Ten Days in Paris

Last updated

Ten Days in Paris
"Ten Days in Paris" (1940).jpg
U.S. one sheet theatrical poster
Directed by Tim Whelan
Written by James Curtis
John Meehan Jr.
Based onnovel The Disappearance of Roger Tremayne by Bruce Graeme
Produced by Irving Asher
Starring Rex Harrison
Kaaren Verne
C. V. France
Joan Marion
Cinematography Otto Kanturek
Edited by Hugh Stewart
Music by Miklós Rózsa
Production
company
Irving Asher Productions
Distributed by Columbia Pictures Corporation (UK)
Release dates
  • 1 June 1940 (1940-06-01)(UK)
  • 20 April 1941 (1941-04-20)(US)
Running time
82 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Ten Days in Paris, also known as Missing Ten Days and Spy in the Pantry, is a 1940 British spy film directed by Tim Whelan and starring Rex Harrison, Kaaren Verne and C. V. France. [1] [2] The screenplay concerns a man in Paris who turns out to be a doppelganger of a spy operating in the French capital.

Contents

Plot

While walking along a Paris street, Englishman Robert Stevens is shot by an unknown assailant, but luckily he is only struck glancingly and rendered unconscious. When he awakens in Beaujon Hospital, he initially thinks he was injured in an aeroplane crash. His father, Sir James Stevens, confirms he left England in an aeroplane, but ten days before. However, his father does not believe he cannot remember anything about those missing ten days. (It turns out that Robert is an irresponsible ne'er-do-well who had disappeared before.) Robert decides to find out what happened. His only clue is a note that was found on him signed by "D."

In an office, François is on the telephone telling someone that Barnes was shot and is in the hospital, but should be out soon. Lanson enters. He is worried that the police may be watching Barnes. He instructs François to get results, then returns to London.

When Robert leaves the hospital, he begins making enquiries. François contacts him and directs him to André. André informs him that "Mademoiselle" is concerned that this shooting incident may bring unwanted police notice and end his usefulness. Robert confirms that Mademoiselle is "D". André orders him to rendezvous with Mademoiselle and that Lanson wants him "to keep a closer watch on Captain Victor".

At the appointed place, an attractive blonde orders him to go home with her. An encounter with a policeman over a parking ticket reveals that she is Diane de Geurmantes and she believes him to be her chauffeur, Barnes. He finds that Barnes' driver's license photograph looks just like him. At Diane's palatial chateau, he encounters other residents, including Denise, a servant and one of Lanson's spies. He notices a photograph of a man in uniform signed "Victor" in Diane's suite. Denise tells him the captain, Diane's fiancé, is here for dinner.

After dinner, Diane retires, leaving the aged General de Guermantes, Victor and a British liaison officer to discuss military matters. The next day, the general is taken for an inspection of an extensive secret underground military facility that Lanson is desperate to locate.

Meanwhile, Diane and "Barnes" drive out into the countryside to prepare an outdoor picnic for Victor and the general. However, they first fall into the water while trying to raise a tent, then they are chased up a tree by three dogs. Diane is annoyed at first, but later finds the mishaps amusing.

After the wreckage of Robert's aeroplane and a charred, unidentified body are reported in the newspaper as having been found, Lanson goes to see Sir James. The latter has been warned by British military intelligence to pretend the body is that of his son, but Lanson suspects otherwise and sets a trap, sending a telegram to the chateau addressed to Robert Stevens, telling him to meet his father. Robert falls for it and is held at gunpoint by André, but manages to kill him and escape.

Lanson discovers, purely by chance, that the general has a model of the installation at the chateau. He orders Denise to photograph it and, after learning that André is dead, sends a couple of men to pick up Robert. Robert overpowers Denise, locks her in a closet and takes her camera. Then he informs Diane what has been going on. While driving to the authorities, they are captured by Lanson's men, along with Denise's camera. With the information obtained from the film, Lanson decides to plant a bomb on the nightly ammunition train to destroy the installation. Robert manages to disarm the sole guard left behind and, by re-enacting William Tell's shooting of an apple from his son's head (this time with progressively smaller targets atop the henchman), persuades the man to tell all. While chasing the train, Robert and Diane reveal their feelings for each other. They are able to foil the sabotage, though Robert ends up back at the hospital. The woman who shot him initially is brought in; it turns out to have been a case of mistaken identity.

Cast

Critical reception

The Radio Times wrote, "as an example of gentlemanly espionage - which only Hitchcock broke with violent genius - it has no suspense, and even the charismatic Harrison exhibits little of his usual flair"; [3] while The New York Times conceded, "preposterous as it is, Missing Ten Days is rattling good fun." [4]

Related Research Articles

<i>In Search of Lost Time</i> 1913–1927 novel in seven volumes by Marcel Proust

In Search of Lost Time, first translated into English as Remembrance of Things Past, and sometimes referred to in French as La Recherche, is a novel in seven volumes by French author Marcel Proust. This early 20th-century work is his most prominent, known both for its length and its theme of involuntary memory. The most famous example of this is the "episode of the madeleine", which occurs early in the first volume.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry II of France</span> King of France from 1547 to 1559

Henry II was King of France from 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of Francis I and Duchess Claude of Brittany, he became Dauphin of France upon the death of his elder brother Francis in 1536.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans</span> French royal (1725–1785)

Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, known as le Gros, was a French royal of a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon. The First Prince of the Blood after 1752, he was the most senior male at the French court after the immediate royal family. He was the father of Philippe Égalité. He greatly augmented the already huge wealth of the House of Orléans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Le Vau</span> French architect

