Customer Reviews

Uncertain Glory [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

i saw this movie when i was eight years old, back in the 70's. even at that age, it became clear to me what war and sacrifice meant. although this story is very simple, that of a convicted- criminal-turned-escapee-turned-hero, it stuck with me until the time i became a philosophy major at university. this movie became for me one of the best examples of what existential angst is about. errol flynn's decision at the end may have been expected (as movies during that time were supposed to be resolved), but his split second of indecision confirms the title of the movie.

there are more exciting and more realistic war movies available, but this one exhibits human-ness and the internal conflicts that occur in oneself during a war, may it be a world war or an individual war. as a matter of fact, there are minimal "fight scenes" in this movie. yet, the movie showed me what war is really about. true sacrifice, not the one made obligatory, but voluntary. if you watch the movie seeking a highly dramatic scene of indecision, you won't find it. the true meaning of this movie, just like most things in life, is found in a split second. i recommend this movie to those who seek meaning in adversity... even if it means losing oneself...literally and figuratively.

Warner Bros. Pictures presents "UNCERTAIN GLORY" (1944) (102 min/B&W) (Fully Restored/Dolby Digitally Remastered) -- Starring Errol Flynn, Paul Lukas, Lucile Watson, Faye Emerson & James Flavin

Directed by Raoul Walsh

Errol Flynn plays French criminal Jean Picard, a craven coward whose many misdeeds have earned him a date with the guillotine. Detective Marcel Bonet (Paul Lukas) intends to see that Picard keeps his appointment with the executioner, despite the fact that there's a war on. When the Nazis capture 100 French hostages to force a resistance saboteur to surrender himself, Picard offers to pose as the saboteur and thereby save the lives of the innocent villagers.

Errol Flynn: [to Paul Lukas] "I suppose there's a time when any man, even a man like me, can find something... something bigger than himself for which he is willing to die without question, almost... almost happily".

A different Errol Flynn in this interesting WWII film

BIOS:
1. Raoul Walsh (Director)
Date of Birth: 11 March 1887 - New York, New York
Date of Death: 31 December 1980 - Simi Valley, California

2. Errol Flynn [aka: Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn]
Date of Birth: 20 June 1909, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Date of Death: 14 October 1959, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

3. Paul Lukas
Date of Birth: 26 May 1891 - Budapest, Austria-Hungary (now Hungary)
Date of Death: 16 August 1971 - Tangier, Morocco

Mr. Jim's Ratings:
Quality of Picture & Sound: 4 Stars
Performance: 4 Stars
Story & Screenplay: 5 Stars
Overall: 4 Stars [Original Music, Cinematography & Film Editing]

Total Time: 102 min on VHS ~ Warner Bros. Pictures ~ (12/07/1994)

France 1943,Errol Flynn is a murderer on his way to be executed.A Allied bombing breaks it up and he escapes and hides out with Sheldon Leonard his partner in crime.
MR Leonard helps out until Errol departs with Fayne Emerson Sheldons trashy mistress.Angry,SL goes to ace police detective Paul Lukas who arrested Flynn for the earlier killing.Soon,Errol is arrested by Lukas and on his way back they find that a train full of nazis were killed by Allied agents.The nazis round up one hundred French civilians and threaten to execute them unless the agents give themselves up.Errol has little feeling for the hostages,but playing for time suggests to Lukas that he turn himself in as the saboteur.Paul wishing to save the lives of his countrymen agrees.
Pretty good WW2 film.I enjoyed it.Problem is,where is the DVD?

There are several films made during WW2 about German occupation. "Hangmen Also Die" (1943) is about the true life assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazi "Protector" of German-occupied Prague. "The North Star" (1943) focuses on Ukraine resistance fighters. "Edge of Darkness" (1943) concerns Nazi occupation of a Norwegian village. Similar B films include "They Raid by Night" (1942), "Commandos Strike at Dawn" (1942), and "First Comes Courage" (1943). "Uncertain Glory" (1944) gives us the view from France.

In 1944 Flynn's best days were behind him. His main character pieces - Captain Blood (1935) , Major Vickers (1936), Robin Hood (1938), the Earl of Essex (1939), George Armstrong Custer (1941), Gentleman Jim Corbett (1942) - were done and gone. He was near the apex and a steep decline was ahead. Apart from "Objective Burma" (1945), he would make one undistinguished film after another until 1957 ("The Sun Also Rises" and "Too Much Too Soon"). In 1958 he made my favorite later day Flynn film - "The Roots of Heaven" - and he died shortly after that.

But in the 1940s Flynn was trying to reinvent himself, as something less than a swashbuckler. This was pretty hard to do with a statutory rape charge against him as this film was being made. Also he was struggling against questions about his failure to enlist in the Armed Services, which was due to a TB spot on his lungs and recurring bouts of Malaria.

Flynn made several WW2 films, often toning down his swashbuckling enough to be an average Joe (e.g., "Objective Burma"). In this film he abandons any of his pretensions to the action hero and goes for the straight dramatic part.

