... and that goes double for films made in America during WWII. Watch on the Rhine is a good example of the kinds of A list films that got churned out in 1942 and 1943, when the outcome of the war was very much in doubt. Set in 1940, before America entered the war, German born engineer Kurt Mueller (Paul Lukas) who has been heavily involved in the antifascist movement for the last 7 years and his wife (Bette Davis as Sarah) and their three children are on their way to the American home of Sarah's mother in Washington. They enter through Mexico and take the train there.
Now the first half of the film is a tough hard slog, and actually if it wasn't for the tension and drama and sprinkling of humanity in the second half I'd have given the film a 5/10. Bette's mom is about 60, and goes about telling everybody what a looker she was in her day. She snagged a man who turned out to become associate justice of the Supreme Court. They clearly show his name and vital statistics on a building that she enters (1860 - 1919). Now if Fanny Farrelley is 60, that means her husband was twenty years older than her, and that would have been a weird May December wedding for the time. There are other gaffes along the way.
Back to the story. The family arrives in Washington and is heartily greeted by Bette's brother, the wooden Donald Woods as David, and Fanny. Oh, and Fanny's other two houseguests - a broke compulsively gambling Romanian count named Count Teck de Brancovis (George Coulouris), and his very unhappily wedded American wife Mart (Geraldine Fitzgerald). The count is given to gambling with the Germans in their embassy. Being broke, he would like to be able to give them some information for which he could be handsomely paid. But he is a nobody.
Apparently David and Mart have a crush on each other, and there is lots of hand holding and entwined arms and romantic yoohoos that normally would break production code etiquette, but I guess if the possibly slighted spouse is a Fascist sympathizer, which he is, it's perfectly OK??
The first half is just over the top patriotic. The children act like little patriotic robots to the point I expect one of them to blow a fuse or overheat and have a spring or screw come flying out. Bette's character is just a little too enthusiastic about how she has loved being poor with three poor hungry kids for the last seven years. All that matters to her is Kurt's work. And Max Steiner is not blameless in this thing either. When a government building is visited, the score is uber patriotic. Even if they only show a blank wall of the building. When Bette Davis shows up there is "that woman's music" of most Bette films of the era. And when the Count is around there is sinister music, just so you don't forget the count is sinister.
So here we have, in the same house, a German man of the resistance movement who is trying to keep a low profile who the German government would love to catch, and an evil Romanian count who fraternized with the Germans at their embassy who'd sell his own mother to the Germans if they were buying. And he is already getting suspicious of who Kurt really is. Complications ensue.
This is mainly worth watching for probably Lukas' best performance, for seeing that Bette Davis really could give an understated performance if it meant something to her, and a great example of an A list film of the time, considered for many Academy Awards in its day, that now seems like a shrill production.
Now the first half of the film is a tough hard slog, and actually if it wasn't for the tension and drama and sprinkling of humanity in the second half I'd have given the film a 5/10. Bette's mom is about 60, and goes about telling everybody what a looker she was in her day. She snagged a man who turned out to become associate justice of the Supreme Court. They clearly show his name and vital statistics on a building that she enters (1860 - 1919). Now if Fanny Farrelley is 60, that means her husband was twenty years older than her, and that would have been a weird May December wedding for the time. There are other gaffes along the way.
Back to the story. The family arrives in Washington and is heartily greeted by Bette's brother, the wooden Donald Woods as David, and Fanny. Oh, and Fanny's other two houseguests - a broke compulsively gambling Romanian count named Count Teck de Brancovis (George Coulouris), and his very unhappily wedded American wife Mart (Geraldine Fitzgerald). The count is given to gambling with the Germans in their embassy. Being broke, he would like to be able to give them some information for which he could be handsomely paid. But he is a nobody.
Apparently David and Mart have a crush on each other, and there is lots of hand holding and entwined arms and romantic yoohoos that normally would break production code etiquette, but I guess if the possibly slighted spouse is a Fascist sympathizer, which he is, it's perfectly OK??
The first half is just over the top patriotic. The children act like little patriotic robots to the point I expect one of them to blow a fuse or overheat and have a spring or screw come flying out. Bette's character is just a little too enthusiastic about how she has loved being poor with three poor hungry kids for the last seven years. All that matters to her is Kurt's work. And Max Steiner is not blameless in this thing either. When a government building is visited, the score is uber patriotic. Even if they only show a blank wall of the building. When Bette Davis shows up there is "that woman's music" of most Bette films of the era. And when the Count is around there is sinister music, just so you don't forget the count is sinister.
So here we have, in the same house, a German man of the resistance movement who is trying to keep a low profile who the German government would love to catch, and an evil Romanian count who fraternized with the Germans at their embassy who'd sell his own mother to the Germans if they were buying. And he is already getting suspicious of who Kurt really is. Complications ensue.
This is mainly worth watching for probably Lukas' best performance, for seeing that Bette Davis really could give an understated performance if it meant something to her, and a great example of an A list film of the time, considered for many Academy Awards in its day, that now seems like a shrill production.