User reviews

Arch of Triumph (1948)

Wow, what a difficult movie to assess, but not a difficult one to enjoy. On the one hand, it is dripping with mood and anxiety. It is about budding love and broken hearts. There is political intrigue and and incipient Nazi invasion. And it's France, Paris, center of the end of the great century of European art and culture, from the mid 1800s to the mid 1900s.

On the other hand, it seems amorphous and vague.

Director Lewis Milestone makes this 1938 Paris gloomier than Sherlock Holmes's London--the rain, the darkness, the general lack of hope is part of the great drama lurking behind every scene. Charles Boyer is the main character, a refugee of uncertain origin, and the mysterious woman with both rich and poor friends and an equally uncertain origin is played in usual melodrama by Ingrid Bergman. They have no chemistry, for sure, but that just makes their love affair mysterious as well. In fact, the whole movie is about what we don't know, and can't know by watching.

This could be frustrating for some viewers, this lack of intention, and frankly lack of clear plot. But if you can just inhabit this world, enjoying a highly polished mise-en-scene (so polished it shows its Hollywood sound stage roots, at times, though darkly, darkly), if you can just soak it up and not worry, all will be well. It's a beautiful beautiful movie on those terms, photographer Russell Meety is doing that 1940s high contrast photography to perfection. Watch how often he shoots through windows, including the great phone booth shot (repeated ten minutes later) where the accident happens in the background.

The story here is based on a 1945 novel by German author Erich Maria Remarque, and Milestone directed the legendary "All Quiet on the Western Front" two decades earlier, also based on a Remarque novel. In both cases, there is an intensity of humanity against the larger military chaos and cruelty that seems so indifferent to them. The book here was actually published in English first as "The Arch of Triumph," and was a huge bestseller before going to a German version.

I don't think it's an accident that the pre-war angst here is an echo of "Casablanca," which by now (five years later) was already legendary. Bergman, of course, is carried over (though she had just finished filming "Notorious" for Hitchcock, if you want to follow her career). And Boyer is a better version of Henried (better as an actor). For more colorful secondary characters, you'll find the incomparable Louis Calhern (with a surprisingly effective accent) and Charles Laughton (whose accent is wobbly).

This was originally a more gut wrenching four hour film, and I think it might have made more logical sense at that length, but I can see it would have been too long by far. Watch what we have and just take it in for what it is. I enjoyed it on that level very very much.

Not sure about this one. There's much to like; the atmosphere, the camera work, the lighting and shadows, the closeups, the acting. But something's missing, perhaps continuity, or the impression that it all somehow fits together. Taken as a series of vignettes this film is very good. Combine the vignettes to tell a subset of the original story and it could be even better. But put it all together and it succumbs under the sheer weight of all the subplots.

And yet, despite my criticism, I am pleased to have seen it. As I said there's much to like, especially the acting. Louis Calhern is always a joy and here he lends a nuanced gravitas to his part. Charles Boyer is better than usual playing a tormented refugee torn between love and revenge. Charles Laughton is the pivot about which the story revolves and without him his one dimensional character would have been but a caricature. There's even a memorable cameo by an uncredited William Conrad. His scene is no more than a minute or so but it's not one you're likely to overlook or forget. But the best reason to watch it is of course Ingrid Bergman. Her effortless ability to switch personalities simply draws you in to her performance. Here she plays an insecure wreck, an incredibly seductive, infuriatingly deceitful and mostly terrified woman. Her character's choices are not perhaps entirely honorable but with Bergman who cares...

Lewis Milestone scored his greatest film success when he did the classic adaption of Erich Maria Remarque's novel All Quiet on the Western Front in 1931. It seemed a natural for him to do an adaption of another Remarque book, Flotsam, retitled here as Arch of Triumph. I guess that United Artists didn't want the audience to think the film was about sea refuse.

Unfortunately while All Quiet on the Western Front stayed very much on its anti-war message, Milestone opted to make one of those tragic romances that Frank Borzage was more noted for. The problem of all the refugees from all the political turmoil up to THAT time collecting in places like Paris was left very much in the background.

