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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

There is just one major problem: Huston's attack on dictatorship in Cuba is around twenty years out of date. The dictator and his cronies had long been overthrown and the political situation settled before this film was made, so it cannot be taken as a current criticism, even though the backgrounds, the costumes and the mise- en-scene could be taken for contemporary 1949 Cuba.In other respects, thanks to John Huston's skillful direction and his arresting, if somewhat florid script (based on a short story by Robert Sylvester), and thanks to an almost faultless line-up of players led by the charismatic Jennifer Jones and an appropriately aggressive John Garfield, the movie certainly provides edge-of-the- seat suspense.I'm writing the above, having just tackled this gripping movie on its excellent Mill Creek DVD. Oddly, it didn't come across to me so well when I saw it in a 16mm screening at a film society way back in the 1990s. I thought the pacing too slow, although it did come to a slam-bang action climax - even though the villains were disposed of in a rather fortuitous and disappointingly off-handed fashion.

Cuban-accented Jennifer Jones (as China Valdes) watches as her 19-year-old brother is shot protesting the island's tyrannical government. Vengeful, she joins the revolutionary underground. Accepted in the resistance, Ms. Jones finds romance with Havana-born John Garfield (as Tony Fenner), who returns from the US to becomes a partner. On her first assignment, Jones re-encounters Pedro Armendariz (as Armando Ariete), who shot her brother. They meet organizer Ramon Novarro (the Chief), who plots government overthrow, with a plan developed by Mr. Garfield. Also in the group is Gilbert Roland (as Guillermo), a "silent" movie star along with Mr. Novarro. "We Were Strangers" is tense and involving at times, but it doesn't always seem authentic.****** We Were Strangers (4/27/39) John Huston ~ Jennifer Jones, John Garfield, Pedro Armendariz, Ramon Novarro

The idea of a movie about a revolution: Yes, that is John Huston. The casting: Well, to some degree, it may have been out of his hands. But it's a really crude, uninteresting movie. And that despite John Garfield (who is quite good) as its male lead)! Actors in community theater are taught that if play is translated or is otherwise taking place in a country where English is not the primary language, accents are unnecessary. Worse than unnecessary: They make no sense, as we are hearing what the people are saying in their language as translated into our (if we speak English.) Here, everyone except Garfield speaks with a thick Spanish accent. Garfield is playing an American.It's heartening to see Ramon Novarro given work in the late forties. He and Gilbert Roland sound fairly realistic. And Pedro Almandariz, as the villain, does not sound fake. He is also very good.That leaves Jennifer Jones. Here is an actress whose talents were far too often ignored or squandered. She was a charming comedienne; yet she was often cast in heavy, intense movies.She is the star of what may be my favorite Lubitsch film, though it's an atypical one: "Cluny Brown." And she is hilarious, as a blonde, no less, in Huston's own "Beat the Devil." I can't imagine gong to a theater in 1949 with a date and having to sit through this. It is hard enough to watch on DVD.on DVD.

Though directed by John Huston, written by Huston and Peter Viertel, and starring Jennifer Jones, John Garfield, Pedro Armandariz and Gilbert Roland, 1949's "We Were Strangers" is a largely unknown film. It is, however, an important one in the history of Hollywood as it was bankrolled by Sam Spiegel for Huston's new production company. Impressed with Huston, Spiegel went on to bankroll "The African Queen." Commercially unsuccessful at the time of its release, the story concerns the White Terror of the Fascist government in Cuba from 1925-1933. When her brother, a member of the resistance, is killed, China (Jones) joins the fight to overthrow the government. A plan is concocted by Tony Fenner, an American born in Cuba who is posing as a talent agent. The idea is to assassinate a high-ranking official and then set off a bomb at the funeral, killing the top people in the government.The best scene in the film is between Jones and Pedro Armendariz, who plays a secret policeman, Ariete. He is deeply suspicious of Fenner and is sure that China is his lover. While the revolutionaries hide outside in the rain, he eats and bullies, threatens, and flirts with China, who is terrified but tries to keep calm. A taut, excellent scene. All of the acting is excellent - Jones, wearing darker makeup and sporting an accent, is very good as well as beautiful. Garfield does a good job as Fenner, and Gilbert Roland is a standout. The last 15 minutes of the film are very exciting, with the last scene being poetic but failing to be upbeat, which was perhaps the intention. It's a downer.A very good movie that for some reason didn't get everyone in it in trouble and accused of being a Communist - surprisingly, Garfield's appearance in the movie had nothing to do with his eventual blacklisting. I guess "We Were Strangers" was too obscure.