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We Were Strangers (1949) 
 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042035/

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We Were Strangers is a 1949 adventure–drama film directed by John Huston and starring Jennifer Jones and John Garfield.  The film, set in 1933, concerns a group of revolutionaries attempting to overthrow the Cuban regime. The story is based loosely on Robert Sylvesters novel Rough Sketch.


 Jennifer Jones ...  China Valdés 
 John Garfield ...  Anthony L. Tony Fenner 
 Pedro Armendáriz ...  Armando Ariete 
 Gilbert Roland ...  Guillermo Montilla 
 Ramon Novarro ...  Chief 
 Wally Cassell ...  Miguel 
 David Bond ...  Ramón Sánchez 
 José Pérez ...  Toto 
 Morris Ankrum ...  Mr. Seymour, Bank Manager 

John Huston first broke into independent production with We Were Strangers, a 1949 political thriller. Although the film was a major box office failure (his first big flop), it was in many ways ahead of its time, both as an independent production and as a barely disguised indictment of U.S. foreign policy.  The film was released in April 1949 at the beginning of the HUAC Committee hearings on communist infiltration in the U.S.A. It predictably received mixed reviews, and soon vanished from theaters. American audiences were perplexed by it, its largely Hispanic cast did not resonate with white Americans, and its shocking presidential assassination theme may have offended some sensibilities.

Huston had decided to leave his home studio before starting work on Key Largo (1948), the last film under his Warner Bros. contract. His resolve was only strengthened when the studio re-cut the film over his objections. When independent producer Sam Spiegel (who produced under the name S.P. Eagle at the time, partly to cover his Jewish roots and partly to distance himself from bad debts) heard Huston was looking for a producing partner, he made a pitch, and the two created Horizon Films.

At the time, Huston was already considering an adaptation of a story from New York Mirror reporter Robert Sylvesters episodic novel Rough Sketch and suggested it as their first production (Huston would later claim they came up with the project together, in a rush). The story, about a group of revolutionaries tunneling under a cemetery as part of a plot to assassinate corrupt officials of Gerardo Machado y Morales dictatorship prior to the 1933 revolution, appealed to them as a way of snapping their fingers at the current atmosphere of Red-baiting in Hollywood and Washington. Despite the controversial story, they interested two Hollywood studios in signing production deals. According to rumor, MGM would have used it as a dramatic vehicle for dancer Gene Kelly. But Columbia Pictures offered the more lucrative deal, allowing Huston to go with his first choice for the male lead, John Garfield. MGM was so impressed with the pitch, however, that they offered Huston his own two-picture deal, to start after he finished We Were Strangers.

Huston had wanted to cast Garfield in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). In fact, Garfield had been considered to play Curtin when the production was first discussed at Warner Bros. in 1941. When Huston finally got to make it after World War II, Garfield wasnt available, so the role had gone to cowboy star Tim Holt. Knowing they shared similar political views, Huston was eager to cast him as the Cuban-born revolutionary in We Were Strangers.

For the leading actress, Columbia had acquired the services of Jennifer Jones from independent producer David O. Selznick. Although the producer had devoted years to making her a star and would marry her later in the year, in one sense he treated her like most of the actors he had under contract. When he was between productions or in financial straits (or, in this case, both), he loaned her to other studios at the highest rate he could get. Jones wasnt pleased with the role of a young Cuban woman driven to revolution by her brothers death. She resented having to cut her hair and learn a Cuban accent for the role, and during production hated having to be dirtied up for the tunneling scenes. But she also gave herself totally over to Huston to be molded into his conception of the role, a practice she followed with most directors.

