Passage to Marseille

Passage to Marseille
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMichael Curtiz
Screenplay byCasey Robinson
Jack Moffitt
Based onSans Patrie
(1942 novel)
by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
Produced byHal B. Wallis
StarringHumphrey Bogart
Michèle Morgan
Claude Rains
CinematographyJames Wong Howe
Edited byOwen Marks
Music byMax Steiner
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures Inc.
Release date
  • February 16, 1944 (1944-02-16)
Running time
109 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2,332,000[1]
Box office$3,786,000[1]

Passage to Marseille, also known as Message to Marseille, is a 1944 American war film made by Warner Brothers, directed by Michael Curtiz. The screenplay was by Casey Robinson and Jack Moffitt from the novel Sans Patrie (Men Without Country) by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. The music score was by Max Steiner and the cinematography was by James Wong Howe.

Passage to Marseille is one of the few films to use a flashback within a flashback, within a flashback, following the narrative structure of the novel on which it is based. The film opens at an airbase in England during World War II. Free French Captain Freycinet tells a journalist the story of the French pilots stationed there. The second flashback is at the French prison colony at Cayenne in French Guiana while the third flashback sets the scene where the lead character, Matrac, a newspaper publisher, is framed for a murder to silence him.

  1. ^ a b Warner Bros financial information in The William Schaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p 24 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551