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Bookmark this pageThe Mortal Storm (1940)
Director: Frank Borzage
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
One of Hollywood's invariably slightly embarrassing attempts to get to grips with the Nazi peril. Set in an all-American small town in Germany on the eve of Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of the Third Reich, with the narrator pontificating about 'the mortal storm in which man finds himself today', it constantly teeters on the brink of absurd naiveté, kept more or less on balance by skill, sincerity and good intentions. The film is almost retrieved by the touching Sullavan/Stewart love affair, shaping up to be one of those incandescent romantic visions transcending reality that is the mark of a Borzage film. The fact that it doesn't quite work that way is probably because almost the entire film was directed, uncredited, by Victor Saville.Author: TM
User reviews of this film
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- Robin f said...
- Posted on May 29 2008 04:50 This film is neither embarassing nor naive. It's a chilling depiction of a small town's recruitment into Nazism. The events are a fairly accurate representation of what went down in prewar Germany and a poignant reminder of everything that is wrong with facsism. Margaret Sullivan delivers a touching, and pitch-perfect preformance. The narrative is straightforward and remarkably lacking in sentimentality for a 1940's melodrama. Overall, an effective film. I loved it.
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Cast & crew
Director: Frank Borzage
Cast: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Robert Young, Frank Morgan, Irene Rich, Robert Stack, Bonita Granville, Maria Ouspenskaya, Dan Dailey, Ward Bond full cast
Duration: 100 mins
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