Arch of Triumph is a 1984 British television film by Harlech Television. It is based on the novel Arch of Triumph by Erich Maria Remarque, author of All Quiet on the Western Front. The novel was previously adapted in 1948 for a film of the same name with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. It was released on 19 December 1984 in the UK, and on 29 May 1985 in the US.

It was directed by Waris Hussein and produced by Mort Abrahamson, Peter Graham Scott and John Newland. The adaptation was by Charles E. Israel, the music score by Georges Delerue and the cinematography by Bob Edwards.

The film stars Anthony Hopkins, as Ravic, an Austrian doctor, Lesley-Anne Down as Joan Madou, and Donald Pleasence as Haake a Gestapo chief with Frank Finlay, Joyce Blair and Richard Pasco.

In the film, Joan Madou (Lesley-Anne Down) sings “J’attendrai”.

Plot
Ravic is an Austrian doctor who helped Jews escape from the Nazi regime. He was tortured in a concentration camp. In 1939 he is living in Paris, under a false name and without any documents, constantly aware of the risk of being arrested. At night, on one of Paris’ bridges over the Seine, Ravic meets Joan Madou, a woman about to (possibly) attempt suicide, and helps her. This is the start of a romance. But the prickly Ravic has unfinished business with the Nazis, and in particular Haake the gestapo chief who had sent him to the concentration camp after spotting him in the street. He is separated from Joan after being discovered as refugee without papers. With no communication possible between them, they each try to manage under difficult circumstances and, when they finally met up again after six months of unexplained absence, there are shadows hanging over their relationship. They cautiously try to mend their broken affair as international events spin out of control around them.

Cast
Anthony Hopkins as Ravic
Lesley-Anne Down as Joan
Donald Pleasence as Haake
Frank Finlay as Boris
Richard Pasco as Veber
Joyce Blair as Rolande
Alexander Davion as Alex (as Alex Davion)
Martin Benson as Goldberg
Stephanie Voss as Mrs. Goldberg
Peter Birrel as Wiesenthal
June Barrie as Proprietress
Teddy Kempner as Young Husband
Katharine Levy as Young Wife (as Katherine Levy)
Philip Shelley as Porter
Andrea Evans as Nurse Eugenie (as Andree Evans)