Reunion in France

Reunion in France is a 1942 American war film distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer starring Joan Crawford, John Wayne, and Philip Dorn in a story about a woman in occupied France who, learning her well-heeled lover has German connections, aids a downed American flyer. Ava Gardner appears in a small uncredited role as a Parisian shopgirl. The movie was directed by Jules Dassin. Plot It is 1940 in Paris. Michele de la Becque (Joan Crawford) is a career woman in love with industrial designer Robert Cortot (Philip Dorn). They enjoy a luxurious lifestyle unfazed by the approach of World War II. The two become engaged. After the Battle of France and subsequent German occupation, Michele discovers her fiancé is socializing with Nazi officers, including General Schroeder, the military commandant of Paris; and the SS Gruppenführer in charge of the Gestapo in the Greater Paris region. Cortot's factories are manufacturing heavy duty trucks and weapons for the Germans. She confronts him, and he does not deny her evidence. She is outraged by his collaboration. People in the streets curse them, wish them ill, and spit at them, promising there will be a reckoning one day. She aids a downed American in the Eagle Squadron of the Royal Air Force, pilot Pat Talbot (John Wayne) from Pennsylvania. She finds herself falling in love with him. Michele makes contact with the Resistance and with their aid, arranges for the escape of Talbot. The Germans are becoming suspicious of both her and Cortot, but do not impede Cortot's obtaining travel papers to Lisbon, "toward the freedom of the Americas ... the great embarkation point." Under the cover of a weekend trip to Fontainebleau, with Talbot disguised as her chauffeur, Michele brings him to a field in the country where a Lockheed Hudson patrol bomber will take him and two members of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) back to England. Along the way, she learns that Cortot is a major leader, perhaps the leader, of the French Resistance. As the Hudson approaches the field, Pat urges Michele to get on the airplane and escape to England with them.