Desperate Journey (1942)

The TCM channel aired this adventure a few months ago during a tribute to Raymond Massey. The movie is about a group of bomber pilots stranded in WWII Germany when their plane gets shot down. Among the airmen are Errol Flynn and a comical Ronald Reagan who declares he's "half American, half Jersey City". He has a few other funny lines in the movie such as "How come every time you wake me up I'm on a date with Ann Sheridan?". 

I liked Alan Hale's character, a man in his 50s who dyed his hair to look younger and lied about his age so he could serve. The others tease him about being the oldest in the group and call him "grandpa".

There's a good interrogation scene with Reagan and Massey who plays a Nazi general.

Interestingly, Massey was in another movie with some similarities to this one: The 49th Parallel/The Invaders (1941) in which Nazis are stranded in Canada and Massey plays a good guy.

 Directed by Raoul Walsh. Music by Max Steiner. Also with Arthur Kennedy and Nancy Coleman as a member of the German resistance. Available on DVD.

Went the Day Well? (1942)

Went the Day Well? starts with a friendly chap addressing the camera and welcoming us to a small village cemetery. He tells us about some "past" events that happened here, specifically a German infiltration of a small British village.

Though not an account of any one specific event that happened during the war (the town in the film - "Bramley End" - is fictional), the film portrays what a German takeover could look like.

When you watch this movie - 70 years later -  keep in mind this movie was made in 1942. Not 1948 or 1952. 1942. The opening narration is set after the war when Hitler had been defeated, says the chap. The movie was quite ahead of its time.

The first half of the movie shows us how the Germans take over the town over a period of several days in May.  One of the title cards announces that one of the days is "Whit Sunday"; I had to look up what that meant because I didn't know Whit Sunday was a commemorative holiday for many in England.

There are some very emotional moments in the film. It's sad to see one of the trusted dignitaries of the village (Leslie Banks) aid the Germans, and shocking to see the town pastor get shot and killed in cold blood (in his own church on Whit Sunday, no less).

The suspense continues to build by the second half of the film when the villagers begin to fight back. Old folks, women, and children become heroes and in some cases, die fighting the enemy.

Went the Day Well?  had its premiere airing on the Turner Classic Movies channel a few months ago, and host Robert Osborne commented that he was amazed that more people had not seen this film.

Director: Albreto Cavalcanti.

More About This Film:

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LA Times Film Review, 2011
The UK Guardian Film Review, 2010
Review from the blog, The Stalking Moon, 2010
Film Review from the blog Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule (2011)
Thrilling Days of Yesteryear, 2014 (review)

So Ends Our Night (1941)

Glenn Ford and Margaret Sullivan

A two-hour epic tale of survival against Nazi forces in Eastern Europe, set in 1937.

The opening title card explains that in the present political climate, many political dissenters have been attempting to flee Nazi Germany without passports, including the characters played by Frederic March and - in one of his earliest film roles - Glenn Ford.

Erich Von Stroheim has a small but important part as a Nazi officer who interrogates March, a dissenter who refuses to answer any questions about his associates opposed to the regime. Stroheim - standing in a room with a huge Hitler poster...chilling - even asks him if he has a lover back home, and March still refuses to answer. But the truth is that March does - he's married to the love of his life - Frances Dee - whom he hasn't seen since he spent time in a concentration camp.

Francess Dee

March is later released and fends for himself on the streets, gambling to raise money to buy an illegal passport. Ford and some of the other refugees eventually make their way to Paris, where they find construction work. Several interesting sequences follow: one involves a character fulfilling a dream of eating several roasted chickens in one sitting; another takes place in an apartment where everyone struggles to get a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower out of a awkwardly placed window.

During the course of the film, young Glenn Ford meets college student Margaret Sullivan. The two of them go to the movies (I love it when characters in movies go to the movies!), fall in love, and for a time they are separated also, both facing persecution for being Jewish. We're left to wonder if the two pairs of lovers (including Frederic March & Francis Dee) will ever be reunited. I won't give it away, but what happens in the end is emotionally powerful.

