Sunday, April 21, 2013

The Conspirators (1944)

This movie brings together two of the primary Maltese Falcon cast (Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre) plus one more from Casablanca (Paul Henreid). Throw in Hedy Lamarr as the female lead, and you have a promising film.

Henreid is in his old role as a saboteur, this time in Holland. He is known, however, and escapes to Portugal, with the Germans hot on his tail. He accidentally runs into Lamarr in a restaurant as she is fleeing the police, but later she appears to be aligned with the Germans. Then he goes to a fishing village where he hides out until he meets Lorre in town. During some confusion they manage to evade a passport check, and he meets Greenstreet in a pawn shop, which is his headquarters and hideout. Greenstreet tells him that one of his helpers is a traitor. There Lamarr sends him a note asking him to meet her a though they had not met before, which request he ignores, climbing into her car as she comes out of her house. They take a long drive and eat at a small cafe, and fall in love (you can tell because the violins start playing). The problem is that she is married to an older man (Victor Francen) who helped rescue her from a concentration camp (very reminiscent of Casablanca).

Henreid returns to the fray. He finds a man dead and through the betrayal of the turncoat, is arrested. Lamarr    alibis him to the Germans, but will not testify in his behalf. She visits him in prison, but he lashes out angrily at her verbally. He makes a daring escape from prison. Later she finds him and he learns that she is in the underground. She takes him to Greenstreet. They are skeptical about him and give him the third degree, but he is vindicated. He meets Francen, and bids goodbye to Lamarr.  He goes to the casino and watches Lamarr and Francen, but the police catch up with him because of the man who was killed in his room. He buys time by telling the police that they have set a trap for the murderer. It turns out to be Francen. He flees the casino and is killed in the ensuing gun fight.

Henreid and Lamarr go to the fishing village where they say goodbye, but promise to meet again when he is through with his mission.

This is an excellent movie, really worthy to be up with the likes of Casablanca.


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Victor Francen
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