Richard Ryen Movies
Richard Revi led a roller-coaster of a career as an actor on-stage and screen between two continents, mostly thanks to the rise of the Nazis in Germany. Born Richard Anton Robert Felix in Föherczeglack, in what was then Austria-Hungary in 1885, he embarked on an acting career in the theater in the second half of the first decade of the 20th century. Using the professional name Richard Revi, he subsequently moved into directing and achieved some considerable success and respect in Zurich and later in Germany. His most important protégé during the early '20s was a youthful dancer/actress/singer who was known originally as Karoline Wilhemine Charlotte Blamauer, but, with Revi's help and encouragement -- and a shared love of the two for Uncle Vanya -- took the stage name Lotte Lenja, later altered to Lotte Lenya. Revi failed in his initial attempt to break into theater in Germany by way of Berlin, though in the process of this abortive effort he did inadvertently facilitate the first meeting between Lenya and her future husband, Kurt Weill. It was in Munich that Revi ended up making his name, as the stage director of the Munich Chamber Theater. He also began a screen career, appearing in such films as The Bartered Bride (1932), The Tunnel (1933), Inheritance in Pretoria, White Majesty, and Peer Gynt (all 1934).The rise of the Nazi Party to power in Germany in 1933 cost Revi his position, however, and he eventually moved to America, where he began working onscreen under the name Richard Ryen (sometimes spelled Richard Ryan). Rather ironically, most of the roles that he played during World War II were Nazi officers and officials, most notably in Michael Curtiz's Casablanca, in which he portrayed Colonel Heinz, the aide to the Gestapo Major Strasser (portrayed by his fellow expatriate Conrad Veidt), forever walking in the shadow of his superior. He also occasionally played other parts, including that of the narrator in the feature Chetniks (1943). Revi also occasionally got to work in non-war-related movies, including The Constant Nymph (1943) and Salome, Where She Danced (1945). His best postwar role was probably as Meyer in Billy Wilder's ironic, bittersweet comedy A Foreign Affair (1948), shot and set in postwar Berlin. He worked mainly on-stage after World War II, and principally in America, although he did resume something of a European career in Switzerland before becoming a writer. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Constance Bennett both produced and starred in the espionager Paris Underground. Bennett and Gracie Fields play, respectively, an American and an English citizen trapped in Paris when the Nazis invade. The women team up to help Allied aviators escape from the occupied city into Free French territory. The screenplay was based on the true wartime activities of Etta Shiber, who engineered the escape of nearly 300 Allied pilots. British fans of comedienne Gracie Fields were put off by the scenes in which she is tortured by the Gestapo, while Constance Bennett's following had been rapidly dwindling since the 1930s; as a result, the heartfelt but tiresome Paris Underground failed to make a dent at the box-office. It would be Constance Bennett's last starring film--and Gracie Fields' last film, period. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gracie Fields, Kurt Kreuger, (more)
- 1944
Secrets of Scotland Yard is Republic's spin on a plotline first elucidated in the old E. Phillips Oppenheim novel The Great Impersonation. After losing WW I, the German high command, with remarkable foresight, prepares for the next war by planting a spy in the British Admiralty. Edgar Barrier plays the dual role of the German spy and his British twin brother. When one twin is killed, the other assumes his identity. The question: is the surviving brother the "good" one or the bad? It is up to C. Aubrey Smith, cast as Scotland Yard inspector Sir Christopher Belt, to sort out the mystery. Though it owes a great deal to the aforementioned Oppenheim yarn, Secrets of Scotland Yard is actually based on a novel by Denison Clift, who also wrote the screenplay. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edgar Barrier, Stephanie Bachelor, (more)
- 1943
With Dorothy Arzner in the director's chair, it's no wonder that First Comes Courage has a more feminist slant than most WWII "underground" films. Merle Oberon plays Nicole Larsen, a member of the Norwegian resistance. To obtain important war information, Nicole romances Nazi major Paul Dichter Carl Esmond, enduring the slings and arrows of those villagers unaware of her motives. Her mission is further complicated when she is reunited with British commando Allan Lowell Brian Aherne, with whom she'd had a prewar affair. Forced to choose between love and duty, Nicole makes the only decision possible under the circumstances. First Comes Courage was based on The Commados, a novel by Elliot Arnold. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Merle Oberon, Brian Aherne, (more)
- 1943
