Annabella Movies

This film is not only a revealing glimpse into the workings of the O.S.S. (Office of Strategic Services) during WW II, but it is also a full-fledged spy thriller. An excellent cast includes James Cagney, Karl Malden, E.G. Marshall, and Red Buttons. Cagney stars as an O.S.S. training officer, bent upon discovering a German traitor within his ranks while at the same time completing highly dangerous espionage assignments. The risks increase when one of his men is murdered from within, and Cagney, convinced he knows who the murdering infiltrator is, vows revenge. Authentic O.S.S. film footage make this film historically significant as well as entertaining. ~ All Movie Guide

Using materials from 1927 and 1936 versions of his classic film Napoleon vu par Abel Gance (hence the presence of several individuals in the cast and credits who had since died), director Gance was able to restore and reconstruct it for modern audiences. This four-hour-long version was made possible through the efforts of Claude Lelouche and the Centre Du Cinema of the French government. It contains scenes which were newly shot for this release, and has an introduction in which Gance explains what his original intentions were for the film, and why the silent version was unavailable for so long. One of the cinematic innovations remaining from those earlier versions is the use of a triply split screen. Gance originally shot at higher film speeds (20 frames per second) than most of his contemporaries. The higher film speed yielded smoother-looking movement (acceptable to modern viewers) and aided in studio dubbing. Among the legendary actors appearing in the film are Koubitzky, Antonin Artaud and Annabella. The story of the film covers the rise of Napoleon during the French Revolution through to the Italian Campaign, which propelled him to power. The full terror of the Revolution is shown, with a menacing performance by Antonin Artaud as Marat. Gance himself appears as the revolutionary apologist, St. Just. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Charles Boyer played his first major Hollywood role (and gets to sing in the bargain!) in the oddball musical romance Caravan. A miscast Loretta Young stars as young Countess Wilms, who is forced to wed by midnight or lose her inheritance. She impulsively chooses gypsy vagabond Latzi (Boyer), offering him a huge sum of money if he'll consent. Swallowing his pride, Latzi agrees to the marriage, but soon the coy Countess falls in love with young Lieutenant Von Tokay (Philips Holmes) -- who is himself in love with Latzi's gypsy sweetheart Tinka (Jean Parker). Director Erik Charrell, famed for his European musical productions (notably Congress Dances), seems uncomfortable adapting to the Hollywood movie-making process. Though evidently intended to be taken seriously, there are times that Caravan comes off like a parody of operettas: one half expects the stars to join in a duet of Cole Porter's spoofish "Wunderbar." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hotel du Nord was the second in Marcel Carne's trio of "fatalistic romantic melodramas", bracketed on either side by Quai des Brumes and Le Jour se Leve. Star-crossed lovers Annabella and Jean-Pierre Aumont draw up a suicide pact, making their fatal rendezvous at the Hotel du Nord. Aumont shoots Annabella, but loses his nerve when time comes to take his own life. Seedy criminal Louis Jouvet and his mistress Arletty help Aumont to escape the authorities-but he can't very well run away from himself. Happily, Annabella recovers from her wounds and forgives the repentant Aumont. Fate, however, has other things in store for the tormented hero, as elucidated by the grimly ironic ending. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmmaker Anatole Litvak was still one year away from his "breakthrough" picture Mayerling when he co-wrote and directed L'Equipage (The Crew). Charles Vanel and Annabella star respectively as a daring WW I aviator and his loving but neglected wife. Ostracized by the other pilots because of his recklessness and standoffishness, Vanel nonetheless befriends a young flyboy (Jean-Pierre Aumont). It is therefore a great source of consternation for Aumont when he discovers that the woman with whom he's fallen in love is none other than Vanel's wife Annabella. This untenable situation is resolved during an airborne skirmish with the enemy, resulting in the death of one of the two male protagonists -- and a finale that belongs in the Self-Sacrificial Hall of Fame. Based on a story by Josef Kessel, L'Equipage was remade by Litvak in Hollywood as The Woman I Love (1937), with Paul Muni (complete with Charles Vanel's beard!), Miriam Hopkins and Louis Hayward as the romantic triangle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Less ambitious than his previous Golgotha, Julien Duvivier's La Bandera is nonetheless more entertaining. A Foreign Legion yarn, La Bandera downplays spectacular battle scenes in favor of a romantic triangle. Accused of murder, Pierre (Jean Gabin) joins the Legion, with detective Lucas (Robert Le Vigan) hot on his trail. Both Pierre and Lucas fall in love with beautiful Bedouin girl Aischa (Annabella), which only intensifies their hatred of one another. The two antagonists are eventually forced to bury the hatchet when fighting shoulder to shoulder against uprising natives. The ending is rather startling, inasmuch as the audience was expected the actor with the best screen billing to get the girl. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Citadel of Silence is set in Poland in the years just before WWI. Involved in an abortive insurrection against the occupying Russians, hero Cesar Birsky (Bernard Lancret) is sentenced to a prison where the inmates are never permitted to speak (hence the film's title). Birsky's sweetheart Viana (Annabella) is so anxious to stay close to her lover that she is willing to become the bride of the prison commandant (Pierre Renoir). All loose plot ends are tied up when Birsky spearheads a mass escape from the Citadel of Silence. It is likely that this entertaining but unremarkable film might never have been released in the U.S. had it not been for the recent marriage of its leading lady Annabella to Hollywood's Tyrone Power. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

René Lefèvre and Annabella are sheer delights, as is everything else in Le Million, René Clair's bright and winning early sound comedy. Clair has his actors sing their dialogue in a blithe and breezy way and utilizes a succession of surrealistic and Dadaesque touches to chronicle this lighthearted extended chase, concerning an artist racing through the streets of Paris (an amazing studio set constructed by Lazare Meerson) in order to retrieve a winning lottery ticket left in the pocket of a discarded jacket. Many of Clair's comic embellishments (like the dubbed-in sound effects of a football game over a portion of the chase) have been used endlessly in comedies ever since, but in Clair's hands, the old jokes still look fresh and magical. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide