The Conspirators

Plot synopsis:
During World War II, former schoolteacher turned Dutch resistance fighter Vincent Van Der Lyn (Paul Henreid) causes so much trouble for the Nazis, they place a bounty on his head. As a result, he is ordered to travel to England by way of neutral Lisbon.
On Van Der Lyn's arrival, Police Captain Pereira (Joseph Calleia) notes that his passport has no exit stamp on it (indicating he sneaked across the border), but reassures the traveler that all that matters is that the Portuguese visa is in order. German agent Otto Lutzke (Kurt Katch) becomes suspicious and starts following the Dutchman.
At a restaurant, Van Der Lyn is pleasantly surprised when a beautiful stranger, Irene Von Mohr (Hedy Lamarr), sits down at his table. Irene had passed a card to a man in a nearby alley, only to see him shot in the back. She fled to the restaurant; when the police arrived to question everyone, she sat down to throw off suspicion. She describes herself merely as a frequent gambler at the Casino Estoril. She leaves, supposedly to make a telephone call, but never returns. The Dutchman goes to the casino and finds Irene. As she warns him to stay away from her, they are joined by Hugo Von Mohr (Victor Francen), who is a high ranking German diplomatic official, and Lutzke. The Germans soon identify Van Der Lyn as the saboteur nicknamed the "Flying Dutchman".
Van Der Lyn meets his contact, Ricardo Quintanilla (Sydney Greenstreet), who introduces him to other members of his resistance group: Pole Jan Bernazsky (Peter Lorre), Norwegian Anton Wynat (an uncredited Gregory Gaye), and Frenchman Paulo Leiris. Quintanilla asks him to brief Jennings (an uncredited Monte Blue), Van Der Lyn's replacement. In private, Quintanilla warns the newcomer that he suspects one of their group is a traitor.
The next day, when Irene gets into her automobile, Van Der Lyn invites himself along for the ride. At first annoyed, she gradually warms to him, and they spend the day together. He professes that he is in love with her. She tells him that she married Hugo after he rescued her from Dachau.
When he returns to his hotel room, he finds Jennings slumped over a desk. Jennings is able to give him a message before dying. Acting on a tip, the police arrest him for murder. A distraught Irene tells Captain Pereira that the Dutchman was with her all that day, but declines to testify in court. When she speaks with Van Der Lyn, he accuses her of framing him.
After he escapes, Irene finds him and offers to take him to Quintanilla, revealing that she too is a resistance fighter. His suspicions are allayed after she gives him a gun. When they reach Quintanilla and the others, they charge him with being a turncoat. He manages to convince them otherwise when he gives Quintanilla Jenning's dying message, which warns that his killers have taken the "eagle", a rare coin that was to have been used to identify him, and something that Van Der Lyn had not been told. Hugo is then revealed to be part of the underground group.
Quintanilla decides to set a trap, informing the others that Jennings' replacement is in the casino hotel, knowing that the Germans will have to eliminate him in order to successfully plant their own agent. Fifteen minutes before they are to meet the new man, Quintanilla reveals his room number, 865, to the others, gathered at a roulette table along with known Nazi agents. Pereira spots Van Der Lyn, but is persuaded to wait for the real murderer to reveal himself. With time running out, Hugo places bets on 8, 6, and 5. Quintanilla and the others escort him away, but he manages to escape. He is killed in a shootout with Van Der Lyn and Pereira. Van Der Lyn finds the eagle on his body.
Van Der Lyn decides to return to Occupied Europe in Jenning's place. Irene promises to wait for him.

Tags: murder

Review:
In order to counter the unbelievably negative previous review I shall first disagree with ALL of the "I spy" review.Jean Negulesco (Humoresque) directs an all-star cast in "The Conspirators", a truly remarkable film, and a MUST SEE!!
This film resembles "Casablanca" in that it has much of its feel--the cast, setting (WWII Portugal), romantic music, this film has it all!
Strangely enough, this film bears some similarity to Hedy Lamarr's life in Germany before her escape.
The fact that she was to be cast in Casablanca instead of Ingrid Bergman goes to show that the chemistry between Paul Henreid was definitely strong.
Unfortunately, Lamarr was not able to take the role so it was given to Bergman.Lamarr's enigma-like qualities is trademark of her style and adds to the film's appeal.Henreid is in his own element here and the man he was hinted at being in Casablanca comes to life.Sentimentality evidently fails to appeal to everyone.
Just look at the three versions of "The Maltese Falcon." Now it's wartime, and that hot property is, of course "Casablanca." In "The Conspirators," part of that magnificent cast is reunited - Paul Henried, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre - in this story of a Dutch freedom fighter, Vincent Van der Lyn, in neutral Lisbon and having trouble figuring out who wants to help him and who wants to hurt him.
