You sense the playful hand of Charles Bennett here - an early collaborator with Hitchcock - for example in leaving the unconscious Nazi with a photo of Hitler on his face, and the way the little man keeps sticking to his targets, unshakeably. (He is Alexander Granach. I didn't recognise him from Ninotchka or Hangmen Also Die!) Ellis St Joseph is the other screenwriter.
Paul Henreid's first Hollywood role and he plays a Frenchman! He's one of five British flyers shot down, on the run in Paris. He gets help first from priest Thomas Mitchell, then girlfriend Michele Morgan, whilst Laird Cregar suavely plays the Nazi in his usual delicious style. May Robson (A Star is Born, Lady for a Day, Bringing Up Baby) adds a steely touch of class.
Quite a moment when the screen blacks out to the radio broadcast; interesting showdown in a sauna. So yeah, overall more interesting than it might appear at first sight.
Lovely photography by Russell Metty. Music by Roy Webb. Editing Sherman Todd. Art direction Carroll Clark and Albert D'Agostino.
''Although the work of the Paris Underground remained largely a mystery to Americans at this point in the war, Joan of Paris grasped what was going on and dramatized it in moving fashion. At $660,000, the picture's cost was an inflated one, but it still managed a respectable profit.'' The RKO Story.
Morgan was next considered for Casablanca, but lost out to Bergman. She had been a hit in France in Quai des Orfèvres (1938). After this, two more Hollywood films followed, Two Tickets to London and Passage to Marseille, then the independent The Chase. After a quick stopover in London for The Fallen Idol she then returned to France.
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