Paris Calling

hom she soon falls in love, but somehow she also manages to arouse suspicions amongst her own camp that only a special mission can assuage. That involves her becoming the mistress of a Vichy French government minister "Benoit" (Basil Rathbone) whom everyone suspects is about to cave into the invaders. Things quickly turn distinctly perilous for the young woman, and she and her beau must try to escape the country for the safety of Britain before the net of the menacing "Schwabe" (Lee J. Cobb) closes in on them. It's all pretty standard fayre this, with Bergner rather a fish out of water but not so much as the oddly cast Cobb and there isn't enough of Rathbone to make much difference. Scott actually acquits himself ok, but then again he really only has to smile and play the handsome hero. It does raise the interesting issue of collaboration and the relative merits of those who wanted to fight on against those who wanted to stop further bloodshed, but that theme is rather more waved at us than explored fully. In the end, it's a perfectly watchable wartime morale booster that passes the time fine.