The suspects are Greenstreet, the head of a resistance group, Lorre, one of its members, and the exquisite Hedy Lamarr, married to a Nazi official.The story is harder to follow and ultimately, the film is not as good as "Joan of Paris," another World War II film starring Henried, but it still has great atmosphere and is fairly intriguing.
Paul Henried, a very useful actor during World War II while the stars were away, does a good job as Van der Lyn. Lamarr is positively outrageously beautiful - no, she's not much of an actress - it's a face made for the closeup, and one can just look at her forever.
Definitely worth watching as it is also a good play on romanticism of the era.During World War 2 underground movements all through Europe helped thwart the Nazi movement.
In this movie a portrayal of the underground in 'neutral' Portugal is similar to what went on in Europe.
But that is a brief scene and does not detract from the film.Because of this movie Paul Henreid is one of my favorite actors along side Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre.
Hedy Lamarr is never more beautiful and it is always a pleasure to see Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre together.
The movie is justifiably compared with the much much better Casablanca.
Paul Henreid is escaping from the Nazis in neutral Lisbon.
See this film as an example of movie making during the war or to round out your viewing of its cast.
All the ingredients that made CASABLANCA such a mega-hit are present in THE CONSPIRATORS, but not one of the ingredients is able to put the film over the top as a story of intrigue, espionage and romance.What's surprising is that the film fails to sustain interest despite a great supporting cast that includes PETER LORRE, SYDNEY GREENSTREET and VICTOR FRANCEN.
The script is a talky, muddled bit of contrivances and clichés, with Henried as a Dutch freedom fighter in Lisbon clashing with the Nazis and falling under the spell of a beautiful woman who guards her secrets.HEDY LAMARR is lovely, of course, but her characterization is so paper-thin that all we can really see is her exotic glamor, without much passion or feeling below the make-up.
Nor is PAUL HENRIED seen at his best, more remote than usual in what should have been a much stronger role but is dulled by a witless script and a co-star with whom he has very little chemistry.The convoluted plot doesn't give the supporting actors much to do and it's somewhat of a relief when the story comes to downbeat ending..
Paul Henreid does not have the charisma of Humphrey Bogart, and Ingrid Bergman was always given credit for great performances, that she never quite deserved.
Hedy Lamarr on the other hand, was so beautiful, that critics would not even consider that she could act.
The character of Irene remains an enigma throughout the film and finally, there is not enough to make this movie enjoyable.Paul Henried was a lucky man being in Hollywood while a lot of the American stars were away fighting in WWII.
Hedy Lamarr's presence in the movie is pretext to present her in different costumes.
Henreid and Lamarr had not enough chemistry to make the film, at least, a nice love story.Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre are completely wasted and the rest of the players were not interesting enough to keep the viewer's attention at all times.
The greatness of this film lies in its ability to make you feel absorbed in the story, characters' lives, and outcomes.
Negulesco's masterful direction and the excellent cast's strong delivery leaves you wanting to follow every move and hear every word.There is also a nice variety of scenes throughout that engage you in the complexities of the characters' thoughts and lives.
Through Henreid's early anti-German sabotage in the Netherlands, music at Café Império in Lisbon, barroom conversations and back alley meet-ups, everything feels and moves perfectly, adding depth to the story.
No scene, word, or movement is ever out of place.The entire movie was interesting and enjoyable and I watched it several times in 1 week.
As for this particular movies attempt to capitalise on the success of the earlier film (Hollywood has always followed the proved formula method - and even more so now) so it might also be said, if this film had come along before Casablanca, it may just have received all the accolades.
I'm assuming 'Conspirators' would have been given the bigger budget (it has a more expensive look about it) and as it seems Casablanca was not anticipated to be the hit it turned out, so Warner's would then have hoped to follow up with another winner.Arthur Edeson's standout Cinematography is mesmerizing.
If anything, the post production alterations would have contributed to the movies hard to follow moments and contrivances, but this was typical with many films from this otherwise spot on studio.
That said, let's face it, Hedy and Paul do make the most of their exhausted and very scared characters...theirs were strained times to be living through.Look at it on it's own entertainment merits, the script may have some unevenness and some characters a little familiar, but overall this is not nearly as bad as some might have us believe.
Superficial, disjointed WWII intrigue film with good supporting cast.
Paul Henreid, as Van der Lyn is no Rick Blaine (or even Victor Laszlo for that matter), but is good enough given the support he receives from proved character actors Greenstreet, Lorre, Francen, et al.
He's too soft, and as a result his portrayal as Dutch freedom fighter "the Flying Dutchman" doesn't quite stick.Lamarr (as Irene Von Mohr) is presented more as a polished trophy than any integral member of an underground resistance, showing off a different exotic costume and head-cover in every scene.