The film co-stars Paul Lukas with Douglass Dumbrille and Sheldon Leonard.

Paul Lukas won his only Oscar and Golden Globe in 1944 as an anti-Nazi fighter in "Watch on the Rhine" (1943) and this earned him top billing along with Flynn. He made more than 50 undistinguished films prior to appearing in "Confessions of a Nazi Spy" (1939), and this accelerated his career. He's probably best remembered for playing Prof Aronnax in Disney's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." He appeared with Flynn again in 1958 in "The Roots of Heaven". Lukas plays the Inspector who hounds Flynn. Lukas does a fine job.

Renaissance man Sheldon Leonard appears as an associate of Flynn. Producer ("I Spy", "Andy Griffith Show", "Dick Van Dyke Show", "Danny Thomas Show"), director ("The Real McCoys", "Gomer Pyle", "Lassie"), and writer ("Andy Griffith Show") he was a prolific actor who appeared in more than 50 films from 1934 to 1952 at which time he turned to TV. He was nominated for 9 Emmys and won 3 times. Leonard usually played a mobster in films such as "Guys and Dolls" (1955) and "Pocketful of Miracles" (1961). Leonard had a hard time on this film because all the busy little bits he planned for his character were given to Flynn, causing Leonard to keep his hands in his pockets or at his sides. Leonard later described Flynn as "a pain in the ass."

Douglass Dumbrille appears as a Police Commissioner. Dumbrille was in more than 200 films, and worked with the Marx Brothers ("Day at the Races") as well as Abbott and Costello ("foreign Legion") , the Bowery Boys ("Spook Busters"), the Ritz Brothers ("The 3 Musketeers"), and Bob Hope ("Son of Paleface"), but he also did dramatic roles in films such as "Cardinal Richelieu" (1935), "Virginia City" (1940), "Mr. Deeds Go to Town", and "Julius Caesar" (1953).

Fred Cordova appears in a small part as an execution guard. Cordova gained fame as the director/producer of "The Johnny Carson Show"

The film is directed by Raoul Walsh. Walsh and Flynn did 6 films together, following Flynn's break-up with Michael Curtiz with whom he made his classic swashbuckler films. Walsh had been an actor appearing as John Wilkes Booth in Griffith's "Birth of a Nation" (1915). He turned to directing in 1930, directing John Wayne in his first film ("The Big Trail"). Walsh directed such notable films as "The Roaring Twenties" (1939), "Dark Command" (1940), "They Drive By Night" (1940), "High Sierra" (1941) , and "White Heat" (1949). He started working with Flynn in 1941 ("They Died with their Boots On") and they continued working together through 1945 ("San Antonio). Walsh declined notably in the 50s after he left Warner Brothers, but his 50+ year career made him one of Hollywood's most memorable directors.

Walsh was an action director and he is clearly out of his depth in this film.

Sid Hickox handles the camera. Hickox filmed hundreds of films for Warners and transitioned to TV in the 50s where he worked on "I Love Lucy" and "The Andy Griffith Show". Though never nominated for any award, his camerawork was good, and he was responsible for films such as "God is my Co-Pilot" (1945), "White Heat" (1949), and my Hickox favorite, "Dark Passage" (1947). Hickox worked with Flynn on several films including "Edge of Darkness" (1943), "Northern Pursuit" (1943) and "Gentleman Jim" (1942). His work here is pretty ordinary and not up to his usual standard.

The NY Times said the film "...is artificial, in structure, mood and atmosphere. But if you accept it on that basis--as a purely theatrical show--it does have some compensations in the entertainment line."

Hardcore Flynn fans will want to see this film, but otherwise it doesn't have much to recommend it. While it is about resistance to the Nazi occupation, there are far better films that deal with this topic. If self sacrifice turns you on, you have "Tale of Two Cities" as the best example of that.

Set in World War II, Errol Flynn stars as a French thief saved from the guillotine by a British air raid. Captured later by famed police inspector Paul Lukas, they end up in a small French town where 100 civilians have been captured by the Nazis to be used as hostages until a bridge saboteur turns himself in. Flynn, facing imminent death for his crimes, decides to be a hero and confess to sabotaging the bridge, thus freeing the 100 captured men. But confessing to a crime he didn't commit proves to be more difficult than expected.

If the story sounds far-fetched, it is, and the film doesn't make it seem anymore plausible. There are a lot of big loopholes in the screenplay, not to mention that the main character does not make sense, being inconsistently written and acted by a tired looking Flynn. The supporting cast of Lukas, Jean Sullivan as the village girl he loves, and Lucile Watson as her employer, do what they can with such poor material.

Director Raoul Walsh usually does a great job of pacing his films and providing enough action and character development to keep viewers engaged. But not this time. There's very little in the way of action or tension, and Flynn's character is hard to figure out or to like. This is easily one of Flynn's weakest Warner Bros vehicles.