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Watch on the Rhine

Watch on the Rhine
Watch on the Rhine poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Herman Shumlin
Produced by Hal B. Wallis
Screenplay by Dashiell Hammett
Based on Watch on the Rhine
1941 play
by Lillian Hellman
Starring Bette Davis
Paul Lukas
Geraldine Fitzgerald
Lucile Watson
Beulah Bondi
George Coulouris
Music by Max Steiner
Cinematography Merritt B. Gerstad
Hal Mohr
Edited by Rudi Fehr
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date
  • August 27, 1943 (1943-08-27)
Running time
114 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $2.5 million (US rentals)

Watch on the Rhine is a 1943 American film drama directed by Herman Shumlin, starring Bette Davis. The screenplay by Dashiell Hammett is based on the 1941 play of the same title by Lillian Hellman.

In 1940, German-born engineer Kurt Muller (Paul Lukas), his American wife Sara (Bette Davis), and their children Joshua (Donald Buka), Babette (Janis Wilson), and Bodo (Eric Roberts) cross the Mexican border into the United States to visit Sara's brother David Farrelly (Donald Woods) and their mother Fanny (Lucile Watson) in Washington, D.C. For the past seventeen years, the Muller family has lived in Europe, where Kurt responded to the rise of Nazism by engaging in anti-Fascist activities. Sara tells her family they are seeking peaceful sanctuary on American soil; but their quest is threatened by the presence of houseguest Teck de Brancovis (George Coulouris), an opportunistic Romanian Count who has been conspiring with the Germans in the nation's capital.

Teck searches the Mullers' room and discovers a gun and money intended to finance underground operations in Germany. Shortly after, the Mullers learn resistance worker Max Freidank has been arrested; and, because he once rescued Kurt from the Gestapo, Kurt plans to return to Germany to assist Max and those arrested with him. Aware Kurt will be in great danger if the Nazis discover he is returning to Germany, Teck demands $10,000 to keep silent; Kurt kills him. Realizing the dangers Kurt faces, Fanny and David agree to help him escape.

Time passes, and when the Mullers fail to hear from Kurt, Joshua announces he plans to search for his father as soon as he turns eighteen. Although distraught by the possibility of losing her son as well as her husband, Sara resolves to be brave when the time comes for Joshua to leave.


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