With two decidedly Angelo-Saxon actors in the leads, Huston fleshed his supporting cast with some of the best Latin actors working in Hollywood. Ramon Novarro, the silent heartthrob who had been absent from the screen for seven years, gave his first character performance in the film, finally facing up to the fact that age had moved him beyond the romantic roles on which he had built his career. Mexican actor Pedro Armendariz stole scenes effortlessly as a corrupt government official with a yen for Jones character, while Gilbert Roland got to do more than just trade on his good looks as the poet revolutionary whose growing guilt over the innocents who could be caught in the crossfire seriously jeopardizes the groups plans. Huston and co-writer Peter Viertel scouted locations in Cuba, which gave Huston a chance to meet one of the countrys most famous American inhabitants, Ernest Hemingway. They also convinced government figures that the film was critical of the previous regime, gaining permission to do second-unit work there.

The cast, of course, stayed in Hollywood, filming on the Columbia lot. During scenes in the cemetery, Huston, an incorrigible practical joker, planted a convincing dummy hand in a grave Jones had to dig through. She got him back at the wrap party by gifting him with a female chimp that immediately fell in love with him. When he took it home, it trashed the apartment he shared with his wife, actress Evelyn Keyes. His decision to stay with the chimp on their Tarzana ranch (Keyes was allergic to his many animals) helped bring an end to their marriage.

Hustons hopes for the success of We Were Strangers were dashed as soon as the film opened. A scathing notice in the Hollywood Review dubbed the film Communist propaganda, the heaviest dish of Red theory ever served to an audience outside the Soviet. Columbia head Harry Cohn was so enraged, he barred the papers reporters from his lot for six years. A few weeks later the Marxist newspaper The Daily Worker called the film capitalist propaganda. More telling, however, were mainstream reviewers that dismissed the film as passionless (New York Times) and a disappointment coming from the director of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Audiences must have agreed, as they stayed away in such large numbers the studio finally withdrew the film from release. Conservative criticism of the film helped fuel the efforts to blacklist Garfield for his involvement in liberal organizations which were considered Communist fronts. For his part, Huston would later dismiss the picture as a mistake, citing the lack of authentic Latin actors in the leads and a poor choice of source material.

Later critics and historians have seen much more of merit in We Were Strangers. Like many of Hustons best films, it deals with the poetry of failure, focusing on a group that undertakes a plan that ultimately falls apart. The painstaking detailing of the revolutionaries efforts to tunnel beneath the cemetery prefigures the focus on the details of the jewelry heist in The Asphalt Jungle (1950). We Were Strangers also is one of several films in which Huston uses heat as a metaphor for the explosive situations in which the characters are caught. Politically, it was more astute than Huston thought at the time. Ten years after its release, Fidel Castros revolutionary forces overthrew Batista, the dictator who had participated in Machado y Morales overthrow in 1933, in an eerie parallel to the films climax, in which the revolution finally breaks out.

The film suffers in a few places from sluggish pacing, but the performances are all first-rate. Jennifer Jones, doing a convincing Cuban accent, is radiant but intense as China and has good chemistry with Garfield. The supporting players are very fine. Pedro Armendariz, as the corrupt police chief, is deliciously menacing. Look for silent greats Gilbert Roland and Ramon Novarro in strong supporting parts as members of the resistance. Look for a cameo appearance by director John Huston who appears as a bank teller.

Many of the films outdoor scenes are shot against rear projections, which are quite noticeable. The film, however, achieves an almost documentary-like feel with its stark black and white photography.

Two weeks after the assassination of President Kennedy in November 1963, investigators learned that Lee Harvey Oswald had watched We Were Strangers on television in October. However, this fact was kept quiet and was long unknown by all but a few people. Priscilla Johnson McMillans 1977 book, Marina and Lee, a dual-biography of the fated young couple, informed the public and authoritatively added that Oswald had been greatly excited while watching the film. John Lokens 2000 book, Oswalds Trigger Films, further established that Oswald watched We Were Strangers not once but twice in October 1963. The book also details several specific elements of the film that would have greatly appealed to Oswald.

We Were Strangers, for whatever reasons, was virtually unavailable for viewing for decades. One indication of its long shelved status is that it was only first made available on VHS/DVD in 2005, two decades after almost all of John Hustons other films were made available.