Sarentrol Masterful Cinema

MonsterPerfect Good idea lost in the noise

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

JohnHowardReid Although director Robert Wise makes striking use of standing sets from RKO's Hunchback of Notre Dame to give us memorable images of the coach in the town, the lackluster studio scenes inside the coach, plus a disappointing performance from Simone Simon who plays with little of her usual fire and vigor; plus the very second-string support cast led by John Emery, Kurt Kreuger, Alan Napier, Helen Freeman and Jason Robards, Senior – hardly players that would induce even a mild stampede at the box-office; plus a screenplay that is not only far too talky but far too obviously is bending over backwards to make patriotic parallels; plus Robert Wise's disappointingly bland direction; plus niggardly production values. In all, a very disappointing movie from the Val Lewton unit, well below the producer's usual high standard on all counts, including script, direction, cast, and writing. Screenwriter Peter Ruric could do much better than this, e.g. "The Black Cat" and "Grand Central Murder".

panzerrune "The performances are mainly so-so but Simon, the beauty she is, can't do much. Her performance here is pretty bad and at times laughable due to her voice, which sounded really bad here. I've never been a big fan of hers but this is certainly the worst thing I've seen her do. " As i have quoted here from another IMDb user, and to shed some light. Simone Simon NEVER liked this movie. She did NOT like how her character was portrayed (due to censors) and she NEVER had anything to say good about this movie. This would at least explain why her character in this film falls flat for some viewers. She was under contract with RKO and she was friends with and cared a lot for Val Lewton, which explains why she took the role. I enjoy the movie for what it is, and do not read anything deeply dramatic about it. I am a Simone Simon fan so i enjoy the movie at least on that level.Thanks.

Michael O'Keefe Robert Wise directs this dramatic offering produced by Val Lewton, who strays from his string of low-budget horror flicks for RKO. In occupied France, a young French laundress(Simone Simon) refuses to give in to a small village's Prussian oppressors. She is given permission to travel to her hometown Cleresville and shares a coach ride through the snow with several socialites with strongly opposite political views than her own. The film's name comes from the nickname of one of the most brutal Prussian officers Lt. von Eyick(Kurt Kreuger)who is called 'Fifi'. Very good scenery depicting the WWII devastation. Others in the cast: Jason Robards Sr., Romaine Callender, Edmund Gover, Helen Freeman, Fay Helm and John Emery.

Prof_Lostiswitz There is a good film waiting to be made out of de Maupassant's story, but this isn't it. (Stagecoach isn't either). We can understand it isn't Lewton and Wise's fault, it's just that the censorship wouldn't allow it to be done properly then.Thus, the central character gets turned into a laundress, and the climax comes when she... HAS DINNER with the sadistic Prussian officer!! (in the story, she was shunned by her fellow passengers for being a hooker, then she saves the day by going to bed with him)).Modern directors like Agnieszka Holland or M.L. Bemberg could make a really great movie out of this, but 1940's America was just not the place.