Anti- Nazi Masterpiece: 'The Mortal Storm' 1940 James Stewart, Mgt. Sullavan: MORE AntiFascist Films

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Mon Dec 27, 2021, 06:07 PM - Edit history (7)

- CLIP, 'The Mortal Storm,' (1940). Masterful director Frank Borzage’s brilliance behind the camera empowers this story of Hitler’s rise to power as seen through the microcosm of one German family. What on the surface seems small and personal, is instead a towering bold revelation of the brutality of the Nazi regime. James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan lead an impressive cast in a sweeping tale of political and human chaos that rips a family apart, leading to savagery, sacrifice, and ultimately heroism. Also featuring Robert Young, Frank Morgan, Robert Stack.
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- INTRO. 'The Mortal Storm,' (1940), Ben Mankiewicz - Turner Classic Movies (TCM).
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*LIST, ANTI FASCIST MOVIE CLASSICS*, (IMDb): Public Hollywood movies of the 1930s and 1940s attacking the Nazis and fascism, pre war, wartime propaganda movies, and post war movies before the blacklist kicked in, and commies were the new villains...https://www.imdb.com/list/ls020523061/

- Click on the Movie TITLE in the List for more info: Cast, Storyline, Plot Summary, Photos.
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- FULL Film, 'The Man I Married,' (*1940). Joan Bennett, Francis Lederer, Lloyd Nolan, Anna Sten. Anti-Nazi film made before the US entered WWII with original 1938 newsreel footage of German military power. An American woman (Bennett) who is married to a German man (Lederer) and their son travel from NY to pre-war Germany to see the man's elderly father. The woman is repulsed by what is taking place in Hitler's Reich and alarmed by her husband's gradual conversion to Nazism. Lloyd Nolan as the experienced American journalist in Germany who knows war is coming helps the woman and her son depart Germany and return to America.

- IMDb Plot Summary, (ed). Story of rising nationalism & fever as Germany takes over neighbor countries Poland and Austria and dictator Hitler's Brownshirt thugs threaten everyday Germans with treason over political commentary that is directed at govt. policies or the Nazi Party. Prescient film about the emerging war, Dachau Prison-Concentration Camp, Dresden and Propaganda Chief Jos. Goebbels. The film-maker saw WWII coming. A couple from America go to Germany to visit the man's father, a factory owner and film director who is being harassed and spied on because his work depicts brutal, ugly treatment of ordinary Germans by Nazi thugs. Scene: people in the Czech/Slovak part of town forced to clean garbage off the street as Nazis re-dump more from the truck for amusement. An older man wears his WWI uniform from when he served Germany years earlier but is still made to clean. The couple watches, a Nazi thug reproachs them for not laughing along. Similar incidents in the film, ..https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032746/plotsummary
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- Actress Joan Bennett was a very active member of both the Hollywood Democratic Committee and The Hollywood Anti-Nazi League and donated time and money to many liberal causes (the Civil Rights Movement) and political candidates (incl. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Henry A. Wallace, Adlai Stevenson II, John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, & Jimmy Carter) during her lifetime.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Bennett
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- TRAILER, 'Watch On The Rhine,' (1943). Warner Archive. After German underground leader Kurt Muller arrives with his family in Washington DC, he soon finds the tentacles of Nazi terror have a very long reach. Lillian Hellman's 1941 stage hit (adapted by Dashiell Hammett) retains its emotional and intellectual power in this wartime suspense classic. Starring Paul Lukas, Bette Davis, Geraldine Fitzgerald.
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- FULL Film, 'None Shall Escape,' (1944). The career of a Nazi officer shown as flashbacks from his trial as a war criminal. Even though the war film was made during World War II, the setting is a post-war Nuremberg-style war crimes trial. Alexander Knox plays Wilhelm Grimm, a Nazi officer who is on trial, & the story unfolds through the eyes of several witnesses, including a Catholic priest, Father Warecki (Henry Travers), Grimm's brother Karl (Erik Rolf) & Marja Pacierkowski (Marsha Hunt), a woman to whom he was once engaged. Alfred Neumann & Joseph Than were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story.

