Uncertain Glory ** (1944, Errol Flynn, Paul Lukas, Jean Sullivan, Lucile Watson, Douglass Dumbrille, Faye Emerson, Dennis Hoey) – Classic Movie Review 4755

Director Raoul Walsh’s 1944 spirit-raising (i e wartime propaganda) romantic adventure drama Uncertain Glory stars Errol Flynn as Jean Picard, a womanising French criminal who flees the guillotine during an air raid in World War Two Paris. After he is recaptured, he offers to exchange his life for 100 hostages to be executed by the Nazis, and becomes a Resistance hero.

Paul Lukas also stars as Inspector Marcel Bonet, the dogged Surété detective who pursues Flynn, while Jean Sullivan plays Marianne, the village wench who helps him out of his danger.

However, nobody can help out the uncertain screenplay by László Vadnay and Max Brand, from an original story by László Vadnay and Joe May, not even Flynn or director Walsh, capable though they are. Still, the film does have quite a lot of points of interest to recommend it, though. The set-up is good, if not the development of the story, and the star role is a good one for Flynn, requiring him to stretch some acting muscles.

Also in the cast are Lucile Watson, Douglass Dumbrille, Faye Emerson, Dennis Hoey, James Flavin, Sheldon Leonard, Victor Kilian, Pedro De Cordoba, Ivan Triessault and Trevor Bardette. Jean Sullivan appears in her debut film as Marianne.

Uncertain Glory is directed by Raoul Walsh, runs 102 minutes, is made by Thomson Productions, is released by Warner Bros, is written by László Vadnay and Max Brand, from an original story by László Vadnay and Joe May, is shot in black and white by Sidney Hickox, is produced by Robert Buckner and is scored by Adolph Deutsch.

Raoul Walsh recalled the movie dismissively as a ‘quickie’ but François Truffaut admired it.

Principal photography started in August 1943 with some filming in the grape country in Escondido. Farm hands insisted that the unit helped them pick grapes with them. With its occupied France setting, it was rush released in the US on 22 April 1944.

It is Flynn’s first film under his then new contract with Warner Bros giving him a choice of vehicle, director and cast, plus a portion of the profits. He formed Thomson Productions to make it. But financier Arthur Greene bought Thompson Productions in 1946.

The title comes from Shakespeare’s play Two Gentlemen of Verona (Act 1, Scene 3): ‘O, how this spring of love resembleth/ The uncertain glory of an April day,/ Which now shows all the beauty of the sun,/ And by and by a cloud takes all away!’

Paul Lukas had just unexpectedly become a star thanks to Watch on the Rhine,

The cast are Errol Flynn as Jean Picard, Paul Lukas as Inspector Marcel Bonet, Lucile Watson as Mme. Maret, Faye Emerson as Louise, James Flavin as Captain, Mobile Guard, Douglass Dumbrille as Police Commissioner LaFarge, Dennis Hoey as Father Le Clerc, Sheldon Leonard as Henri Duval, Odette Myrtil as Mme. Bonet, Francis Pierlot as Father La Borde, Jean Sullivan as Marianne, Victor Kilian as Latour, Pedro de Cordoba as Executioner, and Fred Cordova as Execution Guard.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4755

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