Peter Lorre is in his usual role, exuding a bit of quirky character depth and endearing himself to the viewer in his limited screen time.
He gets in the best lines of the movie-- the "cuckoo clock" story.Greenstreet, though definitely a presence, doesn't do much.
Unfortunately, these are the only two females in the whole film.David Hoffman plays Vincent Van der Lyn's broken cell-mate in the Lisbon prison.
It is these types of brief character portrayals that give the film some of its most memorable moments.Overall the atmosphere of this film is quite good, especially in the scenes of the rural fishing village.
Too bad Hedy wasn't available for "Casablanca", L B Mayer refused to loan her to Warner Bros, so they had to settle for the matronly looking Ingrid Bergman.
"Conspirators" was not suppose to be another Casablanca, not with Paul Henreid as its male hero.
This being the war years early 40's, the top leading men were serving their country, so they had to settle for the likes of a Paul Henreid as a leading man...ugh..
This was a solid movie with two of the greatest supporting players,Greenstreet & Lorre, in one of the seven films they made together.I love both of them, & wish they had more shared movies & biggerparts.
I'mnot a big fan of Paul Henreid, I often have trouble recalling just whohe is, so I could do with less of him in this film.
Paul Henreid plays a Dutch freedom fighter who finds himself in Lisbon with an underground resistance group, one of whom is a traitor.
He also meets and, in typical movie fashion, falls in love with Hedy Lamarr after knowing her for two seconds.
Hedy Lamarr, while beautiful, has no chemistry with Henreid and brings little to the table beyond looking great in close-ups.
Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet are given uninteresting roles.
Hedy Lamarr, (Irene Von Mohr) was beautiful but always had a depressed look on her face and appeared like a person who had no emotions.
Paul Henreid, (Vincent Van Der Lyn) looked like Humphrey Bogart in this picture and for some reason did not fit very well in his role.
Sydney Greenstreet, (Ricardo Quintanilla) gave a great supporting performance along with his partner in many pictures, Peter Lorre, (Jan Bermazsky).
Others have commented on the (same) awesome cast, many from Casablanca, so I won't spend much time on that.
With his homeland under Nazi occupation, Dutch freedom fighter Vincent Van Der Lyn (Paul Henreid) is forced to escape to Lisbon in neutral Portugal.
Vincent finds his way to local resistant leader Ricardo Quintanilla with the help of Polish fighter clock expert Jan Bernazsky (Peter Lorre).This wartime espionage movie wants to be Casablanca.
The rest of the cast is excellent, with several familiar faces in Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre, and Hedy Lamarr is gorgeous.
Despite Warner Brothers trying to recapture the magic of this earlier film, THE CONSPIRATORS just can't compare--mostly due to a very poor script and some poor performances.
Many of the stars in the film were actually originally in CASABLANCA (Paul Henreid, Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorr).Henreid plays a Dutch freedom fighter who has escaped to neutral Portugal.
Uncovering who were actually friends and who were double-agents was the main theme of the film.As for Henreid and Hedy Lamarr, they are agreeable enough people but just don't have the charisma to make us forget Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman from CASABLANCA.
Aside from her beauty, she added little to the film--especially since her romance with Henried seemed to come out of nowhere and there was little chemistry between them.As for the intrigue, it wasn't bad but it also wasn't particularly good.
The finale seemed to drag and much of it just didn't make sense.Still, this is a decent wartime film--not great, but a decent enough time passer..
In the justly famous film Casablanca, Richard Blain (Rick) is seated at a table in his nightclub with Nazi Major Strasser (Conrad Veidt) who is quizzing him informally.
In a rejoinder to a remark the major makes concerning his birthplace, Bogart's Rick adroitly rubs his chin and slyly says something like, "There are certain parts of New York City I wouldn't advise you to go at night." By coincidence, within a short time after that viewing I came across a movie entitled All Through the Night with Bogart, Veidt, and Peter Lorre.
I noticed similarities to Casablanca: Veidt, Lorre, Greenstreet, Henreid, and many who played minor roles or whose faces are panned in a crowd.
Just So-So. What struck me most about this one was that unusually for a mediocre or poor Hedy Lamarr movie it was not weird or campy or "off" in any way.
It was a routine action/adventure film set in Turkey.In The Conspirators this time it was Hedy Lamarr who was originally considered for Ingrid Bergman's part finally made it to Warner Brothers.
She is the wife of Victor Francen who is a German embassy official and both are part of an underground group which Sidney Greenstreet heads and Peter Lorre is also a member.Into all their lives comes Dutch resistance fighter Paul Henreid and the two have big eyes for each other, but there is a traitor in that little underground group who is spoiling things all around political, geographic and personal.
