Thanks to the generosity of Turner Classic Movies and the technological marvel of digital recording, I’ve managed to squirrel away several hours of obscure Alfred Hitchcock films, mostly from his British and early American periods. Included in this random assemblage are a couple of real rarities from 1944, “Bon Voyage” and “Aventure Malgache.”
The story behind these films is as interesting – or more so – than the films themselves. During World War II, Hitchcock found himself wanting to contribute to the British war effort. Thus he found himself working with the propaganda office to make two shorts. But not just any old propaganda shorts. To underscore Britain’s support of, and alliance with, unoccupied France, these films were to be made in the French language, with expatriated French film professionals, about French resistance heroes.
Upon completion, the films were dismissed by the propaganda office, and shelved after a short exhibition. And I hate to say it, but I can see why. Neither film offers much in the way of patriotic jingoism, and even less in the way of cinematic genius. To be honest, it’s clear that Hitch put these together as quickly as possible; while there are flashes of his skill in both (one particular shot, over the shoulder of a man watching a court proceeding in “Aventure Malgache,” stands out as especially inspired), the films are very rote.
As propaganda, they’re not even that. “Bon Voyage” is a very simple story about an RAF pilot who escapes a POW camp, only to find that he brought a dangerous Vichy spy along with him. He only learns this after the free French have rescued him and neutralized the threat. So the Brits are idiots who threaten the very fabric of la résistance français. Huzzah! “Aventure Malgache” is a little bit more coherent: it’s the story of how the British navy saved the ass of the French colony on Madagascar, and gave the colony over to the free French government. Somewhere in there is a tribute to French theatre that I didn’t quite understand.
I hardly want to say the films are worthless; far from it. If nothing else, it’s fascinating to see one of the major directors of all time tackling the war head-on, something he rarely did in his features, and never this politically (I can name only The Lady Vanishes and Lifeboat as operating in a similar mode; I ignore Foreign Correspondent, which is about WWII in the same way that North by Northwest is about the Cold War). But beyond their historical interest to WWII propaganda buffs and Hitchcock completists, there’s probably not a lot going on here.