Paul Graetz Movies

A View from the Bridge is set in New York, but the alleged political undesirability of playwright Arthur Miller dictated that this film be lensed in France. Director Sidney Lumet shot the film in both English and French, with the English version sounding more recited than acted at times. Raf Vallone plays Eddie Carbone, a tough Italian-American longshoreman living in Brooklyn with his wife Beatrice Carbone (Maureen Stapleton), and her comely niece, Catherine (Carol Lawrence) -- to whom he feels an overwhelming yet undeclared attraction. Then two illegal immigrants, Rodolpho and Marco (Jean Sorel and Raymond Pellegrin), turn up, and rage builds in Eddie when he senses a burgeoning, mutual attraction between Rodolpho and Catherine. To divert suspicions of his own incestuous desires, he first declares Rodolpho a homosexual, then does everything in his power to ensure that Rodolpho and Marco are deported - thus setting the film up for a surprisingly grisly and shocking climax. The film is more commonly remembered today for a "shocking" set piece, in which Eddie kisses Rodolpho full on the lips to "prove" that the boy is gay. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In Nicholas Ray's WWII drama, two British officers, Captain Leith (Richard Burton) and Major Brand (German character actor Curd Jürgens, who would later play Bond foe Karl Stromberg in The Spy Who Loved Me), a South African, are being considered to lead a daring raid to steal crucial documents from a Nazi stronghold in Libya. The two don't seem particularly fond of each other. Brand's wife, Jane (Ruth Roman of Strangers on a Train), arrives on the base. There's an odd awkwardness when Brand introduces her to Leith at the officers' club. It turns out the two already know each other, intimately. They were romantically involved long ago, until Leith broke it off without warning. Jane later met Brand. Leith and Jane keep their relationship a secret from Brand, but he realizes something's up when he goes out for a bit and comes back to find them dancing together. He later gets angry when his wife slips up and refers to Leith as "Jimmy." Brand and Leith are chosen to lead the mission together. Jane says goodbye to Leith, and Wilkins (Nigel Green of The Ipcress File) and some other soldiers see them together. The raid goes fairly smoothly, until Brand can't bring himself to kill a German sentry, and Leith feels compelled to step in and do it for him. Brand's resentment of Leith grows. The team steals the documents and heads out across the desert to make their escape. They're attacked by a German patrol, and after the melee, Brand arouses suspicious when he orders Leith to stay with three badly wounded soldiers while the rest of the group leaves for the rendezvous point. Bitter Victory is based on the novel by René Hardy. Jean-Luc Godard famously said of the film in his review, "Nicholas Ray is cinema." ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Rene Clement's Monsieur Ripois was released in English-speaking countries as The Knave of Hearts and Lovers, Happy Lovers. Relying heavily on voiceover narration and subjective camerawork, the film has Gerard Phillipe in the title role. Believing himself to be love with his wife's best friend (Natasha Parry), Ripois pours out his heart to her by recounting his past amours. Though he has known many women, he has never truly loved any of them. This has proved more troublesome for Ripois than for the ladies in his life, but somehow he never learns his lesson--not even during the film's final scene. British actresses Valerie Hobson and Joan Greenwood are well cast as Ripois' wife and former girlfriend, respectively, while Germaine Montero has an effective cameo as a warm-hearted prostitute. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Heart of a Nation was filmed in 1940, just after the Nazi occupation of Paris. The film traces the fortunes of the Froment family of Montmartre, from the Franco-Prussian war of 1871 to World War II. Comedy and tragedy are deftly blended throughout; Raimu's visit to the Moulin Rouge is as hilarious as Michele Morgan's loss of an arm during World War I is heartbreaking. When the Nazis became privy to the existence of Heart of a Nation, they ordered its director (Julien Duvivier) arrested and the negative destroyed. Both director and negative managed to escape to the U.S., where a dubbed version of Heart of a Nation was finally made available in 1943. Intriguingly enough, the man responsible for the salvation of the film was a German officer who happened to be a fan of Duvivier's work. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