Charles Boyer is one of those refugees, a Czech who can't go back to his own country because of Hitler's bloodless takeover. He's a doctor who's been serving in Loyalist Spain and got run out of there. With no passport, he's an illegal alien in France in 1939 and subject to deportation which he is by the way at one point in the film.

He meets Ingrid Bergman who's also a refugee of sorts from a series of bad relationships. He saves her from suicide and a relationship develops. In fact when Boyer is deported, she does what she has to do to survive.

Louis Calhern may have the best role in the film as Boyer's friend and counselor, an exiled Russian Lieutenant Colonel of the Czar's guard who is a doorman at a swank Russian café. Charles Laughton is in here to as an S.S. officer who Boyer remembers killing his old girl friend back in Spain and who he hunts without mercy. Laughton has one of the smallest roles he ever did in a film and I wish there were more of him here.

Laughton is seen briefly at the beginning doing the torture in his best Inspector Javert manner. Later on when Boyer spots him and makes his acquaintance to lure him for the kill, he's an avuncular tourist, but clearly on some kind of mission. He's good in both sides of the same character.

It's a real downer of a film, Arch of Triumph. Good thing we know how history turned out because it sure doesn't look good for the good guys when this film ends.

This is certainly not Ingrid Bergman's best movie, though her performance as Joan, and Boyer's as Ravic, are terrific. But you will never see a more beautiful Ingrid than in the magnificent black and white =chiaroscuro= of Russell Metty's photography, and Ingrid is very touching as the "lost woman" hinted at but never fully realized in "Casablanca" and "Notorious." Even considering that Bergman was gorgeous on screen for almost forty years, her stunning image in this somewhat confused thriller-soap opera, is worth the price of admission; plus the dialogue is pretty good, and you get to see Charles Laughton as an evil Nazi colonel!

Director Lewis Milestone tries - and succeeds, to some extent - to make ARCH OF TRIUMPH an interesting film. To that end, he is greatly helped by the cinematography, with beautiful chiaroscuros that heighten the oppressive atmosphere, but he is let down by a meandering script, a far cry from Remarque's original novel.

Boyer, normally a middle of the road actor, does well enough here to overshadow even the great Ingrid Bergman (they had been paired together in GASLIGHT, 1944, and she had won an Oscar for that performance). I think that happened because by this point Bergman had already met, and fallen in love with, Roberto Rosselini, and that must have distracted her no end (her character even claims to be Italian, and she speaks Italian toward the end of the film). That emotional upheaval, which was about to have serious consequences for her career, pushing her out of Hollywood for about 8 years, definitely impacted on her acting in this film, and on the latter's quality.

In the end, it is the film's dark atmosphere that stays with you - and that's not much. Still, I am glad I watched it, it is better than many supposedly politically correct movies done today.

The film tells about Dr. Ravic(Charles Boyer),he's an exiled living in Paris before the Nazis penetrate into the city.Under false name and with no papers,aware always that the Surete(French gendarmes)could be sent away or jailed.One day he sees to Haake(Charles Laughton) a Gestapo official who tortured his anterior love and he's looking for revenge.One night in a bridge over river Sena,the refugee doctor finds to Jean Madou(Ingrid Bergman),a beauty and mysterious gal and he rescues her from a suicide attempt.The 2ªWW isn't the best environment for romanticism and a love affair but he falls is love with her.

The film is a romantic melodrama with magnificent actors.However is slow moving and little bit bored .The casting is frankly magnificent.Charles Boyer as sad refugee and gorgeous Ingrid Bergman as unfortunate damsel in disgrace are excellent.The secondary cast is awesome, impressive Charles Laughton as Nazi official, one of the his usual roles as villain and the lion's share of the acting meat deservedly goes to Louis Calhern as an exiled Russian colonel of the Czar who's a doorman in a show-coffee. Atmospheric black and white cinematography by Russell Metty who later made colorful super-productions.The film was restored with longtime but going on tedious,sluggish and dull.The motion picture is regularly directed by Lewis Milestone who directed various classic warlike movies.The flick is based on Erich Maria Remarque novel and was posteriorly rendered for TV(1985)by Waris Hussein with Anthony Hopkins and Lesley Anne Down.The picture will like to Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer enthusiastic.

