Assignment: Paris

source: Assignment: Paris

A cold war insight that is fairly realistic and gives a very clear picture of the state of Europe, especially Hungary, during the last years of Stalin. It is especially relevant today as Putin tries to exonerate him and repeat his methods of stretching far outside Russia to persecute so called enemies that could be considered a threat to the infallibility of Russian dictatorship. Dana Andrews is reliable as usual, seconded here by the lovely Marta Toren, who played in films together with almost all the major stars of Hollywood before she died suddenly at only 30 as the successor to Ingrid Bergman, but Marta Toren also married and filmed in Italy. George Sanders is the sober diplomat who handles the intricate situation with due dignity, while the most realistic scenes are the most revolting, those of the Hungarian brainwash procedure under Stalin. It's not one of Dana Andrews' best pictures, but no one could have made the part he plays better - he had been in it before, like in "The Iron Curtain" 1948.

ASSIGNMENT Paris 1952 This Columbia Pictures production was released at the height of the "Red Scare" film cycle. This one stars Dana Andrews, George Sanders, Audrey Totter and the drop dead beautiful Marta Toren. Andrews is a reporter based in Paris for the "New York Herald Tribune". His beat is looking into any dirty business involving the Red Bloc embassies. At the moment, the big deal is a Herald reporter that was grabbed up in Budapest. The man has been charged as an American spy and sentenced to 20 years. The commies have a confession on tape, though of course no one believes it. Now the pretty Marta Toren shows, she is also a reporter for the Herald. Toren has just returned from covering the trial in Hungary. Andrews takes a liking to the woman, and is soon being a pest looking for a date etc. The man in charge of the Paris office is, George Sanders. He wants someone to go to Budapest and dig up some info for the newspaper. Andrews gets picked to do the assignment. He is also filling in for the man just convicted. Needless to say the Reds are keeping a close eye on reporter Andrews. Of course none of the locals will talk to Andrews for fear of the Secret Police. (The Hungarian version of the NKVD was known to be particularly nasty) Of course Andrews discovers what he needs to and sends out the info in a coded broadcast. This gets him collared by the Secret Police types. Andrews is now in for a series of "forceful" interviews and a spot of brainwashing. The Reds are really interested in the return of defector, Sandro Giglio. Giglio has some information that is most embarrassing to the leader of Hungary. A deal is made by Sanders for the return of the Andrews. While the film is by no means a waste of time, I was expecting more from it. The film has a somewhat rushed feel to it, as if hurried into production because of current headlines. The screenplay writer, William Bowers, and the director, Robert Parrish, had scored with their earlier films, the noir, THE MOB and CRY DANGER. This one is the weakest of the three. Parrish was an actor turned film editor, turned director. He received two Oscar nominations, winning one for his editing of, BODY AND SOUL. Oscar type Burnett Guffey handled the cinematography duties. Guffey, was Oscar nominated 5 times, winning for BONNIE AND CLYDE and FROM HERE TO ETERNITY.

Well, so what was the net of this story? The Americans lost an editor, who was killed and a Hungarian patriot, Gabor. Gabor was not killed by the Communists but sent to a camp where I am sure he was maltreated. On the Hungarian side, they had a dangerous story suppressed, recaptured an enemy of the state, and had a coupe of agents arrested in Paris.. How is this anything but a major win for the Communists.

Dana Andrews plays a cocky but very competent news correspondent working in Paris during the height of the Cold War. The major story when the film began is the incarceration of an innocent American by the Communist Hungarian government. A bit later, Andrews himself is sent to Hungary. It's hardly a surprise that he's pulled into the espionage business, as he's trying to sneak out the truth about what's really happening behind the Iron Curtain. It also wasn't much of a surprise that the government jailed and tortured him as well as coming up with a fake confession--created by cleverly splicing a recording to make Andrews seem to admit to spying (though, technically speaking, he was a spy--though not for any government, but to sneak out stories to the press). All this is pretty interesting and a great curio of the times, though the rather pat conclusion wasn't exactly the high-point of this otherwise decent film. Not great, but certainly interesting.

This film is exactly what they taught us in film school about what NOT to do with a plot, The first day of class we learned not to leave a pot of boiling water on a stove when you leave a room. The audience will always wonder what happened to the pot. This plot leaves TWO boiling pots of water on the stove when the director leaves the room. One is the main character, and the other a sympathetic character. Dana Andrews plays his usual smug and fast-talking hustler role, and then becomes one of the boiling pots. Some B actress from Europe plays his romantic interest, but she is not even as interesting as Ms Totter, who plays a minor role in the film. I have always loved George Saunders. I love everything he did. He tries hard to save this turkey, but he cant. Dumb newpaperman films are passe now; nobody reads newspapers. There are a lot of sharp newspaper films, but this is not one of them.

