The Man I Married

This is one of those early prophetic films seeing through Nazism completely long before their actual madness was commonly known or even suspected. Joan Bennett is married to a German in New York who wants to return to Germany to see about his father's business (Otto Kruger in one of his best roles), where he turns into a definite Nazi, to the great shock of Joan Bennett. It's a very unpleasant film, you feel the creeping horrors of Nazism invading your being and life as you like Joan Bennett follow the revelations of the tale, but dramatically it's an ingenious film, carefully building up an almost unendurable suspense, to reach a climax in the wonderful final scene at home. It is very intelligently written, and you follow the arguments and developments with constantly increasing anxiety and thrill, and what's worse - films like this are pertinent still today, since the same sneaking danger of dictatorships is something that history always has seen the return of.

Carol Hoffman, an art critic, seems to be happily married to Eric; they lead a somewhat happy existence in New York. When they decide to pay a visit to Germany, she immediately notices the changes that had befallen that country in the eve of WWII. Her husband, though, finds all the changes to his liking, as he considers how advanced his homeland has become.

Eric becomes interested in the Nazi party because of his involvement with Frieda, an attractive woman who clearly thinks Hitler and his cohorts are in the right path to solve all their problems. Carol realizes to what extent the new system has played on Eric and decides to take their young son back to America. Her father in law is horrified by what he notices Eric is becoming, and he wants to set his hon straight about a little family secret the younger man is not aware of.

This film has some interesting aspects in that it points out how a totalitarian regime can be dangerous for a country. History proves how devastating the situation in Germany was. Director Irving Pichel guides the proceedings with his usual style to create a powerful melodrama.

Joan Bennett, who plays Carol, is one of the assets of the film. The other is Francis Lederer, who plays Eric, the man that is dazed by the Germany he suddenly discovers. Anna Sten is also effective as Frieda, the ambitious woman who is horrified at the end when she discovers the secret about Eric. Venerable Otto Kruger appears as the patriarch Henrich Hoffman, and Lloyd Nolan appears as the American reporter who befriends Carol and warns her about the impending changes in Germany.

The film will not disappoint.

The Man I Married released in 1940 has its plot set in 1938 after the Reich had taken Austria and Czechoslovakia and the world was waiting out its last year of peace. Joan Bennett stars with Francis Lederer who may have rehearsed for this role playing the title role in Confessions Of A Nazi Spy the year before.

Lederer is a German who had settled in America and married an American girl Bennett and they have a young son in Johnny Russell. They hear that his father Otto Kruger is getting on in years and his business in the old country is falling apart. He wants his son to return to the old country and help straighten things out.

So Lederer packs his family up and returns to Germany and he get enthralled with Hitler. He's taken with the fine industrial machine that the Nazi state has made and feels pride in his nationality. His father of the older generation is not so impressed. Bennett is frightened by her surroundings and she gains a sympathetic ear in correspondent Lloyd Nolan.

She's got more problems than that. Lederer and her have grown apart and he's taken up with a Third Reich true believer in Anna Sten. You remember that Samuel Goldwyn made three attempts to make her a star and couldn't sell her. A pity because in The Man I Married she really stands out as the fanatical Nazi woman. She'd have made a great Magda Goebbels in a film.

The Man I Married was also unique in that it tackled anti-Semitism in a very dramatic climax scene. Darryl F. Zanuck and 20th Century Fox deserve a lot of credit for making this most timely film in 1940.

With the nation of the verge of entering World War II, 20th Century-Fox head, Darryl Zanuck set out to make a series of films to keep Americans up to date on the rapidly changing shape of Europe. The Man I Married was one of those many films. The film was about the rise of Nazism in Germany and the devastating effects it would have on the relationship between Carol Hoffman, played splendidly by Joan Bennett, and her German-American husband, Eric Hoffman, played by Francis Lederer. The story involved their family visit in 1938 to Eric's homeland, where Eric comes to embrace the Nazi regime while his wife becomes horrified by it. This is a powerful film. It was highlighted by the inter-cutting of period news footage that showed the bigotry and brutality of the Nazi regime and Hitler's ugly brand of anti-Semitism. The insight this film shows is all the more remarkable when one considers that it was made before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It is most unfortunate that this film is not better known or on DVD. UPDATE: Now on DVD.

American Carol (Joan Bennett) is married to German immigrant Eric Hoffman (Francis Lederer), and the two decide to travel to Germany, along with their young son, to settle some business matters and to see the country. While Carol has heard some rumblings about Nazi abuses of power and the use of concentration camps, she's shocked and appalled by the extent of it, while Eric feels a renewed sense of pride in what he sees as his homeland returning to prominence. Carol begins to fear that she's losing Eric to the Nazi ideology, even while her contact with an American reporter (Lloyd Nolan) is putting a spotlight on just how far gone the Nazis and Germany really are.

This was controversial, inflammatory stuff at the time of its release, and Fox pulled the picture from theaters soon afterward. It's certainly one of the most unequivocal anti-Nazi American movies from before the war that I've seen. Bennett is good as the increasingly alarmed surrogate stand-in for Americans unaware or unwilling to face what was happening in Europe. Anna Sten is very hissable as the fanatical Nazi adherent that tries to sway Lederer's mind and heart.