Louis Le Vau was a French Baroque architect, who worked for Louis XIV of France. He was an architect that helped develop the French Classical style in the 17th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Antoine, Duke of Enghien</span> French royal; son of Louis Henri, Prince of Condé

Louis Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Enghien was a member of the House of Bourbon of France. More famous for his death than his life, he was executed by order of Napoleon Bonaparte, who brought charges against him of aiding Britain and plotting against Napoleon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis François, Prince of Conti</span> Prince of Conti

Louis François de Bourbon, or Louis François I, Prince of Conti, was a French nobleman who became the Prince of Conti from 1727 to his death, succeeding his father, Louis Armand II de Bourbon. His mother was Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon, the daughter of Louis III, Prince of Condé and Louise Françoise de Bourbon, a legitimized daughter of King Louis XIV of France. His younger sister, Louise Henriette de Bourbon, was the mother of Philippe Égalité. As a member of the reigning House of Bourbon, he was a Prince du Sang.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Château de Guermantes</span>

Château de Guermantes is a Château located in Guermantes, Seine-et-Marne, northern France. It is a listed monument since 1944.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Auguste, Duke of Maine</span> French duke; legitimized son of Louis XIV (1670–1736)

Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, duc du Maine was an illegitimate son of Louis XIV and his official mistress, Madame de Montespan. The king's favourite son, he was the founder of the semi-royal House of Bourbon-Maine named after his title and his surname.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacques I, Prince of Monaco</span> Prince of Monaco from 1731 to 1733

Jacques I was Prince of Monaco from 1731 to 1733. He was also Duke of Valentinois from 1716 until 1733, and Count of Thorigny. For ten months preceding his accession, he had served as prince consort to his wife, Louise Hippolyte, Princess of Monaco.

<i>Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon</i> 1943 film by Roy William Neill

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1942) is the fourth in the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce series of 14 Sherlock Holmes films which updated the characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to the then present day. The film is credited as an adaptation of Conan Doyle's 1903 short story "The Adventure of the Dancing Men," though the only element from the source material is the dancing men code. Rather, it is a spy film taking place on the background of the then ongoing Second World War with an original premise. The film concerns the kidnapping of a Swiss scientist by their nemesis Professor Moriarty, to steal a new bomb sight and sell it to Nazi Germany. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson have to crack a secret code in order to save the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Henriette de Bourbon</span> Duchess of Orléans (1726–1759)

Louise Henriette de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Conti at birth, was a French princess, who, by marriage, became Duchess of Chartres (1743–1752), then Duchess of Orléans (1752–1759) upon the death of her father-in-law. On 4 February 1752, her husband became the head of the House of Orléans, and the First Prince of the Blood, the most important personage after the immediate members of the royal family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Françoise Marie de Bourbon</span> Duchess of Orléans; legitimized daughter of Louis XIV

Françoise Marie de Bourbon was the youngest illegitimate daughter of King Louis XIV of France and his maîtresse-en-titre, Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart, Marquise de Montespan. At the age of 14, she married her first cousin Philippe d'Orléans, the future regent of France during the minority of Louis XV. Through two of her eight children, she became the ancestress of several of Europe's Roman Catholic monarchs of the 19th and 20th centuries—notably those of Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Diane d'Orléans</span> Princess of Conti

Louise Diane d'Orléans was Princess of Conti from her marriage to Prince Louis François in 1732, until her death in childbirth. She was the youngest child of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans and Françoise Marie de Bourbon, the youngest legitimised daughter of King Louis XIV of France and his mistress Madame de Montespan. She was born while her father was the regent for Louis XV. Some sources referred to her as Louis Diane.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon</span> Princess of Conti

Louise Élisabeth de Bourbon was a daughter of Louis III de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, and his wife, Louise Françoise de Bourbon, légitimée de France, a legitimised daughter of King Louis XIV of France and his famous mistress, Madame de Montespan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renée Faure</span> French actress

Renée Faure was a French stage and film actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marie Anne de Bourbon (1697–1741)</span> Mademoiselle de Clermont

Marie Anne de Bourbon was Surintendante de la Maison de la Reine to the French queen Maria Leszczyńska. She was the daughter of Louis III, Prince of Condé. Her father was the grandson of le Grand Condé and her mother, Louise Françoise de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Nantes, was the eldest surviving daughter of Louis XIV of France and his maîtresse-en-titre, Madame de Montespan. She was known as Mademoiselle de Clermont.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Château de Bagnolet, Paris</span> Château

The Château de Bagnolet was a château situated in the Paris suburb of Bagnolet, France, 5.2 km from the center of the capital. The property was part of the biens de la Maison d'Orléans, private property of the House of Orléans from 1719 till 1769.

<i>The Great Impersonation</i> (1942 film) 1942 film by John Rawlins

The Great Impersonation is a 1942 American thriller film directed by John Rawlins and starring Ralph Bellamy, Evelyn Ankers and Aubrey Mather. It is an adaptation of the 1920 novel The Great Impersonation by Edward Phillips Oppenheim with the setting moved from the early 1910s of the novel to the Second World War. It was made by Universal Pictures and was a remake of their 1935 film of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Château de Balleroy</span> Building in Normandy, France

The Château de Balleroy is a seventeenth-century château in Balleroy, Normandy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert de Balleroy</span> French painter

Comte Albert Felix Justin de la Cour de Balleroy was a French painter, etcher and parliamentarian.

References

  1. "Ten Days in Paris (1939)". BFI. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009.
  2. Hal Erickson. "Ten Days in Paris (1939) - Tim Whelan, Sr. - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie". AllMovie.
  3. Tom Hutchinson. "Ten Days in Paris". RadioTimes.
  4. T. S. (21 April 1941). "The Screen; A Case of Amnesia". The New York Times.