- Plot: The film centers on the trial of Wilhelm Grimm, a war criminal. Each character witness provides a flashback scene to a previous part of Grimm's life. In the trial, it is revealed that Grimm (Alexander Knox), who fought for Germany in the World War I & lost a leg in battle, returns after the war to the small German village of Lidzbark (now part of Poland) where he had been a teacher. Despite the recent hostilities, he is welcomed back into the community & resumes his teaching & his relationship with a local Polish girl to whom he had become engaged before the war. He is bitter about Germany's losing the war & it is obvious he has been changed by the experience. He treats the villagers with disdain, & his upcoming marriage is cancelled. He calls his fiancée a "peasant" only interested in her wedding dowry..

- Production: Columbia Pictures got the idea for a film about war crimes after having heard Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt declare on Aug. 21, 1942 that the Allies were collecting information about the Nazi leaders responsible for war atrocities, in order to bring them to court after the war. (The prosecution of war criminals was ratified by the Allies in the Moscow Declarations in 1943). The film had to conform to the usual Production Code Administration for morality & be submitted for review with the U.S. State Department's Office of Information for wartime values. The PCA passed the film & the OWI gave it an enthusiastic greenlight stating:

- “By projecting the pledges made by Pres. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, & other United Nations leaders, that those guilty of atrocities & violations of international law will be tried & punished, new hope could be given to the peoples of those countries now occupied by Axis forces. *The 1st picture dealing with the punishment of Nazi war criminals to be made in Hollywood, the film has emerged as a thoughtful & intelligent examination of this important postwar problem.” Some of the 1st ever seen of humanity held accountable for its acts. (Production began Aug. 31, 1943 and finished Oct. 26, 1943 more than 18 months before the war in Europe ended.).. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/None_Shall_Escape

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* MORE Anti Fascist Classic Hollywood Movies:

- FULL Film, 'Casablanca,' (1942). Casablanca is an American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, & starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, & Paul Henreid. Filmed & set during World War II, it focuses on an American expatriate (Bogart) who must choose between his love for a woman (Bergman) or helping her & her husband (Henreid), a Czech resistance leader, escape from the Nazi- Collaborating, French Vichy-controlled city of Casablanca in Morocco to continue his fight against the Germans. The supporting cast features Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, & Dooley Wilson.

Although Casablanca was an A-list film with established stars & 1st-rate writers, no one involved with its production expected it to stand out among the 100s of pictures produced by Hollywood yearly. Casablanca was rushed into release to take advantage of the publicity from the Allied invasion of North Africa a few weeks earlier. The world premiere was on Nov. 26, 1942, in NYC & was released nationally in the U.S. on Jan. 23, 1943. The film was a solid if unspectacular success in its initial run. Exceeding expectations, Casablanca went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, while Curtiz was selected as Best Director & the Epsteins & Koch were honored for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Its reputation has gradually grown, to the point that its lead characters, memorable lines, & pervasive theme song have all become iconic, & it consistently ranks near the top of lists of the greatest films in history. In 1989, the U.S. States Library of Congress selected the film as one of the first for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca_(film)
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- TRAILER, 'For Whom the Bell Tolls,' (1943). Film about the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) between Rebublican & Franco's fascist forces which many regard as the precursor to WWII. American epic war film produced & directed by Sam Wood & starring Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Akim Tamiroff, Katina Paxinou & Joseph Calleia. The film is based on the 1940 novel 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' by American novelist Ernest Hemingway.

The story centers on an American International Brigades volunteer, Robert Jordan (Cooper), who is fighting in the Spanish Civil War against the fascists. During his desperate mission to blow up a strategically important bridge to protect Republican forces, Jordan falls in love with a young woman guerrilla fighter (Bergman). The movie was was Ingrid Bergman's first Technicolor film. The film was nominated for 9 Academy Awards, winning one. Victor Young's soundtrack for the film was the first complete score from an American film to be issued on record.

