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My parents took me to see this film at the Rex cinema in Hanworth England in 1943. I was 6 years old! About half way through the film, there was an air raid. We had to leave the cinema and go to a shelter. I remember the story and especially the song, which the children were singing on the cart. The film has been shown many times on television, but I have never been able to watch it. I guess that this must have some connection with the air raid. I am now 74 years old and the film is being shown again on television tomorrow afternoon. I hope to finally be able to watch it all the way through, at long last and lay to rest whatever has prevented me doing so previously.

I have finally seen this film to the end! Not bad after 68 years. I now realise why it made such an impression on me. In the film, the children and some adults were bombed and machine gunned by aircraft, after jumping from the carts into a ditch. It was at this point that we had to leave the cinema because of an air raid, having just seen children killed on the screen. I had already experienced many air raids at the age of 3 years and 9 months, during the Septmber 1940 Blitz and I still have vivid memories of the bombing, destruction and fires. Am I correct, or is my memory failing in that I believe the original title for the U.K release was 'The Red Star'???

The North Star (1943)

Made at the request of President Roosevelt, this fictional Sam Goldwyn independent production recreates the Soviet side of WWII by taking us into the lives of a small town family, apparently Ukrainian. The cast is stellar, with writing by Lillian Hellman, music by Aaron Copland, lyrics by Ira Gershwin (it's very musical)...you get the idea? This propaganda film pulled no punches. But it's troubled in a lot of ways, not the least of which is its goody-goody view of Russian life that makes Russian propaganda look accurate. Dana Andrews is a breath of fresh air, but really, do they have to have him singing and playing the balalaika while walking a country road? Smiling? But in uniform, which is key. Luckily, Andrews is thoroughly great in the rest of the film. But I decided to watch this film for another reason: James Wong Howe. Yes, his cinematography is quite stunning, and virtuosic through a range of styles. Much of the first part of the film is in a kind of brightly lit quasi-documentary style, with lots of hearty happy faces, all tightly framed and with some key moving camera to keep it real. Some of the family scenes inside are filmed with beautiful rich contrast. But what a quirky film in so many ways. It's heroic, for sure. When it gets to the war parts it's gripping and much more realistic. But there is consistent music, which was a surprise. Even Walter Brennan sings. But the bulk of the film is the war scenes, and they are impressive. Most of the film was shot at the Samuel Goldwyn studios, and it feels convincing. Walter Huston is commanding, and good old Erich von Stroheim takes on an ugly role with gusto. Lewis Milestone directs much of this mishmash with a feeling of a 1936 film, the characters simple and overly idealized as if fighting the Depression with dignity. The early war scenes (many shot with decent back projection) save the film, but in a way they are meant to be context for the human dramas of the town folk. It is when the war enters the village that the elements all meet and the movie rises up. By the end, it is the obvious writing that pulls the movie down and the stunning photograrphy that saves it.

The North Star is at least as good a propaganda movie as much of Hollywood's wartime output and the astonishing range of talent that helped in its making makes it important rather than brilliant. While not impossible, it would be difficult for this collection of top drawer movie makers to devise a real dog of a production and even the most rabid anti-commie could not put this movie into the same bag as say 'Hitler, Dead of Alive' or 'The menace of the rising sun'. The North Star was multi Oscar nominated and even factoring in the mores of the period, this cannot be dismissed entirely.

Reading the posts on the movie here, it appears to me that some commentators really miss the whole point of US propaganda at the time and condemn The North Star out of context. These responses suggest to me that The North Star's punch has lost none of its original power.

In its time, this probably fulfilled its desired purpose reasonably well, with a fine cast and some effective scenes depicting the suffering caused by Nazi troops. It is probably more interesting now, when it can be viewed with more objectivity, and when it is interesting for a new set of reasons. Its depiction of life in the Soviet Union is a revealing statement about the priorities of its time. The actual movie and story, viewed apart from any and all political issues, work quite well at times, while falling short at others.

