"We Were Strangers" (1949) coadapted and directed by John Huston between his great "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "The Asphalt Jungle" is astonishingly turgid. Accepting Oklahoma-native Jennifer Jones as Cuban (named China) is considerably less of a problem than a Latino John Garfield's Tony presents. She is not really good, but she is not bad as a woman seeking vengeance after seeing a policeman (Pedro Armendáriz, 3 Godfathers) gun down her brother. And she looks great handling guns...

She is readily accepted into the resistance organization and becomes part of a terrorist cell involved in a plan that strikes me as (1) preposterous and (2) certain to be detected. The stars (Jones and Garfield) fall in love, though showing no chemistry. Her brother's killer lusts after her and is (of course) in charge of hunting down Tony. There are several twists (also of course!).

The American business for which she works, can't get involved in local politics, despite the "White Terror" of the Gerardo Machado regime in the fateful year of 1933.

There are a few tense scenes and some snapping at each other by the stressed-out freedom fighters (labeled "terrorists" by the government), and some noirish cinematography provided by Russell Metty (Spartacus) but mostly the movie is boring.

What is interesting about it--beyond being one of John Huston's many duds--is that it is about those soon to be labeled "premature anti-fascists" (ca. 1933) and that a Hollywood movie about rising up against a right wing dictatorship was made in 1949. That Garfield would appear in it is not a surprise, but that David O. Selznick, who so carefully managed the career of Jennifer Jones, who became his wife that year, lent her to so dull and so leftist (leftover Popular Front) a movie with a particularly mawkish finale.

A bit of liveliness is smuggled into the conspirators' project by Gilbert Roland (Beneath the 12-mile Reef) who sings transformations of a revolutionary ditty... and has no difficulty appearing to be Latino (being Mexican by birth, as was fifth-billed Ramon Novarro, and Armendáriz). Roland provides a welcome relief from the heavy melodrama.

The DVD has trailers for "Castle Keep," Behold a Pale Horse," and "Lawrence of Arabia," plus multiple subtitle options, but not even a trailer for the movie (which was never issued on VHS). The print used for the transfer was far from perfect (quite grainy), but has quite black blacks.


© 2007, Stephen O. Murray



Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age