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Passport to Destiny
A British war widow travels to Berlin to assassinate Hitler.
Release : | 1944 |
Rating : | 6.2 |
Studio : | RKO Radio Pictures, |
Crew : | Director, Screenplay, |
Cast : | Elsa Lanchester Gordon Oliver Lenore Aubert Lionel Royce Fritz Feld |
Genre : | Comedy War |
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Reviews
the audience applauded
For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!
Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.
There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.
While I have seen a lot of wartime propaganda pictures, I must admit that "Passport to Destiny" is among the strangest of them! The story is about a very weird lady (Elsa Lanchester) who thinks her good luck charm will keep her from all harm. And, because of this, she is going to sneak into Germany and murder Hitler!! The lady rather easily arrives in Germany and pretends to be deaf and unable to talk. Oddly, the Nazis hire her as a janitor to work in the very building where the top Nazis work...and her plan appears to be going quite well. So what's next? See the film. The film never really makes much sense and if you are looking for realism, you had best skip this one. Lanchester's character rather easily gets into wartime Germany and gets out even easier! And, she very easily gets a job with access to top Nazis....something else that makes little sense. So, provided you can turn off your brain and just enjoy, the film is worth seeing--otherwise, it's a dopey little film, that's for sure!
Offbeat and Wild RKO Comedy Starring Elsa Lanchester. Showcasing Her considerable Comedic Talents, makes this Farce a Lot of Fun. Watching the Scrubwoman Foil the Nazis one can't help Think of "The Great Dictator" (1940), "To Be or Not to Be" (1942), and Even the Three Stooges.This little B-Movie Charms its Way through the One Hour Running Time and is Never Boring. Elsa Carries the Show and the Supporting Cast Helps make this a Goofy Gamble that Works its Wonders with its Fantasy Plot, the Assassination of Adolf Hitler, by a Commoner (a Female no less). "Who's a commoner?", says Mrs. Muggins.The Silliness about Her Dead Husband is Overplayed a bit, and the Deal about the "Magic" Eye had to be Debunked because of the Hays Code's "Religion" Clause, but Aside from that, the Movie is quite Entertaining.
The majority of reviews written about Passport to Destiny {formerly Dangerous Journey}(1944) are merciless, criticizing the very entertaining tongue-in-cheek qualities it has in common with the great motion pictures All Through the Night (1941), Desperate Journey (1942) and To Be Or Not To Be (1942).Both Humphrey Bogart and Ronald Reagan used double talk gibberish as a means of escape from Nazis, while Jack Benny masqueraded as Nazi Colonel 'Concentration Camp Ehrhardt' during the fall of Poland. Why is it so much to ask us to believe the exploits of a cockney charlady scrubbing her way across war torn Europe to the Reich Chancellery! If you want to criticize the credibility about war dramas, just take a good look at Man Hunt (1941), Escape (1940) and Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942), where you'll get to see Walter Pidgeon a big game hunter armed with a rifle within shooting distance of Adolph Hitler's residence in the German Alps, while you'll find Robert Taylor, Ginger Rogers and Cary Grant waltzing in and out of concentration camps like they were simply the county lockup.Only a few films routinely circulate featuring the multi-talented Elsa Lanchester: Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Lassie Come Home (1943), Bishop's Wife (1947), Big Clock (1948), Witness for the Prosecution (1957) and Mary Poppins (1964). Passport to Destiny needs to be released on DVD!
Preposterous but fun film starring Elsa Lanchester as a British cleaning woman whose late husband (a photo of Charles Laughton) was saved from crocodiles by a glass eye he carried.She believes this eye to have magic powers. She believes it will protect her against all eventualities, so she decides to go to Germany and kill Hitler.I had a feeling I'd seen this film, and when I heard Lanchester's name in the film, Mrs. Muggins, I knew I had. I named one of my cats Muggins.Pretending to be deaf and dumb, Mrs. M gets a job at Hitler's headquarters, though he's out of town at the time. She does, however, manage to pass to an agent information about the whereabouts of his girlfriend. What she doesn't realize is that the Nazis have actually let the woman leave prison and have followed her and the agent, and know of Mrs. Muggins' involvement. Though Lanchester was 42 at the time of this film, she doesn't look it and is quite pretty. She gives a lively performance and is very funny, though the humor comes out of the seriousness of her character and her belief in this magic piece. Seeing her order a Nazi to get her coat was too much, as was her rehearsal for murder in Hitler's office.The rest of the cast is good, and despite the fact that it was done on a set, you really do think you're in London and Berlin somehow.Short, and Lanchester is always a pleasure.