A
French soldier and spy is sent on a mission to discover the location of a
secret German U-Boat base in “Assignment in Brittany,†released on DVD as part
of the Warner Archive Collection. Jean-Pierre Aumont plays Captain Pierre
Metard, a member of the Free French army serving in Great Britain. He has an
uncanny resemblance to a French farmer and soldier, Corporal Bertrand Corlay, a
man with Nazi ties who ends up in a British hospital. The British devise a
scheme where Pierre impersonates Bertrand and returns home to search out the
U-Boat base. He spends weeks studying and memorizing everything known about
Bertrand before being flown to and dropped by parachute in to Brittany and
makes his way on foot to Bertrand’s family farm.
He
runs in to two British soldiers who escaped from a prison camp and are making
their way back to England. Pierre/Bertrand sends them to his intended
rendezvous point where, when his mission
is over, a French Underground member will transport them across the English
Channel to safety. Pierre makes it to the farm where everyone is surprised to
see him. Not only was he a traitor, but a bit of a cad and not too kind to his
mother either.
Pierre
is betrayed by Elise and another collaborator. He’s captured and tortured until
he escapes with the help of people in the village while under the cover of a
local festival. He quickly recovers and reconciles with Anne, who knows his
true identity. With the help of a local villager, he discovers the location of
the U-Boat pens and radios the location to the British who soon arrive with
torpedo boats and a commando force. The movie comes to a satisfying conclusion
with all on the escape boat singing the French national anthem
The
film was directed by Jack Conway with a screenplay by Anthony Veiller, William
H. Wright and Howard Emmett Rogers, based on a popular espionage thriller by
Helen MacInnes. Known as The Queen of International Espionage Fiction, she
wrote 21 suspense novels including three others which were adapted into movies;
“Above Suspicion†(1943), “The Venetian Affair†(1966) and “The Salzburg
Connection†(1972).
Jean-Pierre
Aumont gives a very good performance as soldier and spy Pierre/Bertrand. The
movie also features George Coulouris as Nazi Captain Hans Holtz and John Emery
as Nazi Captain Deichgraber. Both give terrific performances as evil Nazis.
Signe Hasso is equally sinister as the Nazi collaborator Elise. A few familiar
character actors make appearances in the movie. Reginald Owen is British
Colonel Trane, who sends Pierre on his mission. Alan Napier as Sam Wells, is
probably most known for his role as Alfred the butler in the 1960s television
series “Batman.†Richard Whorf is a villager suspicious of Bertrand’s return,
Jean Kerenor. William Edmunds (Mr. Martini from “It’s a Wonderful Lifeâ€) is the
local French Resistance radio operator Plehec.
Leading
lady Susan Peters had a short-lived Hollywood career which came to a sad and
tragic end. She was under contract to MGM when, out duck hunting with friends
and her husband, actor Richard Quinn, on New Years Day 1945, arifle she picked
up accidently discharged and the shot hit her spine, paralyzing her from the
waste down. She and Quinn adopted a son in 1946, but they divorced in 1948.
Peters continued to work in radio and helped develop a television series which
featured her in the lead as a disabled woman in a wheelchair titled “Miss
Susan†which broadcast for a single season in1951. The series was ahead of its
time in depicting a disabled main character played by a disabled actor. Peters
died in 1952 of chronic kidney failure and starvation. It is believed she suffered
from anorexia nervosa. Her funeral was attended by many well known actors who
were also under contract while she was at MGM.
The
film was released by MGM in March 1943 at a time when WWII was still waging in
Europe, North Africa and the Pacific. The outcome of WWII was still uncertain
and the D-Day invasion of Normandy France was very much a Top Secret and over a
year away. The movie is clearly designed to show France and the French people
as allies in the war to free Europe from Nazi German tyranny. Filmed in
Hollywood, good use is made of light and shadows, which works effectively in
this espionage thriller.
This
2019 region-free DVD fromthe Warner Archive
Collectionlooks okay, but has plenty of artifacts. Nevertheless, it's probably as good as
we’ll ever see it. The disc contains no extras other than the trailer.
The movie is a fun action thriller and well worth a viewing.