This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

A story of courage and defiance of the French people following their surrender to the Germans in 1940.French soldiers who surrendered are duped by the Germans and are instead taken to a prison of war camp where they are subjected to the most terrible conditions.Gene Kelly, in a non-singing role, is one such soldier. Punished for hitting German soldiers he is locked in solitary confinement.In his brief appearance as a priest, Cedric Hardwicke shines as a brave, defiant messenger of the Lord. He pays the ultimate price for attempting to conduct a religious service for someone shot trying to escape.There is also treachery and collaboration on the part of Hume Cronyn, a prisoner who because he could speak German was made an interpreter by the latter and apparently this went to his head. He also pays the ultimate price as in the ironic case of Peter Lorre, a German soldier caught up in an escape attempt and mistakenly killed by his fellow Nazis.The ending shows the determination and courage of a local village. This film is a tribute to such people.

The Cross of Lorraine has many virtues - but also some serious flaws.It is gripping and involving, and has excellent performances and characterisations. Gene Kelly's excellent performance gives the lie to the claims by most of the leading film critics (eg. Leslie Halliwell, David Quinlan) that he couldn't really act (Halliwell said that his acting ability was 'minimal', whilst Quinlan said that he 'never convinced' as an actor). Had they forgotten his terrific performance here? As another reviewer has also said, the half-forgotten German character actor Tonio Selwart is also very good as the German commandant, as is Jean-Pierre Aumont as the hero.The film is also very well directed, for the most part, and has many good scenes.However, there are some disturbing aspects, partly due to the presence as co-scriptwriter of Ring Lardner Jr. Lardner was a member of the American Communist Party, despite the fact that Communism had been responsible for millions of deaths in Russia in the 1920s and 1930s. His sympathies can be seen in the film in a number of ways. The traitor, Duval, played by Hume Cronyn, is shown as a capitalist wine merchant who puts business above loyalty. The traitor could have been given any occupation at all by the scriptwriters (French collaborators were from all sorts of occupations in real life) but Lardner had to make a heavy-handed swipe at capitalism.Similarly, the Spanish republican, Rodriguez (Joseph Calleia), is shown as as a heroic figure even though this charming character's aim in life is to kill as many fascists as possible. His positive portrayal is despite the fact that Spanish republicans were responsible for the murder of thousands of priests, nuns, middle class figures and other 'enemies of the state' in republican-controlled areas of Spain in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39).There is also another uncomfortable aspect to the film, due presumably to a combination of script and direction. The film positively revels in the slaughter of German soldiers in the climatic battle - even though in actual fact those particular Germans hadn't killed anyone in the village at the point when the insurrection starts. The film gleefully shows German soldiers being burnt alive, bludgeoned to death, and so on, seeming to take pride in allocating them grisly deaths.So, although this is a high quality film in most respects, it is also deeply flawed.

This movie is an oracle of french Independence before it one year by the symbol of liberty (Charles Degaulle) in 1944 with American aim in the beginning of (Normandy operation) but he decided to make the liberty of Paris by french resistance without any aim from foreign countries to put the french trademark in the eternal pages of history by his speeches that he announced his invitation for french people (men , women , students) to take their arms for liberty and free France under his administration of pending government of (Free France) and the symbol of (Cross Lorraine) the saint cross of (Joan of Arc) the holy spirit of victory in 15th century against English occupation at France but he quoted this symbol by the spirit of 20th century and he did it for France and his famous shout after victory and during the vectorial ceremony (Vive La France).

Very effective American propaganda piece made in the beginning of the war and centered around a couple of handfuls of French soldiers capitulating at Marshall Pétain's order and being made prisoners of war in the German part of Alsace. Director Tay Garnett was an acknowledged master of light and shadow, and not just in the cinematographic sense. Lots of issues are at stake here, and although all the characters are somewhat larger than life, the hesitant lawyer, wonderfully, luminously played by Jean-Pierre Aumont, and the cabdriver, acted by a young, doe-eyed Gene Kelly, both help to give human texture to the admittedly rather formulaic plotline, and neither is a hero in the textbook Hollywood sense. The most interesting conflict in the film would be how to deal with the Hume Cronyn character, a French soldier who sympathizes with the Nazis and serves as a translater / snitch in the POW camp. Should he be killed without a trial, or would that, even in wartime, be a violation of basic French principles of jurisprudence and democracy?'The Cross of Lorraine' is a very, very good film and a far cry from American WW2 movies we see today, they are all much more banal and onesided.The film was obviously inspired by Jean Renoir's ultimate antiwar movie, 'The Grand Illusion', and in its turn inspired Stuart Rosenberg's tough prison movie 'Cool Hand Luke'.