Customer Reviews

Watch on the Rhine [VHS]

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a highly enjoyable, classic film based upon a Lillian Hellman play about the fight against facism during World War II, before Americans became embroiled in the war. The screenplay adaptation, which was co-authored by Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett, is terrific. It tells the story of a German resistance leader, Kurt Muller, who comes to America, traveling incognito with his American born wife, Sarah, and three children, and visits his wife's wealthy mother and brother in their beautiful antebellum style mansion.

During their visit, they make the acquaintance of a Roumanian expatriate who is there as a house guest together with a his wife, a hometown girl and friend of the family. The Roumanian, a Nazi sympathizer, who frequently visits the German embassy, ultimately clashes with Muller, as irreconciable philosophical differences come to a head in a rousing climax.

Paul Lukas, who plays the noble freedom fighter with consummate dignity and passion, steals the show. A finer piece of acting is hard to find. He deservedly won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his heartfelt and heroic portrayal of Kurt Muller. It is, without a doubt, a performance to remember. Bette Davis plays it smart and gives a fine, though somewhat restrained, performance as a loyal and altruistic wife. She is luminous in the role.

Lucille Watson is marvelous as Sarah's dominant, generous, and larger than life mother. A very young and beautiful Geraldine Fitzgerald effectively plays the role of wife to the disreputable Roumanian expatriate, a wife disgusted with her husband's politics and lack of character, making her susceptible to the infinitely more alluring charms of Sarah's kind brother. The three childrem are stiff in their roles and, though affording some comic relief, are the only weakness in this otherwise compelling drama.

This is a marvelous movie that will appeal to those who love classic films. Fans of Bette Davis will also enjoy this film, provided that they do not expect a histrionic, over the top performance by Bette. This film is entirely, though quietly, dominated by Paul Lukas.

The events of December 7, 1941 propelled America into a war that had already been raging for two years. Hollywood responded with a series of big and bold war films that emphasized action and the personal heroism of its stars. WATCH ON THE RHINE was different in that the action was personal and verbal. Director Herman Shumlin took the successful play by Lillian Hellman and placed the battlegound in a living room where Paul Lukas and George Coulouris traded ideological body blows that became physical only in the final scene. Lukas and his wife Bette Davis are forced to leave Europe for the sanctuary of the United States, where they can live in the luxury of Bette Davis's wealthy mother. After arriving in America, Lukas enjoys his new surroundings but is also aware that his work of fighting Nazism is far from complete. George Coulouris is a Rumanian expatriate count with strong Nazi leanings who threatens to turn Lukas in should he return to Germany. The best parts of the film lie in the extended debates between Lukas, who extols the virtues of western democracy, and Coulouris, who maintains that Nazism is the inevitable end of European politics. The movie belongs squarely to Lukas, who was a deserved Oscar winner for Best Actor. For one of the few times in Bette Davis's career, she was content with a supporting role, yet she managed enough screen time as Lukas's devoted wife to indelibly etch herself in the audience's mind as a woman caught in the middle of the old world of European politics and the new one of America's. WATCH ON THE RHINE portrays a pre-Pearl Harbor America that allows a Nazi way of life to broadcast itself as an alternative to American democracy, and in so doing, affirms the superiority of a way of free life that lingers even unto today.

For those expecting the usually exciting and florid performance from Bette Davis, this film may come as a bit of a surprise. Davis is subdued, but very effective, as the wife of an anti-fascist German freedom fighter during World War Two, who has come home to her family in Washington so that she, her husband, and her children may have a rest from the difficult and dangerous life they have been leading. Paul Lukas gives a sincere and quietly emotional performance as her heroic husband who must make some difficult decisions to protect his friends and family. Lucille Watson is terrific as Davis' strong and opinionated mother, while the young actors who portray the children are a bit stiff. The movie has a number of political speeches about anti-fascism that would have been appropriate since the film was released during the War, but the strong characters and drama of the story don't allow the speeches to dominate. Watch on the Rhine is an unusual film for Davis, but it is certainly a good one.

In spite of its creaky melodramatic trappings and talky, static stretches, this adaptation of Lillian Hellman's play is still meaningful and moving after more than sixty years. Hellman could write crackling, passionate and original-sounding dialogue, and this fine troupe of performers brings it intensely to life. It's clear that they all believed passionately in this project and they gave it everything they had.

Paul Lukas, repeating his stage performance, plays with simplicity and passion. Watson is strong and amusing as the crusty but loving mother. And Davis, in a supporting but vital role...well, this is some of the best work of her long career. No tricks, no mugging, no over-the-top gestures that marred her later work, just intense, in-the-moment playing, with great style, always in character, unafraid to play someone her own age and a mother, and listening and reacting to the other players. This was one of the 20th century's great talents, and it shines here.

A powerful and impressive film, "Watch on the Rhine", based on a Lillian Hellman Broadway hit, still resonates today. Amazon themselves have described the film admirably with Paul Lukas's towering performance supported ably by a subdued Bette Davis and surrounded by a number of the Broadway cast. The film is static, reflecting its stagebound roots, but it does not matter because it is the screenplay by Dashiell Hammett, Hellman's lover at the time, which really counts. There are some great monologues.

The print of the film is perfect and Warner's Night at the Movies covers some interesting ground. The Newsreel, called "Bombs for Hamburg", while missing its soundtrack, is vivid propaganda for the war machine. Ozzie Nelson and his band are featured in a short film with 5 musical numbers one being a group singing "Chinatown, my Chinatown" in close harmony - delightful. The cartoon has Daffy Duck causing havoc to Porky Pig. Daffy does a mock strip in preparation for the oven and this is hilarious.

