Product Details

• Actors: Bette Davis, Paul Lukas, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Lucile Watson, Beulah Bondi
• Directors: Hal Mohr, Herman Shumlin
• Writers: Dashiell Hammett, Lillian Hellman
• Producers: Hal B. Wallis
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: March 7, 2000
• Run Time: 114 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00003OSTT
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #17,267 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Film adaptation of Lillian Hellman's World War II play about a German man and his wife being pursued by Nazi agents in Washington, D.C.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars PAUL LUKAS STEALS THE SHOW FROM BETTE..., November 6, 2001

By	Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ideologies Clash, March 22, 2003

By	Martin Asiner (jersey city, nj United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "I do what must be done.", May 22, 2005

By	Westley (Stuck in my head) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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.