Passage to Marseilles (1944): review: 2.5/10

How some French convicts escaped Devil's Island during the German Occupation of France to fight in the Free French forces, in the UK.

All the convicts turn out to have hearts of pure gold, and the whole is nothing more than an exercise in pro Free-French propaganda, told in flashbacks by cardboard characters and interspersed with speeches exalting French patriotism.

Even Bogey cannot save this one!

To Have and Have Not (1944): review: 8/10

American Bogart is in Vichy Martinique, where he runs a fishing boat : he is approached by French Resistance to assist them, but is initially to selfish and cynnical.

The film is saved from obviousness by his sexually charged relationship with the extraordinarily feline Lauren Bacall, an amusing alchoholic sidekick and Hoagy Camicheal's crooning. The camerawork is exquisite too.

Double Indemnity (1944): review: 9/10

"I was thinking about the dame upstairs and how she'd looked at me and I wanted to see her again- close"

In LA, an insurance salesman and married female client fall for each other: they concoct a scheme to make some money from his firm and get rid of her husband at the same time.

Magnificently acted throughout, with splendid cinematography, shot through with laconic wit.