clanciai
We have seen this before, the freedom fighters of Norway under Nazi occupation, their hardship, their courage, their determination, their heroism and so on, and if this film at least is better than "The Moon Is Down" on the same theme, it's not up to Errol Flynn's "The Edge of Darkness". The one outstanding asset of this film though is the leading lady, a very young Deborah Kerr, who in a way sustains the whole movie. In the beginning she is just a very cheerful and happy Norwegian lass, but when the Germans come to build an oil refinery, which turns out to be a submarine base, the Norwegians get into trouble, and in order to save her father's life (Finlay Currie) Deborah has to marry the local Quisling, the local police, whom the Norwegians don't know at first that he is collaborating with the Germans (Francis L. Sullivan, awesome as usual.) When Hugh Williams as an English spy learns this on his second coming, he fell in love with Deborah during the first, he is not very happy.It's a very typical British edifying war film from the very darkest year 1942 and sides with many others of the same kind, outdated today, but still interesting for their great moral enthusiasm about surviving and fighting tyranny.
johnhclarke
The first five minutes of this film - set in a national newspaper office as Germany invades Poland - are superb. Unfortunately the rest of the film suffers in comparison and the most interesting character, played by a relatively young and buzzing Ralph Richardson, is killed off far too early. Otherwise it could have rivalled Q-Planes, another Richardson tour de force from a couple of years earlier. Williams is effective but slightly colourless in the lead although Deborah Kerr sparkles. The Rule Britannia v Horst Wessel scene in the bar echoes the more celebrated La Marseillaise v Watch on the Rhine song battle in Casablanca. I wonder which came first?
Jake
British wartime propaganda film in which Hugh Williams plays a British foreign correspondent investigating German U-boat activities in Norway. The disparate elements of the film however, in terms of location, narrative and character, do not seem to have been successfully combined into a cohesive whole. Apart from the Hugh Williams character there is a lack of focus, and the film comes across as episodic and disjointed. Ralph Richardson, for example, is for the most part wasted in a role which despite popping up briefly all over the place, seems to have very little relevance to either plot or theme. Finlay Currie, always worth watching, does well by his part and has the most convincing accent of the piece, but Deborah Kerr sounds as Norwegian as praties. Francis L Sullivan trots out another of his well worn villains.
calvertfan
I found the best scenes in this movie to be the ones in which Deborah Kerr was acting. And I'm not even a fan of hers (or I wasn't, before this!) so that must say something about her...it was only about her 5th or 6th role, she was very young, yet she was perfect for the role. The rest of the movie traveled along fairly slowly, but luckily had a few exciting war time scenes, and an outstanding, terrifying, climax. Good for a rainy day, and don't give up on it. 7/10.
AD