Plot: An American language teacher, Robert Jordan, who lived in Spain during the pre-war period, fights in the International Brigades against Francisco Franco's forces. An experienced dynamiter, Jordan is ordered to travel behind enemy lines & destroy a critical bridge with the aid of a band of local anti-fascist guerrillas. The bridge must be blown up to prevent enemy troops from traveling across it to respond to an upcoming offensive against the fascists. The guerrilla fighters plan their mission. Jordan meets an old man, Anselmo, who is a fighter who will serve as Jordan's liaison with the local guerrilla fighters..https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_Whom_the_Bell_Tolls_(film)
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- CLIP, 'The Great Dictator,' (1940). Adenoid Hynkel, Chaplin's caricature of Hitler, delivers a speech in German-sounding gibberish in this clip from The Great Dictator. The Great Dictator is a 1940 American satirical comedy-drama film written, directed, produced, scored by, & starring British comedian Charlie Chaplin, following the tradition of many of his other films. Having been the only Hollywood filmmaker to continue to make silent films well into the period of sound films, Chaplin made this his 1st true sound film.

Chaplin's film advanced a stirring condemnation of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, fascism, antisemitism, & the Nazis. At the time of its first release, the U.S. was still formally at peace with Nazi Germany & neutral during what were the early days of World War II. Chaplin plays both leading roles: a ruthless fascist dictator & a persecuted Jewish barber. The Great Dictator was popular with audiences, becoming Chaplin's most commercially successful film. Modern critics have praised it as a historically significant film, one of the greatest comedy films ever made & an important work of satire.

Chaplin's climactic monologue has frequently been listed by critics, historians & film buffs as perhaps the greatest monologue in film history, & possibly the most poignant recorded speech of the 20th c. In 1997, it was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film was nominated for 5 Academy Awards – Outstanding Production, Best Actor, Best Writing (Original Screenplay), Best Supporting Actor for Jack Oakie, & Best Music (Original Score). In his 1964 autobiography, Chaplin stated that he could not have made the film if he had known about the true extent of the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps at that time.[7]...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Dictator

[elleng]

1. Thanks

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Jimmy Stewart was gold

Born in Indiana, PA. He had a couple legs up in life ... he was 6'3" and attended Princeton. From a military family, he was also a WWII military pilot and flew active combat missions receiving both the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, and the French Croix de Guerre. He was a great American, and also a strong Republican.

"You Can't Take It With You" is probably my favorite Jimmy Stewart film, though he was in so many good ones who can pick?

[I_UndergroundPanther]

6. When I was in high school

I was a cast member in a play version of you cant take it with you. I played Penny

I had to improvise when another cast member forgot thier lines.

What I said got me a standing ovation, I was shocked. Felt like I was going to pass out. I sat back down at the table . To this day
I cant remember what I said.

The drama teacher was so kind I'll never forget her. As soon as I got offstage she helped me calm down and told me no they werent making fun of me,that they were showing me appreciation.

I have been bullied a lot and except for art,drama ,the planetarium,and shop class it was hell in that school.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. That's a great story

At least you improvised. I think I flunked that aspect of acting. I still have the anxiety of lol.

[Stargleamer]

3. Marsha Hunt from None Shall Escape is still alive

and has written a charming song:

"Here's to All Who Love" Music and Lyrics by Marsha Hunt

After this movie she was later blacklisted by conservatives in power

[appalachiablue]

4. TY, wonderful, I didn't know this about her.

[Stargleamer]

5. Here she discusses None Shall Escape. . .

(esp. around 2:47)

and here she discusses the Hollywood Blacklist from the POV of one who was blacklisted:

&t=115s

She's a humanitarian and a really caring person.

I suspect she and Lee Grant are the only 2 Blacklisted actors still alive.

[bucolic_frolic]

8. The same divisive right wing game being played today on a broader public

and with more violence.