The first part of the story simply dwells on the daily lives of the residents of a Ukrainian farm town. This part is quite slow, and would be of little interest except for the sharp change of tone that comes with the Nazi attack. As banal as the lives of the villagers may have seemed, they certainly did nothing to deserve the suffering they bore as a result of the invasion. Things pick up dramatically in the second part, and at the same time the characters come more sharply into focus.

Naturally, the scenario is more fiction than fact, especially in its idyllic depiction of life under Stalin's rule. More than anything else, this reflects the urgent desire of the US Government (whose hand was supposedly quite active in the production) to promote full-fledged public support for working with the Soviet Union against the Axis. Like the majority of features in any era that address a then-contemporary issue, it looks much different when viewed years afterward. The truth about both Stalin and Hitler is much easier for us now to determine than it was for the movie's original viewers.

The cast helps considerably in making it work on a dramatic level. Experienced stars like Walter Huston and Walter Brennan combine with then-young performers like Anne Baxter, Farley Granger, and others to create a generally interesting set of characters. Jane Withers also has a good role, as a hapless but often endearing young woman who is desperate to help. Lillian Hellman brought her considerable reputation to the screenplay, although this kind of material is not really her strength. Lewis Milestone shows his steady hand in the battle sequences.

Because the cast, director, and writer all add their weight to the production, this works well enough as a fictional drama as long as you set aside what you thought or think about the USSR. As history, the story is not reliable, but the movie itself is interesting as one of the more earnest attempts of its day to use cinema to influence public opinion.

This film has all the right ingredients; good production values, good actors and a well-known writer and director. It is missing one thing; believablity. A vierer has to believe the story is viable for the story to have any positive effect on the viewer. This story does not seem too realistic. A commune where everyone has plenty of food, is well-dressed and has every member of the family fully contented seems a bit absurd to me. Both Russia and China eventually did away with their commune systems because they were abject failures. So this setting is a complete fantasy. The German intrusions are real; and the resistance is real, but the Russian resistance to the Germans at the beginning of the German invasion was practically negligible; not as fierce as portrayed in this film. The Germans would never have been able to conquer one third of Russia in less than a year unless there was little resistance. So basically, this story is a nice fantasy; but the military resistance of the Russians was minimal in the first year or so. Entertaining as a fantasy, but some people might think it is real.

I saw "The North Star" when I was a child of 6 or 7 and it made a lasting impression on me. I believe older cousins took me to see it while they were baby sitting. I will say without hesitation that it was not intended as a movie for children and that is as true today as it was in 1943. For years I could vividly remember scenes from the movie but did not remember the title. I happened to see it on TV by pure chance late one night during the '70s. I think it was about halfway through the film before I realized what I was watching, but from there on everything was as I remembered it.

It might correctly be labeled a propaganda film as it was made during a time when we were engaged in WWII. Germany was our enemy and Russia was our ally. As the saying goes, "war makes strange bed fellows." The Nazi war machine is depicted as evil and Russians are shown as innocent victims. Both are indisputable facts. The purpose of the film may have been to propagandize just how evil we believed the Nazis to be but we see films like that all the time. One example, "Empire of the Sun" (1987), a very fine film by Steven Spielberg. That was also an evil empire. Its not considered propaganda now because the war is long over. Its "art." Some might consider "JFK" as a lot of propaganda. Oliver Stone considers it "art".

If one is interested in films of historical periods, such as WWII, this might certainly be a film of interest.

... made this historical curiosity possible.

The German invasion of Russia transformed Stalin from one of Hitler's allies to one of ours, and made necessary the production of propaganda films -- this one, "Mission To Moscow", "Song of Russia" -- to bring everyone around to the new way of thinking. Hollywood liberals seem to have been keen to have the chance to make a pro-Soviet film.

