Idgaf if the Boogermeister himself hated it, The return of Dr X is his best film and every night I cry myself to sleep over the fact that he only played the character once and never in a film with my boy, Pete

Ten of Swords

‘Painful endings, deep wounds, betrayal… resisting an inevitable end…’ I’ve had to think long and hard about this card, mostly because I feel so many Lorre characters are betrayed by the films they play in. Up to and including Lorre himself.

The Hays code dictated that any form of deviance had to be punished - the ‘bad’ guy had to die. Sure, there were times he could get away - Kismet and Joel Cairo would sneak off the stage, forgotten by the film and absent in the end - but otherwise he would be shot, stabbed, drowned… But even if he was on the good side or ended up there, the Hayes code would betray him. We can’t have too much moral ambiguity, can we? The General was shot, Baron Ikito took his own life, Ugarte was shot too… So, who was going to be stabbed by the ten swords for this card? None other than Marius, the lockpick who could make the safes in Paris sing, who was the least deserving to die. The film was so infuriating to me - the way it allowed all the other prisoners to tell their backstories, with visuals, even! And then glosses over and rudely interrupts Marius. The way it shows the clear relationship Marius and Jean Matrac (Humphrey Bogart) have only to never elaborate. He wasn’t even a bad guy who redeemed himself, like Ikito, or Pepi! Of all the men he was the most innocent. And then, in the end, Marius’ pointless sacrifice against the plane attack, heroically fighting against an inevitable end. Betrayed by the narrative!

PASSAGE TO MARSEILLE

Archive WB Collection

"A SLAM-DANG ACTION FILM. Exciting and absorbing all the way.” — Movieguide

Humphrey Bogart reunites with director Michael Curtiz and other key Casablanca personnel (including costars Claude Rains, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet) for a tension-swept Passage to Marseille. Bogart plays Jean Matrac a World War Il French patriot who escapes Devil's Island, survives a dangerous freighter voyage and becomes a gunner in the Free French Air Corpse.

Passage sailed into theaters on stormy seas. #Controversy surrounded the scene in which Matrac machine-guns the helpless survivors of a downed plane that attacked the freighter. That a #soldier of freedom would act ignobly brought #protests from religious and censorship groups. But, like Matrac facing a strafing dive-bomber, the studio held its ground. #War could even dehumanize a hero. Domestic prints remained uncut.

— Warner Bros. Entertainment

CAST: Humphrey Bogart ... Jean Matrac Claude Rains ... Capt. Freycinet Michèle Morgan ... Paula Matrac (as Michele Morgan) Philip Dorn ... Renault Sydney Greenstreet ... Maj. Duval Peter Lorre ... Marius George Tobias ... Petit Helmut Dantine ... Garou John Loder ... Manning VICTOR FRANCEN ... Capt. Patain Malo Vladimir Sokoloff ... Grandpere Eduardo Ciannelli ... Chief Engineer (as Edward Ciannelli) Corinna Mura ... Singer

Released 11 MAR 1944 (USA)

To us.

Jean Matrac in “Passage to Marseille” (1944)