Candlelight in Algeria (1944)

Fantastic!

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

CANDLELIGHT IN ALGERIA 1944This wartime thriller is both a spy adventure, and a film noir. The headliners are played by James Mason, Carla Lehmann, Walter Rilla, Enid Stamp-Taylor, Pamela Stirling and Leslie Bradley. The film is directed by the under-rated George King. The film is set just before the US/UK invasion of Vichy Algeria in Nov 1942. American Carla Lehmann gets herself mixed up with British secret agent James Mason. Mason is on the lam from the Nazis who are dogging his every step. It is all about a camera and film both sides want. Mason breaks into Lehman's house looking for some food and a place to lay low. Lehman, in Algeria visiting her aunt, pulls a pistol on Mason and prepares to summon the Police. Mason tells her a tale of needing help evading the Nazi types chasing him. Mason appeals to her patriotism and asks for her help. Lehmann agrees and stashes Mason under some stairs just as the Nazi's arrive. The chief villain here, played brilliantly by Walter Rilla, is a smooth talking killer in a nice suit. Lehmann pretends to know nothing about any "prowler" in the area. Rilla does not buy her act for a moment, but begs her pardon and leaves. Mason, rested up and fed, asks Lehmann to meet him in 2 days in Casablanca. He wants her to visit a woman, Enid Stamp-Taylor, there. This is where the all-important camera and film are hidden. Along the way Lehman notices she has picked up a Gestapo tail. Once Lehmann gets hold of the camera, the hi-jinks start, with Lehmann, Mason and the Germans in a cat and mouse game through the night time alleys etc of Casablanca. Mason gets the film developed and they discover that it is a map showing a secret meeting location on the Algerian coast. At the meeting will be American, UK and Vichy French military types. This is all to lay out the times and places for the Allied Invasion of North Africa. The Germans want the meeting location so they can swoop in and capture everyone. Also in the mix here, is Pamela Stirling as a French barmaid, and Leslie Bradley as a Vichy officer helping the Allies. Rilla nearly puts the grab on Mason but is interrupted by Miss Lehmann. There is a quick exchange of blows with the Nazi being laid low. The pair then swipe Rilla's car and speed off to the now, not so secret location. Mason wants to warn whoever about the German plot. And as it would so happens, the meeting is in full bloom with Allied and Vichy types settling the invasion details. Speed is of the essence here, as Rilla has recovered from his thumping and is in hot pursuit. Mason and Lehmann reach the house and deliver the warning. And just in time as some Vichy French Policemen are snooping around nearby. The meeting is wrapped up and the Allied officers retreat to a waiting submarine. Mason and Lehmann now lead Rilla and company on a wild car chase along the coast. Lehman is shoved out of the car and Mason roars off into the night. Lehmann wakes up in a hospital wondering if Mason made it to safety. Needless to say he now puts in an appearance. Plenty of pace here with director King keeping things hopping. King was best known for a string of Tod Slaughter films such as, SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET, THE FACE AT THE WINDOW and THE CRIMES OF STEPHEN HAWKE. King also helmed a pair of first rate film noir, THE SHOP ON SLY CORNER and FORBIDDEN. The look of the film is excellent with two time BAFTA nominated (one time winner) Otto Heller handling the cinematography duties. Heller's work includes, THEY MADE ME A FUGITIVE, NOOSE, QUEEN OF SPADES, THE CRIMSON PIRATE, THE SQUARE RING, THE LADYKILLERS, RICHARD III, THE SILENT ENEMY, ALFIE and his BAFTA winner, THE IPCRESS FILE. There is some real witty dialogue supplied by screenplay writers, Brock Williams, Kate Strueby and John Clements working from a Dorothy Hope story. Several of the better cracks are, Miss Lehmann telling a Nazi officer to try some "prairie oysters" (bull testicles) Villain Rilla has a great line when he tells Vichy officer, Bradley, "The French are good at appearing to be Brave."A much better film than I was expecting. Canadian Carla Lehmann was in several wartime thrillers such as, SECRET MISSION and COTTAGE TO LET

