You wanted more Paul Henreid and you got him, in "Night Train To Munich"(1940), directed by Carol Reed, the Englishman who also brought us the classics "Odd Man Out" and "The Third Man". Henreid, billed as Paul von Henreid this time around (perhaps to make him sound more JAIR-Mun), plays a Gestapo (Gesch-schtappo) officer tasked with enforcing the co-operation of a brilliant Czech scientist, who has developed a special armor plating coveted by the Nazis. He's trying to flee his country after the German annexation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, and the Nazis have put his daughter (Margaret Lockwood) into a Prague concentration camp in retaliation, to coerce her into revealing his whereabouts. She won't do it, but instead of torturing her they try a different tactic. In the camp, she is befriended by Karl Marsen (Henried), a virulent anti-Fascist who shouts down their captors and is beaten to a pulp. He's unbowed by his punishment and plans an escape, in which he invites the daughter to participate.
While planning the getaway, Marsen ingratiates himself to her, and gains enough trust that Lockwood reveals to him the details of her father's whereabouts. This proves to be disastrous, for the escape was a ruse, and Marsen was never a real prisoner; he was actually a plant, a Gestapo Leftenant, and the escape plot was deliberately set up to allow Lockwood to run free, in the belief that she'd go straight to her father who could then be captured. But after the escape, she can't locate him as expected. He's moved again. So, she ends up in England, where she is assisted by a veddy Brrittissh intelligence agent named "Dickie Randall" (Rex Harrison). Like Henreid his German counterpart, Harrison is also posing, in his case as a sheet music salesman who belts out the popular songs of the day to draw customers. This gives ol' Rex a chance to show off some of the song-and-dance talent he was later famous for, but in "Night Train", we've gotta ditch all of that because he's gonna help Lockwood get her father back, while trying to get rid of Paul Henreid in the process. In doing so, he will have to disguise himself as a Nazi, in order to enter the lion's den.
There's a ton of good stuff happening in this movie, including the prison escape, dialogue between officious, uptight Nazi adjutants (the kind who are played as caricatures in wartime films), there are car chases, a double romance (both men are wooing Lockwood), and finally in the last act, the half-hour ride aboard the train, en route to Munich, where Henreid will attempt to expose Rex Harrison as a spy. Harrison, however, finds help in the form of of two ordinary British chaps who know him from London. The whole thing winds up in a Hitchcockian cliffhanger over the Swiss Alps. It's as great a finale as you will ever see, and a fine finish to this suspenseful and highly entertaining movie.
Two Very Big Thumbs Up for "Night Train to Munich". ////
I also watched an English television documentary called "The Somme" (2005), based on the hellish World War One battle of the same name, which is depicted in the film though re-enactments and a handful of real life clips from war footage filmed in 1916, which was part of a silent movie, also called "The Somme" that was rushed to theatres in Britain at the time, in an effort to generate public support for the war. In the 2005 film, narrated by Tilda Swinton, the battle is retold, ala Ken Burns' "Civil War", in the words of the soldiers themselves, from letters sent home and diaries later recovered. It's a sad, sombre affair that drives home the insanity of war, but especially trench warfare, which in this case - the Battle of the Somme - cost the lives of one million young men, British, French and German. And that was just one battle. The point is quietly made, without accusation, that the massive loss of life was all at the insistence of one British General, in order to gain a few hundred yards of ground. There is a poetic undertow to "The Somme", and no shortage of courage, but it's a sad film, and so I recommend it for war buffs only, or the purpose of history.
Watch it to honor the young men on all sides, many of them only teenagers, who died fighting their European neighbors all those years ago. No soldier should ever be forgotten. ////
I promise to return to our usual late night posting schedule by the next blog or two. I've been wiped out by the events of the past few days, but I'm feeling better and we'll get things back on track, Maybe we can start adding a musical element as well, nothing lengthy but just an "Album of the Day", perhaps. Right now I'm still listening to my Handel Organ Concertos, but I've also had an earworm for Francois Couperin's "Les Barricades Mysterieuses" (aka Mysterious Barricades), which you've no doubt heard. Though it's short, I think it's one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written, originally for harpsichord but in the versions I love the most, played on piano. My favorite one is by Gyorgy Cziffra, a Hungarian pianist who recorded it in 1982. For a different interpretation, I also like Alexandre Tharaud's take, played fast but without loss of feeling.
I just now watched the Perseverance land on Mars - super exciting! It's gonna be driving around looking for Little Green Men, and who knows........it may already have found a few. :) Maybe they can send one of their Rovers down here in return. That would be pretty cool, eh?
Have a great day, and Tons of Love as always. I'll get the blog back on track at the regularly scheduled time (pronounced shedge-yooled as I'm sure you are aware). :)
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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