Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

utgard14 World War II story about a spoiled Frenchwoman (Joan Crawford) whose patriotism is stirred by Nazi invasion. She's married to industrialist Philip Dorn, who she comes to believe is a Nazi collaborator. She meets downed American pilot John Wayne and helps him. Sparks inevitably fly. Joan gives it her best but she's a little miscast. For starters, there are repeated references to her beauty throughout the film but those days were way past Joan by 1942. She was 37 and looks older. Wayne is miscast as well and has no chemistry with Joan. The Nazis are well-represented here with some fine actors playing heavies: Ernst Deutsch, Howard Da Silva, and John Carradine. J. Edward Bromberg has a small but amusing role as French policeman.This is not a bad movie. Just that it could have been so much better with different leads. Mainly of note today as the only film Joan and Duke made together. It's definitely a Joan movie more than a John Wayne one. Though the movie has the expected polish of an MGM film of the time, it's not one of director Jules Dassin's best. Ava Gardner has an uncredited tiny part as a shopgirl. Fans of John Wayne and Joan Crawford will definitely want to check it out.

JRis1-4Jesus This 1942 movie arouses your patriotic instincts. In this good vs. the apparent overwhelming evil, chalk one up for the good guys. The heroine, played by Joan Crawford, is convincing in her portrayal of a spoiled, pompous rich woman who becomes a patriot when her France is occupied by Nazi Germany. She is allowed to live in a one room, ground floor apartment of her mansion, taken over by the Nazi military. She is the fiancé of a supposed Nazi sympathizer, (who used to be a French patriot). She takes in an American flier (John Wayne) and houses him in her one room apartment. She joins the underground efforts to get the American flier back to his base in England. This movie is typical of cinemas of that era and is as believable as most and better than some others. The heroine reminds me of the Ingrid Bergman character in Casablanca. She also has to make hard choices. Will she stay and fight for her France? Will she go to England with the flier she has saved from capture? Will she be loyal to the man she loves, even though he appears to have radically changed from patriot to Nazi collaborator? The choices she makes are inspiring and patriotic. You, of course want her to stay and fight or do you want her to leave with her new found love, the American flier? The end is very satisfying. After the movie is over, you will want to join with others in saying. Viva la France!

nycritic If Joan Crawford had hopes of reviving her career at MGM following the successes of THE WOMEN and A WOMAN'S FACE, she was disillusioned once again and it shows in this badly produced Hollywood melodrama posing as a war film with its "patriotism" message. It's probably not her fault that she was being given such poor material - or better yet, material more suited for any of the given rising starlets of her time - it was clear that MGM wanted her out; Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo had reaped the benefits of the better scripts the previous decade and had retired, and actresses such as Greer Garson were on the rapid rise and literally forcing her out, and at thirty-eight, the Adrian seams were coming apart leaving her basically naked for the savaging. But, professional as she reportedly was, she made this film about a Frenchwoman (with an American accent and fabulous dresses) coming to terms with her own patriotism once Nazi Germany invades Paris. It's just too bad that nowhere is there really an "antiwar sentiment" throughout the film, full of stock footage, bad editing, and fluff; if anything, the duplicity of her leading man (Phillip Dorn) as he portrays a collaborator to the Nazi's (but then it's revealed he's working covert, probably to add to the suspense) and then the appearance of John Wayne, of all people, playing an American aviator, was only for the sake of playing the worn out love triangle her films endlessly presented, and by the time this movie came around, it was basically over. One more film, ABOVE SUSPICION, would have her cancel out her contract to MGM and begin her Warner Bros. phase, which would be more productive.

lwetzel Joan Crawford is OK as a disillusioned and confused french Mademoiselle coming to grips with the German occupation of France in WWII. The movie is everywhere - downed pilots, civilian collaboration with the Nazis and love. Joan falls for a couple of guys...a Frenchman and a downed RAF pilot (John Wayne - on screen for only about half of the movie and unfortunately miscast). He tries to disguise himself as a college student with Joan's help. Too much of the movie is about German carpetbaggers shopping for high fashion and looting the Louvre of French art treasures. If the movie had focused on Joan and her travails, it would have been better.