April Blossoms is based loosely on incidents in the life of composer Franz Schubert, here portrayed by legendary tenor Richard Tauber. The story concentrates on Schubert's ill-fated romance with Vicki (Jane Baxter), the daughter of a prominent Austria ballet master. Upon realizing that Vicki is enamored of Rudi (Carl Esmond), a titled nobleman, Schubert magnanimously gives her up and even helps to rescue Rudi from arrest for indulging in a "forbidden" romance with a commoner. All of this is set against the backdrop of Vienna in the 1820s, sumptuously re-created in the studios of British International Productions. April Blossoms was distributed in the U.S. by MGM. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Margaret Lindsay stars in the title role, playing a young woman imprisoned for a crime which she didn't commit. The real culprit is her jailbird husband (Cesar Romero), a smooth jewel thief with a jealous streak. Margaret hopes to put her past behind her by taking up with a society man (Dick Foran), keeping the affair secret lest her fugitive husband kill her lover. Released in England as G-Man's Wife (Lindsay ends up with government agent Pat O'Brien), Public Enemy's Wife was based on a story co-written by none other than David O. Selznick. The film was remade as a 50-minute "B," Bullets for O'Hara (41), with a young Anthony Quinn as the criminal and Joan Perry (later the wife of Columbia chieftain Harry Cohn) as his wife. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This gentle ethnic drama from the UK concerns Jake Cohen, a wealthy, self-made Jewish entrepreneur who began his career as a humble peddler and, over the decades, turned his business into a massive, booming department store with thousands of workers. When his sons begin employing modern technologies and business methods in the store, they alienate their father, who pines for the old days and the old ways of doing things. Jake's youngest son takes off for America, and falls in love with Irish lass Sally O'Connor (Meriel Ferbes) on his way home. They become engaged, much to the consternation of Jake and his wife, who have long assumed that the boy would marry his Jewish childhood sweetheart. Then, suddenly, Jake's wife dies of a heart attack. Devastated by the loss, and increasingly irritated by his sons' modernization of the business, Jake dresses in peddler's clothes and heads west, to walk the fields of England. However, he soon reads in the newspaper that his 3,000 employees have staged a strike in protest of the sons' decision not to give them the perks that Jake conceded to, prior to the takeover. He hops a pig-filled truck back to London, where he wrests control of the business from his sons, resorts once again to his "old business methods," and - in the final scenes of the picture -- gives his youngest express permission to marry a Gentile. The film wraps with two weddings for the boy and Sally, one in a Jewish synagogue and one in a Catholic church. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

British musical comedy star Jack Hulbert plays an amateur sleuth who takes over for the "real" Bulldog Drummond (Atholl Fleming), who is sidelined by an injury. Hulbert's quarry is master criminal Ralph Richardson (who himself played Drummond in a 1934 film). To expedite his scheme to rob the British museum, Richardson kidnaps Hulbert's girl friend Fay Wray (who left Hollywood for England because she was sick of playing damsels in distress!) The film's thrilling conclusion finds Hulbert duking it out with Richardson near the electrified Third Rail of the London Subway. The US version of Bulldog Jack, re-titled Alias Bulldog Drummond, has all the film's comedy scenes removed--inexplicably, since Jack Hulbert is far more effective as a comic than a straight actor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mimi is based on Murger's La Vie de Boheme, with operatic snatches from Puccini's La Boheme occasionally thrown in. The very healthy-looking Gertrude Lawrence seems an odd casting choice for the consumptive Mimi, whose tragic romance with starving artist Rodolfe (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) in Paris' Latin Quarter provides the film's dramatic thrust. Director Paul Stein has spared nothing to make the film as historically accurate as possible; unfortunately, Stein has also robbed the story of much of its vitality in the process. Fans of Gertrude Lawrence couldn't have been happy that her singing was confined to only one tune, and a forgettable one at that. Originally released at 98 minutes, Mimi is currently available only in its 62-minute American release version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jew Suss was a well-worn stage drama based on an old novel by Lionel Feuchtwanger. The story involves an enterprising Jewish businessman (Conrad Veidt) who gains power and influence in the European community of Wurttemburg. He does this to help his people, who have suffered persecution under the Gentile burgomeisters. To his horror, Suss discovers that he is actually not Jewish at all. The question: Was his own suffering on behalf of the community's genuine Jews worth it, and will he continue to act in their best interest? Filmed as a protest against the rising tide of Anti-Semitism in Germany, Jew Suss (released in the U.S. as Power) was far from subtle, but its heart was in the right place. There would be a reprehensible 1940 German remake of Jew Suss, this time filmed under the aegis of Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels, wherein the story was perverted into an anti-Jewish tract and Suss was portrayed as a drooling rapist! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this fantastical mystery, a scientist devises and ingenious, if not cold-blooded plan for collecting insurance money. First he kills the involved parties; then he brings them back to life. He is quite successful--until Scotland Yard puts its best inspector on the case. Unfortunately, even he cannot figure out the scam until he gets some invaluable assistance from his daughter's fiance. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide