Overwrought Wartime Romance

Rating: 4/10 (15 May 1999)

Am I the only person not to like this film, or just the only one (almost) to say so? At the time it was made, it was put together in a rush by a whole group of different scriptwriters, with most of the people involved in the film seeing it as nothing special. I agree with them! I found it generally trite and predictable. Almost everything about this film is artificial - the setting, the plot and the ending, as is normally the case in wartime propaganda films hastily put-together or not. The person whose fate we are supposed to care about is presented one-dimensionally, whilst the characteristic which defines Bogart for what he is (hard-bitten worldly cynicsym) is the characteristic he will have to lose if the film is to have a schmaltzy ending. What is his real motivation? Why does he do the things he does? There is really no character development at all. Does he believe in ideals and if he does do they have to be other people's? Or is he just chivalrous, or even whimsical or perverse? At a time when the British Empire was close to exhaustion and millions had died in Russia and central Europe, there is a little too much of the lone American saving the conscience of the world about it for comfort. Of course, the makers of the film only ever intended to make a simple propaganda film and they did their job well.They gave the audience the Bogey they wanted and were suitably rewarded with affection from more than one generation of filmgoers. But this is not a serious film, whatever Woody Allen may think.