Paris Underground
“SENSATIONAL! REVEALING! Amazing story that tears the veil of secrecy from terrors of occupied Paris!”
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.
Details
Release Date: 10/18/1945
Runtime: 96 minutes
Languages: English
Director: Gregory Ratoff
00Production
Companies: United Artists, Constance Bennett Productions
Countries: United States of America
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Reviews
CinemaSerf
This is quite a quirky and entertaining story of two unlikely ladies who decide to help smuggle allied airmen out of France during WWII. "Kitty de Mornay" (Constance Bennett) a determined American and her British friend "Emmy Quayle" (Gracie Fields) devise some quite enterprising methods to enable their charges to avoid the pursuing Nazis - a cunning wheeze involving funeral cortèges being a successful example. The frustrated Bosch are not going to give up, though, and soon the net tightens around the courageous pair as "Capt. von Weber" (Kurt Kreuger) begins to smell a rat. The dialogue is a bit relentless at times, to be honest - especially at the start, but once the film gets up an head of steam, it is an enjoyable tale of wartime fortitude that does not end as you might expect. The production standards are fine, the two at the top of the bill hold this together well, and director Gregory Ratoff manages quite successfully to include some light-heartedness as the story treads it's perilous line. Well worth a watch.