"The North Star", therefore, has an impressive list of credits. Lewis Milestone directs a rather poor Lillian Hellman script, while the music is provided by the unusual combination of Aaron Copland and Ira Gershwin.

The story takes place in a Ukrainian farming village, where ordinary people are determined to resist the foreign aggressors, just as they are in "Dragon Seed" (1944) where the Japanese invasion of China is resisted by Chinese peasants Katherine Hepburn and Walter Huston.

Since this is a propaganda film, and just as realistic as "Dragon Seed", we see a lot of scenes of village life before war breaks out. It's an endless round of singing, dancing, picnicking, and accordion-playing. Everyone is expected to sing in this film, and that includes Farley Granger, Walter Huston, and Dana Andrews, who accompanies himself on balalaika. Listen closely for the jolly folksong about Soviet children eating too much jam. Girls always have flowers in their hair, and people never walk when they can gaily skip down the road. This is a typical Soviet village in the same way that the Von Trapps are a typical Austrian family.

In reality, the pre-war years in the Ukraine saw several million in the countryside starve to death during the artificial famine which was part of Stalin's forcible collectivization policy. In the area where this fairytale village is found, many of the locals welcomed the Germans as liberators.

The pre-war scenes in "The North Star" are certainly ridiculous, but in spite of everything they do manage to have a certain goofy charm. The film changes dramatically for the worse once war breaks out. Most of the film consists of extended battle sequences which are never very convincing or persuasive, where something poignant -- villagers having to set fire to their own houses -- will be followed by something stupid -- cavalrymen leaping from horses through windows at Germans.

Anne Baxter at the end, in a scene intended to evoke Tom Joad in "The Grapes of Wrath", delivers an inspiring speech from her cart. It's a little embarrassing to sit through, but by that point in the film, you've gotten used to it.

The picture is set during Nazi invasion, on June 22, 1941, the Fuehrer sent his war machine crashing across the frontiers of the USSR , unleashing a furious Bltzkrieg. The Fuehrer,-known his hatred for Bolshevism-, described the assault on Russia as a crusade against communism, but he obviously was motived by a need for wheat, oil, and mineral supplies to enable him to defy the British blockade. This is flag-waving and propaganda film but at the time US and USSR were allied, it deals about an idyllic Soviet village. The first part describes life of a little town, a pacific village with good people, singing, dancing and living happily. When Nokya(Dana Andrews) and young villagers(Anne Baxter, Farley Granger, Jane Withers) go to Kiev are picked up by an old countryman(Walter Brennan). While they're singing and amusing themselves, then happen a Nazi invasion and they're bombed.The second part is quite starkly moving developing account of deeds that befall about the villagers and when they go into action.

The interesting film is a gripping war story with valiant villagers facing on Nazis.This unnerving epic depicts the horror war as Nazi atrocities and as the resistance fighters roam the Russian countryside attacking during the invasion. Although melodramatic moments in overall effects, also has moments of astounding power with some overwhelming sequences. Thought-provoking screenplay amid much feuding writer Lillian Hellman and producer/director , and Hellman told her disappointment on the adaptation. The credits are extraordinaries, prestigious actors, Walter Huston as the village medic, Dana Andrews, Farley Granger in his first role along with Anne Baxter, Erich Von Stroheim as usual official Nazi, Dean Jagger, among them.Cinematography supplied by the master James Wong Howe and score by the classic Aaron Copland with lyrics by Ira Gershwin.

The motion picture is well directed by Lewis Milestone, he was born in the Ukraine(where is set the movie), but emigrated to America at 18 and he served in WWI. He often made chronicles of wartime conflicts and persisted in showing horror war from the point of view of the ordinary soldier. As he showed WWI(All quiet on the western front), WWII(A walk in the sun,Purple heart, Halls of Motzuma,Edge and darkness) and Korean war(Pork Chop Hill); and directed several other excellent movies in different fields, drama(Of mice and men, Strange love of Martha Ivers), adventures(Mutiny on the Bounty) and heist-comedy(Ocean's eleven), among others.