British spy Alan Thurston (Mason) is trying to get hold of a camera to bring to the British Consulate in Algiers. It has pictures of the location of a top-secret meeting place of the Allied commanders regarding the invasion of North Africa. Tailing him is RNO (repugnant Nazi official) Dr. Muller, who knows of the camera. Thurston breaks into the Algerian residence of American civilian Susan Foster (Carla Lehmann), with Muller in hot pursuit. Thurston persuades her to help him in his quest for the camera, since he is too notorious and would be arrested on sight in Algiers. There then follows a tense and taut cat-and-mouse game with Nazi officials and our two co-heroes.The picture is extremely well-done and the suspense doesn't let up for the entire 82 minutes (by my watch). There is a romantic interlude in The Casbah, where Thurston has sought refuge and has taken Ms. Foster, reminiscent of 'Pepe Le Moko", in which similar circumstances occur. Ms. Foster, it turns out, is from Kansas, fulfilling the prophesy of my headline. Walter Rilla plays Dr. Muller in despicable fashion, a Nazi civilian official feared by everyone in the picture except Thurston.Despite the grim circumstances the mood of the picture ranges from deadly serious to lighthearted, especially during exchanges between Mason and Lehmann (the deadly serious passages belong to Rilla). I agree with a reviewer above that Mason was a dashing adventure hero - too bad he became typecast as humorless and overbearing. I don't understand why this movie is so lightly regarded and why it hasn't been shown on TV or in revival houses. Note to IMDb directors: Your rating is too low. It is better than a similar movie, "Five Graves To Cairo", made the previous year. You should at least use the median figure instead of the weighted one.

I rated this film 6/10 having discovered it in a rare film emporium in Camden Market, North London, last Sunday.I am a forties film aficionado but had never seen this title before.One thing British/American films constantly do in war films is to assume all German/French characters speak fluent English (to make it easy on audiences who will mostly only speak this language), and this film was no exception, (although marginally less so than most US 40s films of the time).What is especially laughable is when German characters speak in English to other German characters!On the other hand, this 1944 film did not take itself too seriously especially the end scene, when Carla Lehmann describes to James Mason how Hollywood would have filmed the self same scene, (all done to keep up the nation's morale!).A more enlightened treatment of showing various European languages on film is for producers to hire actors German/French who can speak in their own native tongue but then show English sub-titles for that part of the plot as in Darryl F Zanuck's ground breaking epic, "The Longest Day" (1962).The two US reviewers above seemed to have enjoyed this film, so I suppose it served its purpose however I could not award it more than just above an adequate rating.

"Candlelight in Algeria" is, by my standards, a superior noir adventure which concerns a secret conference being held, despite danger, in Algeria during WWII. The protagonist is an American girl from Kansas--a reference to Dorothy's line in the"Wizard of Oz" (1939) "I guess we're not in Kansas any more." She is staying with relatives and falls in with a spy, ably played by the powerful James Mason. The body of this brilliantly suspenseful film then falls into important episodes, involving a dangerous theft, misunderstandings, a major confrontation with the Nazi's chief investigator, and a thrilling flight leading to the final action--one in which Mason risks his life to divert the Nazis and their coerced French partners from disrupting the conference. The film is told in an envelope flashback by the heroine, Lehman, in a hospital, wondering whether Mason is alive or dead. George King directed most skillfully, from a script by Dorothy Hope, John Clements, Katharine Strueby and Brock Williams. The film was produced by John Stafford with original music by Roy Douglas and James Turner and award- level cinematography by Otto Heller. The fine art direction was done by Norman G. Arnold. In the above-average cast, Carla Lehman was charismatic and intelligent as the American girl, and James Mason more than excellent as the solider-spy who enlists her before falling in love with her. Walter Rilla plays a most intelligent spy master, Dr, Muller; Raymond Lovell and Enid Stamp-Taylor are used for comedy. Offbeat Pamela Stirling as Yvette and the rest of the cast are all more than adequate. A classic chase and hiding out in the Casbah is given touches of humor, without ever losing its interesting edge as it pits suave Brit Mason against brave but naive neo-puritan USer, Lehman. Look for the interrogation scenes, the Algiers' hideout scenes and the climactic, intelligent chase sequence, among others. This is a film worth watching many times, and for many values, I suggest. It was often imitated afterward but seldom equaled.