The film was released in February 1941, 70 years ago

117 min. • Available to rent via NetFlix. • 1 Oscar nomination: Best Original Music Score

Directed by John Cromwell • Based on the 1939 novel "Flotsam" by Erich Maria Remarque

Underground (1941) Directed by Vincent Sherman

The Nazis try to uncover an underground resistance movement in this 1941 thriller from legendary director Vincent Sherman, who helmed Mr. Skeffington, Old Acquaintance, Nora Prentiss, and The Young Philadelphians.

Released by Warner Brothers shortly before the US entered the war, the film opens on the Berlin city streets, where flags and banners with the Nazi swastika fly high. We see citizens discreetly exchanging information about upcoming - and highly secretive - radio broadcasts that illegally criticize Hitler and his policies and the coming danger ahead.

The programs are announced by a voice of freedom, played by Philip Dorn (Random Harvest and I Remember Mama) This was one of Dorn's first English speaking films. He is great as Eric Franken, the leader of the resistance.

Eric's brother Kurt Franken (Jeffrey Lynn), on the other hand, is a Nazi. In one scene someone asks Kurt what the Nazis were trying to accomplish, and he explains "to restore Germany's place in the world...we were a weak and despised nation before, now everyone respects us. They are afraid of us", much to the chagrin of the rest of his family, including his father, a German veteran of WWI opposed to Nazism. In a very good dinner table scene, reminiscent of MGM's The Mortal Storm, the mother stops a brewing argument by saying, "Please...just for tonight....let's forget about war and politics and everything but our family".

Tension builds as the gestapo moves in on the group and we learn more about two of the women of the resistance - one a beautiful cafe violinist (Kaaren Verne) and the other, a beautiful spy (Mona Maris) who masquerades as an assistant to Nazi commanders. This well-written and directed film has some interesting twists...let me share just one (SPOILER ALERT): the Nazi brother falls for the violinist - who is soon apprehended as an enemy of the state. (This is not giving too much away)



The film is thought provoking, often sad, and not always easy to watch. Several people are beaten and tortured in this film. I was reminded of all the members of the resistance, who risked their lives to spread the truth about the horrors of the Nazis. This film is tribute to them. Highly recommended. 95 minutes. on DVD.

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On May 7, 1945, 65 years ago today, the Nazis quit, as the newspaper headline below shows. Below: Front page of The Rock County Star Herald *Extra* (Luverne, Minnesota) on May 7, 1945: "Nazis Quit...Germany Surrenders to the Allies unconditionally"



The German armies surrendered on May 7, 1945 in Reims, France. The surrender was ratified the next day on May 8, 1945 in Berlin, Germany.

May 8, 1945 was proclaimed "VE Day", or, "Victory in Europe Day" throughout the world. It was the Allies' victory in Europe during WW2.

A week earlier, on April 30, Hitler committed suicide during the Battle of Berlin.

Another review from the blog Just a Cineast here

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This post was submitted to be a part of the Nazis Quit Blogathon (May 2010), hosted by Cinema Steve. The blogathon commemorated the 65th anniversary of Nazi defeat, and featured movie reviews, video clips, artwork and more.

The Train (1964) starring Burt Lancaster

In this thriller directed by John Frankenheimer, the setting is German occupied France in 1944. A train filled with masterpieces by Picasso, Gaugain and Renoir are seized from France by Nazi Officer Paul Scofeld and ordered to be shipped to Germany. A member of the French resistance, Burt Lancaster, attempts to keep the train from getting to its destination. Good film! Music by Maurice Jarre, and also starring great French actors Jeanne Moreau(François Truffaut's Jules and Jim - 1962) and Michel Simon ( Jean Renoir films La Chienne, Boudu Saved From Drowning ).

Additional reading:

Blog post: The Train (The Magnificent 60s)

Blog post: Behind the Scenes of The Train (The Magnificent 60s)

Blog post: Film Fanatic

The Mortal Storm (1940)

This is a film that came out in 1940 and stars Jimmy Stewart and Margaret Sullivan.

It's a movie that I always remember as being one that stands out from many other films of 1940 because it talks about the politics in Germany at the time.

The film shows how a family breaks apart due to their political differences and affiliations.

Robert Stack co-stars as a relative who turns to the Nazi party, to the dismay of his relatives who align with the resistance. Frank Morgan plays a professor and the patriarch of the family.

Jacqueline of Another Old Movie Blog wrote a very good blog entry on this movie here.