One of the many staple of movies made during WWII to both entertain the audience and aid the war effort. Several then-known and soon-to-be-known stars such as Walter Brennan, Dana Andrews, Walter Huston, and Anne Baxter. Aside from the usual war effort type movie, the biggest thing about this movie was that it was one of the rare movies to show the Soviet Union in a positive light. Granted it focused on a small village in the Ukraine without much explicit Soviet visuals but it was none the less. Again it was shot in 1943 when we, and the Soviets, were technically allies and battling the Nazis. Even then the US was never really at ease with the Soviet alliance and shortly after the surrender of Germany it became apparent that the Soviets broke with the rest of the allied post-war plans. However this movie was meant to be more of a heart-warming drama focusing on several families and most specifically their young children who are from 17-to late 20s and a couple even younger who set out on a road trip on the same day Nazi Germany invades the Ukraine. Brennan plays the old man grandfatherly figure who helps the younger people deal with the attack once it commences. This was one of Dana Andrews' earliest war type movies he goes on to play many more such roles. Obviously meant to be a propaganda piece or at least to elicit support for the war it is a good movie if you like war type movies especially since it shows an aspect of the WWII experience that is not commonly scene in movies.

Communists and conservatives in Hollywood joined hands in the middle of WW2 to crank out this ludicrous but nevertheless entertaining salute to the Soviet Union, which was taking a terrible beating from the Nazis at the time. Reds Lillian Hellman and Aaron Copland wrote the script and music (a fine score) while fellow traveler Lewis Milestone directed. Republicans like Dana Andrews, Walter Brennan, Anne Baxter, and Dean Jagger took the leading roles. Only later did the pic come under suspicion as a propaganda piece. While it's too ridiculous and dishonest historically to convert anybody to communism, it has a kind of goofy, rousing energy that makes it, for me, a lot more watchable than many other war melodramas of that time.

The only reason that North Star gets as high as three stars is because of the awesome amount of talent invested in this film both in front of and behind the camera. Otherwise The North Star would be down there with such efforts from World War II as Joan of Ozark and Hitler, Dead or Alive.

The North Star may be the only war film in history that has a choreographer in its credits. The first half of the film would qualify it as a musical with a score by Aaron Copland and Ira Gershwin. No hit songs came out of this film, the music is serviceable to underscore the mood of the happy peasants of the Soviet Union secure in the blessings of their revolution, but ready to fight the fascist invader who dare take their sacred revolution away.

Written by a hardcore Marxist like Lillian Hellman, how could you expect it to come out any other way? Even MGM's Song of Russia or RKO's Days of Glory kept the glorification of Stalin's Soviet Union to a minimum and concentrated on the invaders and how to repulse them.

Seeing Walter Brennan as a Russian peasant is laughable enough, but that dialog about how wonderful the Russian Revolution was in bringing prosperity and peace to the land must have made the very right wing Mr. Brennan hurl after each take. Somehow Brennan was far more acceptable as a peasant farmer from West Virginia than one from the Ukraine. Though he talks just about the same. I'm guessing he felt it would even look more ridiculous attempting an accent.

Walter Huston got double whammied during World War II for Soviet apologia. He played Ambassador Joseph E. Davies in the film adaption of Davies's book Mission to Moscow for Warner Brothers. That was the other great Soviet apologetic film from this era. But if Huston could keep a straight face doing The Outlaw, doing these two would have been no problem.

Dana Andrews and Farley Granger play a couple of peasant sons of Morris Carnovsky, Andrews is on leave from the Soviet Air Force. At his country's call to arms, Andrews responds, Granger of course becomes a guerrilla fighter. This was Farley Granger's first film, he had been discovered in high school in southern California where his dad worked as an unemployment clerk. Granger in his memoirs recalls his father meeting many of Hollywood's greats between engagements when they were as eligible as the rest of America for unemployment insurance. Granger recalls with some fondness for the film as it was his first movie role, but he does realize it hasn't aged well. After this and The Purple Heart, Granger went into military service and resumed his career after World War II.