The dud of this set is the commentary delivered by one Bernard F. Dick, a biographer of Lillian Hellman, Claudette Colbert and Hal Walllis, the film's producer. A commentary, however good the content, can not be detached from the delivery of the commentator himself. This is fair game because after all it is an aural experience. Not only does Dick barely talk about the film, concentrating on Hellman's history and somehow introducing Colbert into the discussion while panning Davis, but his blurred diction and pretentious delivery are ghastly.

The DVD is excellent value if purchased as part of the Davis Set Volume 3.

First of all, none of this movie takes place in Europe. It takes place in or near Washington DC. By 1940, Europe had been plunged into darkness. Bette Davis is Sara Muller & she has been in Europe for the last 17 years. She is married to a German anti-facist freedom fighter Karl Muller, played by Paul Lukas. They have three kids. They have fled to the United States which is still a year & a half away from war. They are welcomed into Sara's childhood home by her mother, the wealthy & influential Mrs. Farrell & Sara's brother David. They are representative of the ignorance most Americans had as to what had happened in Europe. Mrs. Farrell rules but she warms quickly to her daughter's family. In addition, Mrs. Farrell has two house guests, Marthe & Teck de Brancovis, upper class exiles from Romania. He is a Nazis collaborator & visits the German Embassy often. He wishes to return to Europe. Marthe who appears to be an American, does not want to go back. Besides, she is in love with David. The Muller's plans to settle into a comfortable, affluent lifestlye are foiled when events in Europe convince Kurt that he must return to Europe & continue the fight. DeBranovis becomes aware of this & plans to inform the Germans, thus currying favor with the Nazis. This major conflict must be decided the night that Kurt plans to leave. There is some sermonizing on both sides & when done by the children it is a bit irritating. This is Paul Lukas movie. Bette Davis stepped back just a bit to allow Lukas to shine. He did, all the way to the Academy Awards. It is a war time movie, a mellowdrama & a classic.

If anybody is serious about getting into acting they should watch Paul
Lukas in his oscar winning role. I have seen many great movies with great
acting but nothing to compare with the performance of Paul Lukas. Bette is overshadowed in this one but is very good. George Coulouris is great as a scheming,money hungry villian.
You will not be disappointed in this movie.

The Rhine is a great European river that serves as the German border on both France and Switzerland. Its place in the title of this overlooked classic is symbolic, as all of the action in this film takes place in North America. The story's focus is on Germany, Europe, American isolationism, and all that they represented in the years leading up to World War II, with the Nazis tightening their hold on their power over the majority of the German people while many Germans were escaping their grasp. Some actively fought the Nazi overthrow of their homeland, crossing the Rhine to move more freely outside Hitler's Germany.

This film is about one such man and his family. Paul Lukas earned an Oscar as Best Actor for this film, with Bette Davis supplying her usual histrionics in support, although it is interesting to see her portray a gallant loving wife where her melodrama is understandable. Davis, as a major box office draw of the time, insisted on Lukas reprising this role that he had originated on stage, agreeing to play against type herself to ensure the film got made, thus performing in her second consecutive Lillian Hellman tale in a row (the only two of her career, the other being 1941's even more excellent "The Little Foxes"). There are flaws in this film; there are none in Lukas's performance. The child actors who portray their offspring are often painful to watch, but their scenes are usually brief once the film gets rolling. And I agree with other reviewers here that the film is too heavy on exposition and speeches.

Nonetheless, the final act of this film is well worth waiting for. It doesn't play as safely with its characters as one may expect from films of this era, and what seems at first a rather mediocre film does redeem itself with a tremendous payoff in spite of the anticlimactic epilogue.

Ultimately what's most interesting about the film to me is that it is a snapshot of an unsure time, an era when Hitler was still in power and thriving as the greatest threat to freedom the world perhaps had ever known, filmed in 1943 but set in 1940 when Americans strongly wanted to stay out of it...until Pearl Harbor. Viewing this story and these characters through their perspective is an enlightening experience. If you have a chance to see this remarkable slice of history, don't pass it up.

Bette Davis stars in "Watch on the Rhine" as Sara Muller, the daughter of a well-connected Washington political family. Sara is married to a German (Paul Lukas), and they return to America after living for many years in Europe. Her family is puzzled by the somewhat mysterious Lukas, especially when they hear that he has been fighting fascism in Europe. Slowly the pieces start to fall in place, which attracts the attention of others as well.

"Watch on the Rhine" is a solid WWII film that tackles fascism in a straight-forward manner. Obviously, the stakes were high in 1943, so one can imagine the impact of the film at the time. Today, the film is a bit antiseptic and stagy -- exposing it's origins as a Lillian Hellman play. In addition, the tone is somewhat jingoistic, but it's carried off with sincerity as well as fine performances and direction. Paul Lukas won an Oscar for his characterization. He originated the role on Broadway but was not selected initially for the film; Bette Davis agreed to take a supporting role here to give the film a star and allow Lukas to be cast. Lukas is quite good, although he probably did not deserve to beat Humphrey Bogart in the far superior "Casablanca."

Although based on the Hellman play, surprisingly the script was written by Dashiell Hammett -- the only one he wrote not based on his own books. He brings little of his film noir flare to "Watch on the Rhine," although a fair amount of tension builds toward the end. Overall, "Watch on the Rhine" is a good 1940s WWII film -- a bit on the turgid side but well done in most respects.

Outstanding work by all involved.
Emotionally gripping and well constructed play by Lillian Hellman.
Superb direction considering almost the whole plot takes place in a single room. The rather drone like commentary has little do with the film making and is more about Hellman's history and politics..