[3] In 1940, German engineer Kurt Muller, his American wife Sara, and their children Joshua, Babette, and Bodo cross the Mexican border into the United States to visit Sara's brother David Farrelly and their mother Fanny in Washington, D.C. For the past 17 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 house guest Teck de Brancovis, an opportunistic Romanian count who has been conspiring with the German Embassy.

[4] Feeling its focus on patriotism would make it an ideal and prestigious propaganda film at the height of World War II,[5] Jack L. Warner paid $150,000 for the screen rights in 1941.

He, however, felt his French accent was wrong for the character,[9] so the producer decided to cast Paul Lukas, who had originated the role on Broadway and had been honored by The Drama League for his performance.

[8] Paul Henreid later said Jack Warner offered him the lead but turned it down because he did not want to be typecast, and felt that it was based on a "contrived play, in no way up to Elmer Rice's Flight to the West.

Wallis sent Davis, a staunch supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt and a fierce opponent of the Nazi Party, the screenplay-in-progress, and she immediately accepted the offer.

With Davis cast as Sara, Wallis encouraged Hammett to embellish what essentially was a secondary role to make it worthy of the leading lady's status as a star,[9] and to open the story by adding scenes outside the Farrelly living room, which had been the sole setting on stage.

Other locations included the Warner Bros. Ranch in Burbank, Busch Gardens in Pasadena, Los Angeles Union Station, and the Graves Mansion in San Marino, California.

[1] Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called Watch on the Rhine "a distinguished film — a film full of sense, power and beauty" and added, "Its sense resides firmly in its facing one of civilization's most tragic ironies, its power derives from the sureness with which it tells a mordant tale and its beauty lies in its disclosures of human courage and dignity.

But the prose of Miss Hellman is so lucid, her characters so surely conceived and Mr. Shumlin has directed for such fine tension in this his first effort for the screen that movement is not essential.

In conclusion, he said, "An ending has been given the picture which advances the story a few months and shows the wife preparing to let her older son follow his father back to Europe.

"[14] Davis stated in a 1971 interview with Dick Cavett that she played the role of the wife for 'name value' because the studio did not consider the film a good financial risk and that her name above the credits would draw audiences.

[15] The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures observed "Paul Lukas here has a chance to be indisputably the fine actor he always has shown plenty signs of being.

It is not a very colorful performance, but quiet loyalty and restrained heroism do not furnish many outlets for histrionic show, and Miss Davis is artist enough not to throw any extra bits of it to prove she is one of the stars.