A murder is committed and Henreid is the suspect and both the underground and the Portugese police in the persons of Eduardo Ciannelli and Joseph Calleia are on his trail.The atmosphere of intrigue in World War II Lisbon just as in World War II Casablanca is nicely created by director Jean Negulesco.
Like Background To Danger, The Conspirators is just another action/adventure film with an exotic background..
In that regard "The Conspirators" is one of those dozens of typical made war time made movies about WW II.The movie features a quite messy disjointed story, involving Nazi's, underground fighter's, a romance and one traitor.
It also is nothing too spectacular or original.The movie once more features both Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet.
They played in quite a few movies together in the '40's, of which of course the most notable ones were "Casablanca" (also starring Paul Henreid) and "The Maltese Falcon".
It focuses too much on Hedy Lamarr and Paul Henreid and their romance, which just isn't the most convincing or interesting element of the movie.
Especially Lamarr is dreadful and feels terribly out of place within this movie.I must admit that the ending is absolutely fantastic though, which involves a game of roulette, with the resistance fighters sitting across a couple of Nazi's, while it is known that one of the resistance fighters is a mole and traitor and must pass a message to the Nazi's within 10 minutes, while they are playing the roulette.
"The Conspirators" brings "Casablanca" to Portugal..
"The Conspirators" is a splendid example, including many of the "Casablanca" cast members, moody sets, and even the airport beacon.
In "The Conspirators" Paul Henreid recreates the Dutch resistance leader.
Hedy Lamarr stands in for Ingrid Bergman as Henreid's love (although not his wife).
Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre work together like a well-oiled machine, if the rest of the troupe is a bit too typecast.
Paul Henreid isn't able to do much with the Humphrey Bogart role, but then he's dealt the insoluble problem of having Hedy Lamarr as his Ingrid Bergman.
Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet look ready to cut out and head for Ciro's, as well they should have..
Hedy Lamarr is made to look beautiful almost past belief, not to mention very mysterious.But the script here is terrible.
Negulescu was certainly not Michael Curtiz.But it is the sometimes incoherent and always flat-footed script that does this movie in.Watch Casablanca again, even if it is for the 20th time.
"The conspirators" (1944) directed by Jean Negulesco is a plot as old present past to liberate others whom were at the time imprisoned in a jail for scaring anybody else, that caught the viewer for a while in a very busy sequence interesting as example of hypocrisy from the ancient regime.
***SPOILERS*** Somewhat boring and overdone Casablanca-like war drama with the stunningly beautiful, considered to be the most beautiful woman in all the world at the time, Hedy Lamarr as anti-Nazi freedom fighter and former Dachau concentration camp survivor Irene Von Mohr.
Don't let Irene's last name fool you she's actually French who's married to German Diplomat Hugo Von Mohr, Victor Franken, who got her out of Dachau at the risk of his own neck.Getting involved, almost by accident, with fellow anti-Nazi freedom fighter Vincent Van Der Lyn, Paul Henreid, who's known in anti-Nazi freedom fighting circles as the a**-kicking "Flying Dutchman" Irene, in at first not knowing who he is, thinks that he's some kind of Nazi spy working for chief Nazi honcho in natural Lisbon Portugal Dr. Schmitt, Steven Geray.
Slipping into Portugal Vincent wants to go legit in fighting the Nazis as a member of the free Dutch Air Force instead of being a guerrilla fighter, who's not protected by the Geneva Convention, by getting to England where the Free Dutch Air Force originates from.The film "The Conspirator's" moves at a snails pace with Vincent getting in and out trouble, and jail, until the last ten minutes or so when the action really starts to pick up.
Lamarr, film.P.S Besides Paul Henreid there's also Casablanca cast members Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre as anti-Nazi freedom fighters Ricardo Quintanilla and Jan Bernazsky to round out the the films Casablanca-like cast.
C+ Warner Brothers Effort with Hedy Lamarr cast as the femme fatale, a mysterious woman with an aura about herself.
She meets up with Paul Henried,in neutral Lisbon, during World War 11.
You know something is funny when Lamarr was freed from Dachau and married her liberator, the usually evil Victor Francen.The amazing thing about this film is that both Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre are good guys.
That's why they both, with Lorre in particular, are given little to do here.Naturally, there is leak within the partisan group and Henried, framed for a murder that the Nazis committed, comes up with a plan to uncover the traitor.The ending is pure Warner Brothers, so similar to that of "Casablanca," of 2 years before.
A studio release noted that Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre, "who recently were teamed in both Passage to Marseille and The Mask of Dimitrios" were also "joining the cast." Although the cast was not as much like Casablanca's as originally intended, publicity for The Conspirators played on the same theme of topicality: "That Warner Bros bring to the screen those spots on the map where things are popping loudest, is a fact long acknowledged by moviegoers.