Anne Baxter, Jane Withers, Ann Harding play some of the peasant women who fight right along with their men folk. Erich Von Stroheim and Martin Kosleck play a pair of fiendish Nazi doctors, a couple of guys you just love to hate. Von Stroheim's scenes with Huston are priceless in their sincerity and their laughability today.

Lewis Milestone who directed and won an Oscar for All Quiet on the Western Front was in charge of putting this whole thing together. He had to have known that The North Star would not stand the test of time or history.

For those interested several years ago PBS ran a good documentary, narrated by Burt Lancaster about the Russian campaign of World War II. I'd recommend it rather than The North Star.

What a surprise this film was! A film made in America about a small Russian village that stands up and fights the Germans who invade seems rather unique to me. It may not win any awards for recreating a Russian village or impeccably portraying the Russian culture or people but this movie succeeds in the most important area for a film: it gets the story across and it pulls you into the lives of the characters. There certainly can't be very many films like this one. I have to admit, "The North Star" takes a few minutes to get rolling. The cinematography was great from the beginning, but the story lags during the first half hour to forty five minutes of the film and is mired down a bit by portraying the villagers as so sappy and sweet that they seem to have stepped off the stage of a dreamlike 1940's Hollywood musical. Fortunately, the director, the screenwriter or somebody woke up and realized that this film had potential, and boy does it take off! This movie shifts gears from sappy drivel to life and death matters and the characters seem to come to life. The Germans rolling into their village are no laughing matter, and it is a fight to the death! This movie seems to have Part I which could be called ignorance is bliss and Part II which could be called the real story begins. Perhaps the actors revolted against the director! Part II was a revelation. What the Germans do to the children in the village is enough to make anyone mad enough to fight and I found myself rooting wholeheartedly for the Russians resisting the brutality of the Germans. There are some strong performances in this film by some of the most talented actors of the 1940's. Ann Baxter, Dana Andrews, Walter Huston, Walter Brennan, Jane Withers, Farley Granger and Erich von Stroeheim all give performances that had my attention glued to the screen. I was absolutely amazed and thrilled to find all of these movie legends in one film. Don't miss this one of a kind story. You may never see a movie quite like it anywhere else. I give it an 86/100.

Another Walter Huston propoganda piece to try to get a suspicious American public to stomach our support for WWII alley - Stalin's Soviet Union. Not at all realistic. In reality, Ukrainian peasants welcomed the invading Germans until they found how brutal the Germans were. Stalin had starved 6 million plus Ukrainians in the 1930's forced famine because they would not collectivize and send their food to Russia. These poor people were caught between two monsters, Soviet Russia (Stalin) and Nazi Germany (Hitler). This film is pure wartime propoganda that probably served its purpose to galvanize the American public against Germany. But it is pure folly.

To get a more accurate image of what the Ukrainians really thought of the Russians see Mr. Jones (2019) for the real horror story of the Soviet-induced HOLODOMOR famine. I gave this a 6 instead of the 2 it deserves to entice viewers into watching how far wartime propaganda can sink.

In the early 1960's, when "The North Star" was syndicated to local TV stations, the film was re-cut and the title changed to "Armored Attack." Decades later, Lewis Milestone's classic has been re-released in its original form.

Other posters to this site have commented on the folk-peasant musicale that dominates the first half-hour of the film, so I'll dispense mention of it here. Suffice it to say, however, that from the first scene of violence -- a merciless daytime bombardment of civilians on a quiet Ukrainian country road -- the film gathers emotional strength. And when Anne Baxter, playing a schoolgirl, gazes for the first time upon the horrific vision of her school chums, now dead as the result of mechanized warfare, she states evenly, "We're not young anymore." She and a few others escape into the forest, emerging now and then to engage in hit-and-run sabotage against the Nazi aggressors. The film builds to a climax in which Russian partisans astride horses attempt to take back their village from the better- equipped Germans, giving director Milestone an opportunity to reprise the long tracking shots of approaching figures that became his trademark visual motif.

