Arch of Triumph is a 1948 film directed by Lewis Milestone.
The story opens in 1938. Dr. Ravic (Charles Boyer) is an Austrian in Paris—Austria recently having ceased to exist after it was annexed by Nazi Germany. Dr. Ravic's backstory is somewhat vague, but apparently he spent time in Spain as a combat physician with the Republicans. In any case, now he is a stateless refugee, an illegal immigrant who practices back-alley medicine while trying to avoid arrest and deportation.
Into his life wanders one Joan Madou (Ingrid Bergman), who was about to jump off a bridge when Ravic spotted her. He gives her comfort, and soon enough they have fallen in love. But there are some threats to their happiness, like Dr. Ravic's continuing statelessness, and the presence in the city of a Gestapo officer, von Haake (Charles Laughton).
Tropes:
- Back-Alley Doctor: Although a highly competent one. Dr. Ravic is supporting himself in Paris by performing medical procedures on people who for whatever reason can't go to regular doctors.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Ravic is surprised when von Haake, who once tortured him, doesn't recognize him. Von Haake spots a dueling scar on Ravic's face and takes him for a fellow Wicked Cultured German aristocrat.
- The Chanteuse: Boris gets Joan a job singing in a cafe.
- Downer Ending: Joan is accidentally shot and killed by her lover, Alex. The beginning of World War II has triggered a round-up of immigrants, and Dr. Ravic is about to be arrested again, his fate uncertain. The only ray of hope is Ravic's observation that, now that war has broken out, Germany's enemies might be able to use refugees like him.
- Dramatic Drop: Ravic, at a cafe, drops his newspaper in shock when he sees von Haake on the street.
- Dramatic Irony: Von Haake, who does not recognize Ravic as one of his torture victims, says "I never forget a face."
- Extra! Extra! Read All About It!: Or whatever the French translation of those words are, as newspaper vendors hawk extras of papers that report the deteriorating situation, in August 1939.
- Flashback: A flashback shows von Haake the Gestapo agent brutally torturing Ravic. He tortured Ravic's girlfriend Sybil to death.
- Food Slap: Boris, who hates fascists, throws a drink in the face of some Franco-supporting Spaniards who are celebrating a Franco victory.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: A 21-year-old woman dies on Ravic's operating table. All the explanation given is Ravic's bitter comment about how "we can't win against quacks" and the woman was killed by "a quack in a dirty cellar." The obvious implication is that the woman died from complications from a botched back-alley abortion, but a direct reference to abortion was impossible under The Hays Code.
- Karma Houdini: Apparently, Alex gets away with the manslaughter of Joan.
- Meet Cute: A dramatic variety, as Ravic interrupts Joan right before she's about to jump off a bridge.
- The Mistress: After Ravic is deported, Joan becomes the kept woman of Alex, a rich dude she met in Antibes.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Ravic, a medical doctor, stops to help two people injured in a cable car accident. This gets him noticed by a policeman, arrested, and deported.
- Romantic Rain: Ravic and Joan's first kiss comes when they are standing out in the rain after leaving a restaurant.
- Satellite Character: von Haake the scary German does not actually impact the main story at all. Ravic meets him, takes him away to a secluded spot, and murders him, and that is that.
- Say My Name: Joan is left screaming "RAVIC!!!" after Ravic leaves, upon realizing that she is living off a rich man's money and has no plan to leave him anytime soon.
- Smart People Play Chess: Ravic and his friend Boris (a White Russian emigre) are marked off as intellectuals by how they play chess at home.
- The Stateless: Ravic has no passport and no ID and no way to get any, since his country, Austria, has been absorbed by Nazi Germany.
- Stocking Filler: Ravic suggests that Joan take off her stockings, which have gotten soaked by the rain—and Ingrid Bergman gets to peel stockings off her legs for the camera.
- Title Drop: Von Haake has to catch a train to Berlin, which is going to be one of the last ones with war about to break out. He gestures to the Arc de Triomphe and says "I will not see Paris again until I, through this arch of triumph, march."
- The Von Trope Family: Von Haake is a big believer in it. He draws the incorrect conclusion that Ravic is a German aristocrat. When Ravic introduces himself with the alias "Horn", von Haake says "von Horn?", and Ravic nods.
- Wicked Cultured: Von Haake wears a High-Class Glass that adds to his Nazi evilness.
