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Passage to Marseille [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Ever since Casablanca, this movie made in its wake was considered a disappointment, but I enjoyed it just as much, if not better! I'm not a particular Bogart fan, but I really liked him in this movie...his role befits him: hardened, determined, yet with deep passion in spite of his steely exterior. During the film, his life takes several turns: as a newspaper printer, a hard labor prisoner, a refuge on a French military ship, and a hero for France. He loves his wife, and he loves his country, and in spite of the injustice he suffered in France, he vows to fight against the Nazis to save her.

The first few minutes of the film in which there is a lot of talk is somewhat dull, but then we are launched into the telling of the adventures and dangers of sentenced men escaping from French Guyana in a little boat provided by another older prisoner, who gives up his own escape to allow the few younger men the room in the boat, and a chance to fight for France. There is plenty of adventure, and some sweet romance which our hero has with his wife, and a touching ending.

Is the movie unrealistic? Is it melodramatic? Is it wartime propaganda? Maybe to some people, but I loved it!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another WB/Curtiz/Bogart classic, October 12, 2004

By 

PonyExpress (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Passage to Marseille [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Yes, it's dated all right-in the best sense: it's got virtually the same cast and crew as "Casablanca"(though Michele Morgan is no Ingrid Bergman, lovely though she is-and as someone else pointed out, hers *is* a thankless role in an all-male film). It's full of action, suspense, atmosphere(the famous huge tank built on a WB sound stage a few years earlier really comes in handy, as much of the action takes place on ships and boats)-and humor, to temper the super-patriotic slant of the plot-after all, it was mid-war, and it was total war. Even so, Bogart's character is allowed to be somewhat ambivilent, which makes for a suprisingly timely impression all these years later. There are situations and dialogue which with any other cast would be unbearably corny, but in the capable hands of such as Bogie, Claude Rains, Greenstreet and Lorre, they're memorable, sometimes priceless moments. One example: On the eve of their escape, huddled in the dark next to a campfire, aged Devil's Island prisoner "Grandpere", suspects his fellow escapees(especially Bogart) might be less than sincere, and thinks he ought to elicit something more binding than a simple promise that they'll all fight for "La France" when they reach freedom. With perfect comic timing, Peter Lorre whines incredulously: "Do you want us to say our beads?!". Takes the corn right out of the sentimental scene.
This film is famous for containing "a flashback within a flashback WITHIN a flashback!" as film writer Leslie Halliwell pointed out in his book; it's nevertheless a slam-bang piece of entertainment.