Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Uncertain Glory (1944)

Errol Flynn is awaiting executing. Paul Lukas is the detective who caught him. He robbed a jewelry store, and hit the guard, who was killed when he fell. Just before he goes to the guillotine, there is an air raid. After the bombing, Flynn escapes. He goes to the apartment of Sheldon Leonard to get some money to escape. (Leonard's accent on a character named Henri is a little humorous.)  Leonard leaves to get it, and Flynn flirts with his girlfriend (Faye Emerson). Leonard returns, but sees two wine glasses and knows what has been going on. He goes to Lukas to turn Flynn in. Flynn and Emerson have gone to Bordeaux, but Lukas finds him. He thinks she turned him in. She slaps him and runs out.


Their train back to prison is diverted because the underground has blown up a bridge. The Germans threaten to kill 100 hostages unless the saboteur is turned in. Flynn offers to go to the Gestapo and turn himself in as the saboteur. After a struggle with his conscience, Lukas agrees. In the home village, citizens whose relatives are among the hostages are meeting to try to persuade someone to claim to be the saboteur. In the meantime, Lukas is grilling Flynn, preparing him for what he will face. He then reports that Flynn was shot trying to escape, but his body has not been recovered. They overhear a policeman saying that the saboteur was picked up by a plane. While they stall in a shop, posing as fishermen on vacation, Flynn sees Jean Sullivan. She shows them the way to the brook, and she and Flynn talk. Back at their room, the police are waiting. They have arrested a saboteur, but Lukas pretends he is a police undercover agent. 


In truth, Flynn plans to escape once he's turned himself over to the Nazis, leaving the villagers in the lurch, but at the last moment his latent patriotism overcomes his sense of self-preservation. 





Flynn and Sullivan


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