***SPOILERS*** In what looks like a revival of his break-out role of the American smart alack and wise cracking reporter Bill Roberts in the 1942 movie "Berlin corespondent" Dana Andrews tries to duplicate that role as American foreign correspondent for the Herald Tribune Jimmy Race. Stationed in Paris France Jimmy is just chopping at the bid to get himself sent to Communist Hungary to track down his paper's Budapest correspondent, someone named Anderson, who was convicted of espionage and given a 20 year sentence. Using every trick in the book to get sent behind the iron certain Jimmy finally gets his boss editor Nick Strang, George Sanders, to assign him there just to get him out of his hair. The fact that Jimmy got romantically involved with fellow Paris correspondent the sexy Jeanne Moray, Marta Toren, made his secret lover from afar the blond bombshell fashion writer at the Harald Tribune Sandy Tate, Audry Totter, so jealous that in her feeling scorned by Jimmy she might well blow his cover, in her trying to get even with him, in him finding out just where Anderson is and if in fact he's still alive! In Budapest Jimmy, or Dana Andrews, uses the very same reporting tricks that he used in the 1942 film "Berlin Correspondent" by sending out his daily reports with coded words to his editor Nick Strang back in Paris to get the truth out about what happened to Aderson. As it turned out Anderson was murdered in his jail cell by the Hungarian Secret Police under the direct orders of the Hungarian Prime Minster Andaeas Ordy,Herbert Benghof! It doesn't take that long for the Hungarian Secret Police under the command of Hungarian Minister of Justice Vajos, Ben Asker, to figure out what jimmy is up to and end up throwing him behind bars on a trumped of charge of espionage against the Peoples Republic of Hungary! Tortured, through mostly sleep deprivation, and forced to sign a confession that he in fact is an American spy Jimmy still had an ace up his sleeve that was to turn everything around in his favor. A photo of Ordy & Vajos together with Yugoslav dictator Josip Broz Tito, or Marshall Tito for short, in them planning to break away from the Soviet Union, like Tito did, and becoming an independent but still communist dictatorship! Something that the if the Soviet Union's madman of a leader Joseph, or uncle Joe as he likes to be called, Stalin ever found out about he would have the entire Hungarian bunch either thrown into a Soviet gulag or if their lucky shot by an KNVD firing squad! ***SPOILERS*** There's also a side story in the movie involving the mysterious Hungarian defector Gabor Czeki, no relation as far as I can see to Zsa Zsa Gabor, who can confirm the fact that both his boss Prime Minister Ordy and secret police chief Vajos were in fact planning to join Tito thus back stabbing Uncle Joe. This has the man being hunted like an animal by the Hungarian Secret Police all over the world including Paris France when he's now in hiding! The totally unbelievable feel good ending has Czeki coming out of hiding and willingly going back to Budapest to face the music, or a commie firing squad, in return of the by now brainwashed and almost lobotomize Jimmy Race being released in exchange. ****MAJOR SPOILER*** Even that noble act on Czeki's part came to nothing in him being saved in the nick of time by non-other then Nick Strang who threatened to expose Ordy & Vajos's plan to split with the very unstable, by then in 1952 he had completely gone mad, Uncle Joe Stalin that would mean curtains for them!

The plot is good but is never really expanded. There is a picture of Hungarian officials with Tito of Yugoslavia. Were they planning something against Russia? Dana Andrews goes to Budapest, Hungary as a newspaper reporter. He is replacing someone at the bureau that has been felled by a heart attack. Andrews is soon arrested and charged with espionage. He is about to be hung until the above picture surfaces. This is used as a bargaining chip to free him. Still, Andrews comes back totally brainwashed and this ends this bad film. Marta Toren is his love interest and Audrey Totter is totally wasted as another reporter on the bureau in Paris. In addition, the talents of George Sanders are not made use here. He was supposed to be the bureau chief. Both he and Andrews had designs on Ms. Toren. The writing is the true culprit in this film.

An American named Robert Anderson has been arrested by Hungary for spying. Jimmy Race (Dana Andrews) is a brash reporter from the New York Herald-Tribune in Paris. He and top reporter Jeanne Moray (Märta Torén) are trying to interview the Hungary ambassador. She has a story that the Hungary leadership is trying rapprochement with Yugoslavia's Tito despite Soviet objection. The Hungarian authority is keeping a close eye on her. The story is a little slow at times. The movie seems more interested in getting the Cold War right. The Iron Curtain has descended and this is an almost straight forward telling. It's a story out of the headlines. It doesn't automatically make it a good story. Jimmy Race is overly brash to the point of arrogance. He should be smarter than that. The girl doesn't seem like the reporter type. I do like the rip from the headlines aspect but it could be done with more tension.

Assignment Paris is directed by Oscar-awarded Robert Parrish, who had worked with Charlie Chaplin, Hal Roach, and John Ford in the 1920s and 1930s. Looking at his resume, he certainly worked his way up the ladder the old fashioned way. George Sanders plays Nicholas Strang, the wise editor of the paper, for which Jimmy Race (Dana Andrews) works as a digging, scheming reporter. Viewers will recognize Sanders from All About Eve, again playing the older, wiser, mentor. A lot of time is spent with the viewer (but not the characters in the film) watching and hearing what is going on inside the foreign embassies and administration offices, so it's very much a cold war us- against- them story, with Race trying to get to the truth. Caught up in all this is fellow reporter Marta Toren as Jeanne Moray, and no-one is really sure what her story is.... We are led to think she is more involved than we know, but that part of the story seems to have been dropped, or deleted. Also keep an eye out for Leon Askin, who would play General Bulkhalter in Hogan's Heroes ten years later. Quite entertaining, but it almost feels like an episode of Dragnet -- more documentary than story, which could have been the director's intent. Thrilling, if not surprising, conclusion to the movie.