Hollywood had a love affair with Britain in the 1930s and during World War Two. As the war went on and the Cold War kicked in, and it was clear that America was a far greater world power now, niggles started to emerge - the films became more critical of British foreign policy and attitudes, especially towards imperialism (though never really hostile, the British market was still so vital).
This movie was a case in point - a look at Jewish refugees in British run Palestine just prior to independence. The American hero Dana Andrews is a people smuggler - a cynical, money hungry one at the start to be sure, but just like Bogie in To Have and To Have Not (another people smuggler) we know he'll find his heart. And the baddies are the British. (Arabs are mentioned occasionally but very much in the background here.)
To add to the anti British slant the Jews have an Irish friend, a volunteer (there are hundreds of Irish volunteers, apparently) who consistently makes cracks about John Bull and wanting to kill informers and the like. There are some heroic British characters - British working against their countrymen. But having said all that the British aren't depicted as being evil - they are smart, professional, tough, but not ogres. They are men doing their job, and doing it well, not easily duped.
The writer and producer was Bob Buckner, a talented man whose credits include Yankee Doodle Dandee and he throws us straight into the action: a reluctant Andrews dropping his cargo off, anxiously looking around for British patrols, having to escort the refugees on the beach (as led by Stephen McNally), then the British arriving and Andrews having to flee and winding up a fugitive. He goes to a Jewish camp where the leader is Jeff Chandler in an early star making turn from him.
The main problem with this dramatically was the Dana Andrews character. He starts off as central to the action, and we think the movie is going to be about him coming to embrace the Jewish cause, finding love and so on. But after the beginning Andrews really becomes passive, just going along the flow and whingeing about wanting to get home (he spends most of the movie under guard, whether by the Jews or the British). All he really does drama-wise is be tempted to dob in Chandler and then change his mind.
Stephen McNally's character is far more active; he organises the escape of the Jewish prisoners at the end, has a romance. It was as if he was doing stuff that Andrews should have been doing and it threw the movie off for me - this came about via my expectations, I admit, but Andrews was a bigger star than McNally, surely? I'd love to know if any rewrites were going on.
And Marta Torens character starts out interesting - a sort of Jewish Tokyo Rose, brave and smart - but then gets bland and nothing; there's no dimension to her, she pants over McNally, and winds up with a wistful gauze closeup.
Still, this was surprisingly engrossing and fast paced, and anyone interested in movies about the British Empire and/or the early years of the state of Israel should really see it.
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