Hitchcock's 2nd World War II propaganda short after Bon Voyage had him taking a screen credit this time. This short film was made as a tribute to the French Resistance but was never released in France.
This film has a complex story telling style. It alternates between scenes of actors putting on a play and a story of a resistance leader in a battle of wits with a local Vichey official. Many of the French in this film are shown as untrustworthy and willing to betray their own countrymen to the authorities. A more realistic view of the French during World War II then anyone was ready for, it was not the rah rah film the Allies thought they were getting from Hitchcock.
A film where Hitchcock had more interest than making a standard propaganda piece. As usual "truth is the first casualty" during a war. The French weren't ready to even begin to confront the truth about themselves and their disreputable involvement with the Germans until 1969 when Ophul's The Sorrow and the Pity was released.
30 minutes.
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