Fearful refugees are flooding into Paris. Spain is about to fall. German refugee Dr. Ravic (Charles Boyer) survived Nazi torture. He helps other refugees despite not having any papers. He spots hated Nazi officer Herr von Haake (Charles Laughton) in civilian clothing for unknown reasons with war on the horizon. Von Haake had killed his beloved while torturing him. He encounters dispirited Joan Madou (Ingrid Bergman) on a bridge in a rainy night. They fall in love but he is arrested by the police. When he returns, she has become the mistress of a wealthy man.

This wants to be Casablanca but it's not quite the same. I like the dark tone and a realistic refugee situation. It might be too dark for its time. Maybe the audience is looking for something brighter after the war. Anyways, the story meanders a lot. I kinda want the story to stay much more closely with the Ravic Joan pairing. It doesn't get more dark gothic than a first meeting in the rain on a Paris bridge. I like parts of this but parts of this loses me. It feels like a long story being chopped up a little and squeezed into two hours.

Having been hailed as the American Eisenstein after winning his second Oscar in 1930 for Erich Maria Remarque's 'All Quiet on the Western Front', Lewis Milestone is again directing this adaptation of a novel by Remarque set in pre-War Paris with a top-draw international cast. What could possibly go wrong? EVERYTHING it seems.

The combined effect of a lengthened shooting schedule and increased budget caused by incessant rewrites and revamping sank the newly formed Enterprise Pictures and the four hour version was finally done to death by the unkindest cut of all, that of the cutting-room scissors.

The character of 'ghost surgeon' Dr. Ravic had appeared in several of Remarque's novels and is here interpreted by Charles Boyer although by his own admission it was a role he didn't like in a story he didn't trust. His leading lady here, the luminous Ingrid Bergman, confided to him that she felt she had made a mistake when agreeing to play demi-mondaine Joan and her character's neuroses and histrionics do become increasingly tiresome.

One senses that Charles Laughton's bizarre turn as a nasty Nazi has not exactly been improved by the drastic editing whilst Ruth Warwick as cancer patient Kate Hegstrom has been expunged entirely. The always-good-value Louis Calhern is perfectly cast, has been gifted the most memorable lines and comes off best.

Russell Metty's chiaroscuro cinematography has emphasised the doom and gloom by shrouding the City of Light in perpetual darkness whilst Louis Gruenberg's score is suitably ominous.

Probably best to leave the final word to Monsieur Boyer: "Before the editing it was terrible for four hours, now it is only terrible for two hours".

More people should know about this wonderful film--reading the book in advance really enhances the experience of it, but one can just enjoy the incredible performances of Bergman and Boyer (not to mention the excellent character roles, particularly Charles Laughton). The use of light/shadow is also extremely well done and atmospheric. It's high time someone re-releases this movie on DVD (Criterion, perhaps), because it's another wonderful example of classic film noir, very well executed.

For those not familiar with Remarque's novel, it's a must-read--although I warn you, after you're done you will have an insane urge to try Calvados.

Arch of Triumph, based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, is the story of refugees in Paris before World War II.

Charles Boyer is a refugee doctor, a man without a passport and living under an assumed name, Ravic. He wants to find and extract revenge from the Nazi torturer (Charles Laughton) who killed his lover.

Ravic meets and falls in love with a mysterious woman, Joan (Ingrid Bergman), but ultimately he is caught and deported. He leaves her with no hope of reconnecting. But he manages to get back into Paris, only to find she has moved on.

With a top cast and production values, rich in atmosphere and sad situations, this is a good but not great film.

Bergman and Boyer made this and the superior Gaslight together. One is distracted watching how the filmmakers covered up the height difference. Supposedly they were the same height, and Boyer wore lifts to seem taller. I doubt it - not the lifts but I suspect he was shorter and stood on boxes and raked floors.