The time is World War II. A group of disillusioned French soldiers are approached by Nazi troops and promised safe passage to their homeland. The Frenchmen willingly surrender, only to discover that their next destination is a German concentration camp located near a Gallic village. The anticipated escape attempt results in an uprising from the French villagers--hence the film's title, which refers to the emblem of the Free-French underground. Cross of Lorraine compensates for its Hollywood's-eye view of France (no more realistic than the Paris of the Ernst Lubitsch musicals) with some remarkably graphic sequences showing the extent of German brutality. The melting-pot cast includes Frenchman Jean-Pierre Aumont as a patriot, Hungarian Peter Lorre as a hateful Nazi, American Gene Kelly as a cynical victim of German torture, and Canadian Hume Cronyn as the traditionally rodent-like informer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Pierre Aumont, Gene Kelly, (more)
- 1943
In this drama, set at a WW II munitions plant, the lives of five workers are chronicled. Their stories are told via flashback. Though they all ride together to work everyday, and they think they know each other very well, the stories they tell show them otherwise. The group of workers is made up of: a fighter for the French underground who came to America to help her countrymen back home; a race-car driver who, while racing, sustained serious injuries that rendered him unfit for military service; a disillusioned "Miss America"; a prison warden who was ordered to execute his own brother; and a hobo who decided to do something to help his country. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margo, John Carradine, (more)
- 1948
- NR
Something seems fishy when a married man finds new adventure and romance in this comic fantasy. Arthur Peabody (William Powell) is a slightly stuffy businessman from Boston who after turning fifty finds himself suffering from a full-fledged midlife crisis. On the advice of his doctor, Peabody and his wife Polly (Irene Hervey) head to the Caribbean for a restful vacation. One evening, Peabody decides to do some fishing, and he pulls in a highly unexpected catch -- a beautiful mermaid named Lenore (Ann Blythe). Peabody takes the mysterious creature home with him (keeping her in a backyard pond for safekeeping), but while he soon becomes infatuated with Lenore, she's quite shy around others, refusing to let people see her except for the tip of her tail, so few believe his story about the big one he's reeled in. Makeup whiz Bud Westmore designed the special mermaid costuime for Ann Blythe; keep an ear open for the song "The Caribbees", co-written for the movie by Johnny Mercer. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Powell, Ann Blyth, (more)
- 1946
- NR
Art critic and forgery expert George Steele (Pat O'Brien) is apprehended by the police as he desperately tries to break into the Manhattan Museum in the opening scene of Crack-Up, a noir mystery directed by Irving Reis. Steele does not understand his own bizarre actions, but explains that he was in a train wreck and had to get back to the museum. Questioned by Lt. Cochrane (Wallace Ford), who tells him there have been no train wrecks in months, Steele relates, in flashback, the events leading up to the incident. Earlier in the day the head of the museum had suspended him for alienating wealthy patrons by criticizing "art snobs" in a lecture. He then received a phone call informing him that his mother was sick, and caught the train to the hospital, but never got there. Though suspicious of Steele, Cochrane is persuaded by the shadowy Mr. Traybin (Herbert Marshall) to release him so he can follow Steele. The next day Steele retraces his steps and discovers that someone had set him up to be discredited, though he knows neither who nor why. Following the murder of a friend who was trying to help him, he discovers that forgeries of some very famous paintings are at the heart of the matter, but getting to the culprit is a more difficult task. ~ Steve Press, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pat O'Brien, Claire Trevor, (more)
One of the most beloved American films, this captivating wartime adventure of romance and intrigue from director Michael Curtiz defies standard categorization. Simply put, it is the story of Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a world-weary ex-freedom fighter who runs a nightclub in Casablanca during the early part of WWII. Despite pressure from the local authorities, notably the crafty Capt. Renault (Claude Rains), Rick's café has become a haven for refugees looking to purchase illicit letters of transit which will allow them to escape to America. One day, to Rick's great surprise, he is approached by the famed rebel Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid) and his wife, Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), Rick's true love who deserted him when the Nazis invaded Paris. She still wants Victor to escape to America, but now that she's renewed her love for Rick, she wants to stay behind in Casablanca. "You must do the thinking for both of us," she says to Rick. He does, and his plan brings the story to its satisfyingly logical, if not entirely happy, conclusion. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, (more)
