kapelusznik18 ***SPOILERS*** Typical WWII Hollywood propaganda flick that makes the enemy Germans occupiers of the just defeated French nation-It was France that declared war on Germany not the other way around-look far better then the members of the French underground movement that's fighting them. We see the Frenchmen and women living in this little French town not at all abused by the German troops as long as they don't try to attack kill and sabotage them. In here we have former French POW Jean Blanchard played by, Dutch actor Philip Dorn, released from a German prison camp because he, suffering from acute tuberculosis, doesn't have long to live. Not wanting to get involved with the French underground movement Jean slowly joins it when he feels that it will exonerate him for being in the view of many fellow Frenchmen, because of his pacifist ideas, a coward and traitor to his country.It's also Jean's wife Yvonne, Brenda Marshall, who gets him to see the light but not for the reasons that you would think. That in trying to win her over since she's involved with Dr. Andre Marbel, George Sanders, not romantically like Jean suspects but in that Dr. Marbel is a major leader in the French Underground movement by running an anti-German underground newspaper! There's also the hot headed young but a bit overconfident French teenager Georges Benoit played by Raymond Roe who despite his prominent role in the movie is not even mentioned in the films credits! It's Georges who acts and looks so American instead of French that he both looks and acts like he just stepped out of an "Andy Hardy" movie. Trying to join up with the French underground Georges and those yo-yo's with him screw themselves up even before they get a chance to shoot off their guns getting caught red-handed by the German gestapo and later executed for their failed efforts.***SPOILERS*** It was in fact Yvonne who came out blasting by gunning down from her hospital window Nazi Colonel Pirosh,Robert Lewis, who order and did it himself young Georges to be executed! even though the person who shot Pirosh was right in front of them the deft and blind German Gestapo had no idea who his attacker was, the dirty rat did in fact survive, and thus ordered 50 innocent Frenchmen to be executed in retaliation. With the just recovered Col. Pirosh, who claimed that his death would be a great loss to humanity, going back on his word in not having them shot if he in fact survived and still ordering the French hostages to be gunned down our hero Jean who despite looking as strong as an ox decided to take the rap in him shooting Pirosh to save Yvonne, Who was ready to turn herself in, from being executed! P.S I didn't quite see Jean's act as that heroic, as Dr. Marbel broadcast on the underground radio, since he knew he didn't have long to live anyway and in his suffering from a deadly and incurable disease by him being executed by the Gestapo would have only put him out of his misery -as well as the movie-anyway!

Jay Raskin N.Y. Times critic,Bosley Crowther calls this "a stilted melodrama which is both graphically and emotionally dull." I found it stirring, uplifting and well done. The movie is romantic entertainment in the style of "Casablanca," with a similar anti-Nazi message. The Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid parts are played by George Sanders, Brenda Marshall and Philip Dorn. George Sanders is especially impressive. It is amazing how he can go so easily from a Nazi ("Man Hunt," 1941)to an anti-Nazi here. Marshall and Dorn are fine. Kid actor,Raymond Roe, stands out in the uncredited part of an heroic teenager named George. Some reviewer on this site complained that Sanders didn't use a French accent, while all the other characters did. I don't think that is a real problem. Obviously, none of the characters would have been speaking English if the film was really taking place in France, but then American audiences would not have been able to understand the picture if they did that. I don't think Sanders adding a French accent would have added any realism to the movie. A movie audience accepts it as a convention that the dialogue is supposed to be taking place in French and that the producers are doing it in English so that the story can be understood by Americans. Accents are really optional and Sanders probably made a good choice not to affect one in a movie with many real French actors.Anyways, the movie moves quickly, delivers a good deal of suspense and has a lot of nice and surprising twists and turns.

Martha Wilcox George Sanders plays a French doctor without a French accent. He plays Germans well and even speaks in a German accent, but he can't play a French doctor without sounding quintessentially English.The young brother of the French protagonist, Jean, is quite bold and brave standing up for what he believes and speaking out against oppression. To be honest it;s the French characters that make this film work. Sanders merely lends his name to sell the film, but he contributes very little in terms of his performance.I would advise Sanders fans to stay away from this film as it comes nowhere near the quality of 'Manhunt' or 'Tales of Manhattan'.

Danryd80 Set in German-occupied Paris, the plot concerns the day-to-day struggles of the French resistance during WWII, made all the more believable by a cast chosen from among real-life refugees – in other words those who were eye-witnesses to the film's historical backdrop. I suspect that when "Paris After Dark" played in small-town America, the world it unveiled was still rather exotic. Even with full-on U.S involvement after Pearl Harbor, the idea of an underground resistance for most Americans was something shadowy and obscure. New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther, though not at all impressed, did acknowledge "the terrible tragedy of the French people under Nazi occupation" which the film evoked. However, this is a film that holds its own alongside similar portrayals of the war in Europe, such as Robert Stevenson's "Joan of Paris" and William Wyler's "Mrs. Miniver", the latter in which the inimitable Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon bolstered the moral imperative of continued U.S. involvement.Fans of "Casablanca" (1942) will recognize the lovely Madeleine LeBeau in a supporting role. According to Wikipedia, LeBeau, along with her husband, Marcel Dalio, escaped from Paris in June, 1940, just ahead of the Nazi advance, eventually finding their way to the U.S. Fans of George Sanders will love his role as a heroic leader of the underground movement. But the stars of the film are Brenda Marshall and Philip Dorn. Some viewers may recall Marshall as the scientist Nora Goodrich in Anthony Mann's "Strange Impersonation" (1946). The Dutch-born Dorn was better known as an actor in Germany but who also moved to the U.S. with the war's outbreak. Director Leonide Moguy sought refuge in the States in a similar manner. He also directed the interesting noir, "Whistle Stop" (1946), with George Raft and Ava Gardner before returning to France. In short, this was a cast and company that appeared to know first-hand what they were portraying during one of the war's bleakest periods.As of this writing, it is available as a Fox Cinema Archives release, and well worth tracking down, if only for the history lesson it movingly portrays.