She's absolutely gorgeous and very effective in her role. Handsome Boyer always had a way of being romantic but could have an air of detachment as well as invoking sympathy.

For me old films like this are always worth seeing.

Pay no attention to high-brow detractors; if you want to see a luminous Ingrid Bergman and a world-weary Charles Boyer at their film noir best, run--do not walk--to your nearest store and buy this film (VHS only, unfortunately).

Do not expect sparks to fly between these war-time lovers--Bergman as a kept woman carried along willy-nilly by forces beyond her control, and Boyer as a physician and resistance member on the run in occupied Paris--their encounters are brief and ill-starred, save only for the deep tenderness that occasionally surfaces, especially at the film's end.

Casablanca it's not, but it will disappoint no lover of this genre.

Despite featuring one of my favourite actors - Charles Laughton ("Haake"), Ingrid Bergman manages to drag this wartime drama down to an almost soporific pace as her character "Joan" is rescued from almost certain suicide by compassionate Czech doctor "Ravic" (Charles Boyer). Both are refugees fleeing the rise of the Nazis in Eastern Europe. She has what can only be described as a bit of a chequered past and the two now embark on what I felt to be rather a disjoined romance that didn't really convince me. When he is apprehended by the police - without papers, she takes up with a wealthy person and the intrigue rather loses it's way. Laughton is better as the brutal Nazi sophisticate upon whom "Ravic" intends revenge - but he features quite sparingly as the narrative ploddingly meanders towards a rather predictable conclusion. It must be said, though, that this is a really good looking film. Lewis Milestone and cinematographer Russell Metty really do create a seamy and gritty pre-war Paris - especially as their new occupiers move in, and life becomes extremely perilous for these two escapees. At times it is compelling and exciting, but for the most part it just burbles along providing little more than a vehicle for two stars who didn't really gel and for a third we don't see enough of.

This could have been a much better movie. Boyer's disenchanted, vengeful refugee doctor is excellent and Bergman's Joan, unable to commit or disengage, could have been a fascinating characterisation. But while individual scenes are very fine, the film, as a whole, is oddly disconnected, suggesting ruthless cutting. The sub-plot involving Laughton's porcine Gestapo bully is perfunctory and we get far too much of Calhern's emigre. Still, the black and white photography is impressive, and I rather went for the doom and gloom!

Charles Boyer & Ingrid Bergman reunite (after their successful pairing in Gaslight) for this 1948 romantic drama. It's the eve of WWII & Boyer, a refugee in Paris, uses an assumed name to ply his medical wiles on other refugees while he searches for a Nazi, played fleetingly by Charles Laughton (a waste here frankly!) who tortured him & killed his lover. One night he comes upon Bergman in the throes of a suicide attempt, saves & brings her back home, nursing her back to physical & mental health culminating in her falling in love w/him. As the union becomes a tumultuous one (he leaves for stretches at a time to ply his trade & continue his search for the errant Laughton), she ends up romancing another while singing at a nightclub which also ends up being a raging sea like her other loves w/her being shot & paralyzed. You would think the pairing in itself is enough for admission but here this overlong romance soon grates & confounds making the viewer think they were better off never meeting in the first place but when it's working, it does, until it doesn't. There was a remake in 1984 w/Anthony Hopkins & Lesley-Anne Down which from what I've read never corrected the original's errors. Also starring Louis Calhern as a long time friend of Boyer's.

Great Parisian noir cinematography by Russ Metty but that's about it for this stiff, dull film from Lewis Milestone. Not only is there no chemistry between Boyer and Bergman there's zero energy as well. The scenes between them feel like trying to run through knee deep mud. Consequently, I never made it to Laughton.

This is a dark, moody, WW II film that many people today cannot understand. This film is also very close to the book. The photography is as good as The Third Man, and the plot is absorbing. Charles Laughton is mis-cast as the SS (Nazi) agent but other than that the film is terrific. Louis Calhern is impressive as the Russian officer now reduced to be a doorman at a nightclub. This is a serious film made at the time of immense human suffering right after the 2nd WWar and shows the very serious attitudes of the people then. This is a film for people who value well made movies from a bygone age that had great actors and directors. The book is tougher than the movie, it was written by one of the 20th centuries great authors.

