Word: rhine
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Watch on the Rhine (Paul Lukas, Bette Davis; TIME, Sept...
Watch on the Rhine (Paul Lukas, Bette Davis; TIME, Sept...
Watch on the Rhine (Warner) is Lillian Hellman's successful anti-Nazi play without a Nazi in it,* transferred almost bodily to celluloid. That play and film are alike as two swastikas is small wonder...
When Watch on the Rhine was casting, Paul Lukas had to talk his way out of the part of the man he shoots. Originally, Producer Shumlin had Lukas down for the Rumanian villain. Lukas' on-&-offstage persuasiveness subsequently won him 1) the New York Drama League's coveted Delia Austrian medal for 1941's most distinguished performance, 2) nine out of nine votes in Variety's critics' poll of the season's best acting. The National Fathers' Day Committee presented Lukas with a plaque (for the year's best portrayal...
Since then he has oscillated between villainy and chivalry in such films as Little Women, Concessions of a Nazi Spy, The Lady Vanishes, The Three Musketeers, Strictly Dishonorable. He played Kurt Muller in the stage production of Watch on the Rhine for two years. Says Lukas, who prefers repertory to long runs: "After a while I was no longer an actor, I was just part of the theater, like the seats...