Pretty cool WWII story, told mostly through flashbacks, about French convicts led by Humphrey Bogart who escape from Devil's Island to go help their country fight the Nazis. The men are picked up by a freighter bound for home and must deal with slimy Sydney Greenstreet, who isn't particularly opposed to the idea of a Nazi-occupied France.Reunites Casablanca costars Bogart, Rains, Lorre, and Greenstreet with director Michael Curtiz. In many ways, this could be seen as a possible sequel to Casablanca, though certainly not in that film's league. I could see where you could rework the story to be about Rick, Ilsa, and Louis' post-Casablanca story. Cute use of models in early scene where the war correspondent arrives to speak with Claude Rains. This movie is slammed a lot for its use of the flashback-within-a-flashback-within-a-flashback technique. Normally I'm not a fan of that myself but here I didn't think it was confusing like critics claim. The ending is kind of depressing but realistic. War is hell, after all.

I suppose Warner Brothers was trying to make hay out of "Casablanca" which, in 1944 when "Passage" was filmed was still very far from becoming one of, if not the greatest American film;I say it was. Yes, as I viewed it thanks to Mr. Turner, I did feel a bit "Casablankish" but it was merely spotty, illusory but not serious. In no way can "Passage" compare to "Blanca" yet I found it, although a bit corny at times, quite entertaining. Bogart's cynicism, the linchpin of "Blanca" is quite obvious because his main duty was to get back to France to see Michèle Morgan rather than to fight Nazism while the rest of his fellow escapees from Devil's Island were true blue patriots. Vive la France and so on and so forth. Bogart, on the other hand, was framed by his "beloved" France which resulted in his sweating out the brutality of French Guyana in all its splendor. Although missing the incredible Ingrid Bergman, this film does offer some of the "Blanca Boys" such as Peter Lorre and Claude Rains. By the way, even though Lorre was an odd looking little guy, in real life he was one of Bogie's best friends thanks to his boozing and then losing money in card games.Some of the battle action at sea is interesting but as phony as phony can be--it's quite obvious those scenes were shot in a gigantic bath tub on the Warner lot.Incidentally if a reader hasn't visited Hollywood and taken a tour or two through the studios,allow me to tell you this as my wife and I were aboard a tram touring Universal Studios. Those wartime battle scenes at sea were actually shot using miniature ships and planes sailing in and hovering over large barrels of water.All in all, "Passage" could never be rated, at least by me, as BAD just by virtue of Humphrey Bogart's starring role. The guy didn't become an icon for doing nothing.

One of several attempts to recapture the magic of Casablanca, Passage to Marseille brings back a number of the principals but fails to live up to its potential.We begin with a journalist's visit to a Free French air base in Britain during the Second World War from which we flash back to story of Matrac (Humphrey Bogart) a gunner on one of the bombers about leave on a mission and how he came to be there. The French officer being interviewed by the journalist is played by Claude Rains and the flashback introduces both Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. Also returning from Casablanca is the somewhat overlooked but remarkably successful director Michael Curtiz.The biggest deficiency appears to be the story. The flashback within a flashback structure may not be entirely to blame but the fact we know the outcome to most of the important questions before hand definitely dilutes the tension of the picture. The characters lack sufficient or appropriate motivation in several cases and others do not seem to earn the redemption it appears we are meant to feel for them, Bogart's character gets better treatment but the setup for his background is rather perfunctory.In terms of strengths it is certainly enjoyable to see such performers as Bogart, Rains, Greenstreet and Lorre, even if their talents are not adequately used and the roles are lacking. Also not surprisingly the visuals are impressive thanks likely both to cinematographer James Wong Howe and director Michael Curtiz.The viewpoints of the characters are also interesting in that this film was made during the war, not surprisingly we get a rather uncompromising view of collaborators but we also get a fairly frank depiction of the brutalities of war on behalf of the allies.This serves as good illustration about how remarkable a film like Casablanca was, with many of the same principals and a story with a number of parallels we get an entirely different result.

Michael Curtiz made this movie as a propaganda movie. Bogart is playing well, but the weak script does not give him the ability for a good performance. The scene on the boat where he is shooting at the German pilots and navigators is a shame: shoot at people without defense! At war, it happened, so it is realistic that it is in the film. It is also true that some crew members were loyal to the London government (which had to be build up) and that they refused to give their ships to the Vichy government. The dispute between the commanders (army, navy an air) is realistic and well done. The shooting of the plane is a remarkable battle scene. The end with the Handley-Page planes coming back is moving.