Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Let's be realistic.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

This was another high-profile Oscar-winner (for Paul Lukas as Best Actor) which had eluded me thus far; the film is a topical, i.e. wartime, Warner Bros. drama which served as both a prestige production and a vehicle for their No. 1 female star – Bette Davis. Still, the actress is content here to play second-fiddle to Lukas – much as had been the case with the classic comedy THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER (1941), co-starring Monty Woolley. Perhaps not coincidentally, both were inspired by plays and, consequently, proved verbose and stylistically limited; indeed, the only other film helmed by Broadway director Schumlin was the loose Graham Greene adaptation CONFIDENTIAL AGENT (1945), as it happened, another espionage thriller.Anyway, WATCH ON THE RHINE (scripted by popular crime novelist Dashiell Hammett – whose THE MALTESE FALCON had been thrice filmed by the studio in the space of a decade! – from the original by his partner Lillian Hellman) also bore a striking resemblance to another recent Warner Bros. effort, CASABLANCA; previewed in December 1942 but opening for general release the following year, it ended up competing with the film under review in some of the top Oscar categories (including Best Picture, Actor and Adapted Screenplay). It is telling, however, that for a movie that underwent major changes during production, CASABLANCA holds together much more firmly than the stolid WATCH ON THE RHINE and, needless to say, also caught the public fancy to a much greater extent – remaining one of the most fondly-remembered Hollywood classics to this day!The comparisons between the two films involve the chase by Nazis for an underground leader: here, it is anti-Fascist German Lukas (quite fine under the circumstances, if frail-looking for the requirements of the role and evidently struggling with the rich dialogue – invariably delivered in a Hungarian accent he never managed to shake off, like his compatriot Bela Lugosi!) who has come to Washington to stay with the family of wife Davis (who seems perennially on the verge of tears here!); also living there are a rather wasted Geraldine Fitzgerald and her ill-suited and impoverished Romanian aristocrat partner George Coulouris, sympathetic to the Third Reich (represented by Henry Daniell and Kurt Katch) despite having fallen out of favour with them. Indeed, when he suspects Lukas' true identity, he realizes it is a chance for him to once again enter into the Party's good books! Davis' relatives (outspoken society mother Lucile Watson – the other Oscar nominee here – and debonair brother Donald Woods, who carries a flame for Fitzgerald) at first are confused by the intrigue but, when it comes to choose sides, they obviously pick up the cause of the Resistance. While the confrontation scenes between Lukas and Coulouris easily emerge as the film's trump card, the speechifying does make for heavy-going viewing (with the schtick relating to the Lukases' indoctrinated yet wide-eyed children tilting proceeding dangerously towards outright boredom!).

Kurt and Sara Muller (Paul Lukas, Bette Davis) and their three children flee Nazi Germany to live with Sara's family in Washington, D.C. Little do they know Sara's family already has two guests, Rumanian count Teck de Brancovis and his American wife Marthe (George Coulouris, Geraldine Fitzgerald). Teck is a slimy weasel who is trying to curry favor with the Nazi's. There's also a subplot about Marthe falling in love with Sara's brother David (Donald Woods).This is a touching, thoughtful, drama with a little added suspense. It has some fine acting (Lukas won an Oscar) and a good script written by Dashiell Hammett based on the play by Lillian Hellman. One of the main complaints among the reviews I've read is that the children act and talk like adults, not like real children. This is addressed in the film as Sara's mother even asks them if they are "children or dressed-up midgets." The kids were supposed to be intelligent and mature, both because of how they had been raised as well as the environment they had grown up in, with politics and causes taking the place of a normal childhood. So I really don't see why this is a point of complaint for so many. They weren't trying to pass the kids off as your average children. Anyway, it's a good movie with WW2 themes and strong performances from all. Lukas and Davis are especially good.

So tedious... what a shame. An important subject, great actors but... it's painful waiting for something to happen. I love Dashiell Hammett too, but his fine hand is not perceived in this movie. The first hour of this film is comprised mostly of incessant small talk, stilted dialog and self-important strains of "America (My Country Tis of Thee)". Finally the action is set in motion one hour into the film. At that point it becomes compelling for about 15 minutes, then lapses into preachy monologues. Despite the significance of the topic (Nazi resistance) especially in 1943 when the film was released, its mawkish sentimentality does not render this a robust examination of the theme in 2012. There is another film, released the year before, on this subject that we've all seen a few times at least... better to view that classic again than spend two vexing hours on this one.

The film version of "Watch on the Rhine" betrays its stage origins a bit too much to make it a classic, but it's acted with enough conviction from its cast that it still carries a considerable wallop all these years later.Oscar-nominated Paul Lukas plays an underground Nazi resistance leader making a stopover in the U.S. so that his wife (Bette Davis) can visit her home and mother (Lucile Watson, also Oscar nominated). In a bit of macabre coincidence, another of Watson's house guests turns out to be a key member of the Nazi party based in America, and attempts to blackmail Lukas. There's a lot of talk in this movie, and, not surprisingly given its subject matter and year of release, a lot of propaganda and public service message posturing. But Lukas, Davis and especially Watson are very good and help the film achieve its success as a rousing call to action.My favorite part of the script is its treatment of Watson's character and her son, Davis's brother. They represent the old, established American aristocracy and think that Americans have seen turbulent times, yet when faced with the much older, wiser and cynical culture of old-world Europe, they realize just how young, innocent and naive America can afford to be.Grade: A-