If I didn't adore Ingrid so much I wouldn't bother giving my opinion of this dreary film. First of all, Charles Boyer was absolutely terrible in this. Ingrid's beauty and superb acting carried the story. Because of her I kept watching it, hoping something good would come out of it. I won't say what the ending was, but it was stupid. Louis Calhern's acting (he played with Ingrid in Notorious, you remember), also was of the best. And Charles Laughton who had a small role. Boyer was great with Ingrid in Gaslight, but certainly not in this role. I can honestly say that no matter what Ingrid Bergman stars in, she always makes the film better than what it is.

INGRID BERGMAN's immense popularity during the '40s was the only factor to save this film from instant oblivion. It was a huge box-office failure, but nobody blamed Bergman who still looked luminous despite her deadly dull assignment opposite CHARLES BOYER, as the protagonist facing deportment during World War II's Nazi reign.

All the ingredients that seemed to make ARCH OF TRIUMPH into a "must see" film were there. First, it's from a novel by Erich Maria Remarque who gave the world ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. Then the cast included Bergman, Boyer, CHARLES LAUGHTON and LOUIS CALHERN. Then, it was directed by Lewis Milestone and released in time to be considered for Oscar nominations. Alas, there were none and it opened to humiliating reviews.

It's a deadly dull affair between Boyer's refugee and Bergman's lady of the night and whatever interest the story might have had is made tedious by the slow funeral pace of the story with its dimly lit exteriors and interiors. It's a thin story without much significance and it's shabby as a piece of entertainment. Not even the great Charles Laughton can save it, his role is so obscure in the scheme of things.

Not worth seeing unless you must see every film Ingrid made. She and Boyer were paired much more successfully in GASLIGHT four years earlier.

Trivia note: The film's running time was slashed after terrible reviews but restored to 131 minutes for arhival prints.

Here we see Ingrid Bergman pulling out all the stops to portray a simple character in a more complex manner, and she succeeds brilliantly. She takes a girl who is merely rather 'loose', weak, and grasping, and turns her into a torrid emotional Rubik Cube puzzle, which no amount of twisting can solve. She gives depths to shallow water undreamed of in the annals of the sea. Matched opposite her is the perfectly behaved but deeply in love Charles Boyer. This was when things were kept cool on the surface, while the fires raged beneath, i.e., it is the 1940s. This film is the Paris refugees' version of 'Close Encounter', and Boyer is just a more romantic Trevor Howard who drinks wine instead of tea. The idea that this film could be remade later with the highly mannered and emotionless Anthony Hopkins in the lead is absurd (Hopkins does 'intensity' but not feelings), and even more so that Ingrid Bergman could be replaced by Lesley Anne Down, of all people. (Best to forget that remake, it was too awful.) Now back to the old pros: Boyer and Bergman, and the sky is alight with hopeless love, and searing tragedy darkens the dawn. Director Lewis Milestone goes at it full throttle, to superb effect. He had directed an earlier novel by the same author, Erich Maria Remarque, eighteen years before ("All Quiet on the Western Front', 1930), so he had a deep feel for the material. What is more, Milestone was a European and a refugee. The underlying theme of the film is the plight of the stateless flotsam and jetsam refugees thrown up by the War. One of Charles Laughton's finest performances is found in this film, as a German Gestapo chief scouting out Paris, whom Boyer, working with the Resistance, befriends in order to kill. The Lionsgate DVD of this film lacks ten minutes, including the scenes where Laughton gets his just deserts, and certain scenes casting aspersions upon the moral standing of Bergman's character. (Let us hope for a restored cut DVD one day.) This is one of the great films of the immediate postwar era, with a cast that takes its emotional story to immense and tragic heights.

But the Anthony Hopkins / Lesley-Anne Down remake is far superior and manages to clarify much that is left slightly in the air here (perhaps due to the sharp editing that cut it down from its original 4hrs).