When Samuel Goldwyn produced "The North Star," he pulled out all the stops. He enlisted James Wong Howe to photograph, William Cameron Menzies to design the production, and Aaron Copland to write the background score. The cast, besides Baxter, includes Dana Andrews, Farley Granger, Walter Huston, and, as the Nazi You Love to Hate, the legendary Erich Von Stroheim, as a German military doctor who compromises his professional oath through medical experimentation. Supplies of blood for the German wounded have dried up, so Dr. Von Stroheim orders the village children rounded up and brought to the local school, where he draws great quantities of blood from them -- so much so, that a few kids die from the process. Effective and highly dramatic, it certainly beats visions of the Hun boiling Belgian babies in oil.

When The North Star was made in 1943, the outcome of World War II was far from certain. Allied victories had been won at Midway, El Alamein and Stalingrad. But Japan still controlled its Asia-Pacific conquests, and Germany occupied land and enslaved people from the steppes to the Pyrenees.

Not to discount British activities in North Africa and on the Atlantic, our main ally in the land war against the Germans was the Soviet Union. This movie, hokey as it appears today, fits the mold of a number of other morale-boosting propaganda-dramas made on both sides of the Atlantic. None hold up to modern-day criticism, nor should they have to.

I find more to criticise in many of the reviews which ignore the times and circumstances under which The North Star was made. One can despise Stalin and still respect what 'his' armies accomplished and honor the unimaginable sacrifices 'his' people made during "The Great Patriotic War."

A slew of Hollywood studio regulars (Walter Huston, Walter Brennan, Dana Andrews, Anne Baxter, Farley Granger, Dean Jagger) do an absolutely terrible job convincing us that they're rural Russians in this bit of WWII propaganda from 1943. The film details what happens when this peaceful Russian community is invaded by Nazis. The younger folk, who are traveling to a larger city for a holiday, find themselves thrown into combat on the road, while the villagers deal with the ransacking of their homes. The film laments the loss of innocence and the necessity for war, but the way it goes about it is nearly ridiculous by today's standards. The first hour or so of the film shows us what life for a typical Russian peasant is like, which according to this film includes breaking into song and dance every five minutes no matter what you're doing and celebrating the joys of being Russian. I've seen musicals that don't have as much music in them as this movie.

Still, much can be forgiven in these studio products of the war years, since their first goal was to keep up morale and only secondarily cared at all about the art of actual film making. They're interesting in the context of film's place in popular culture but they're not interesting films, if that makes any sense.

"The North Star" was amazingly nominated for six Academy Awards when it comes across today as a B movie, and not even a very good one at that. Lillian Hellman, of all people, won her second and last nomination for the film's original screenplay, while it racked up five nominations in the technical categories of b&w art direction, b&w cinematography, dramatic or comedy score, sound recording, and special effects.

Grade: C+

Up until WWII, most Americans (and particularly Hollywood) looked to Soviet Russia with, at best, fear. While the true extent of the brutality and human rights violations of the Stalinist regime were still not fully comprehended, there was great fear that the Russians were bent on world domination. BUT, with the entry of the United States into WWII, the Russians, our previous enemy, was now our ally. And, to engender support for this new ally, Hollywood created a fictionalized version of the Russians--portraying them as brave and loyal and almost super-human. While some of these qualities were no doubt true of those who heroically fought the Nazis, many simply fought for survival and chose to protect their own evil regime because it seemed less evil than the Germans--or because they were murdered by their own KGB troops if they did not fight. However, in The North Star, none of this is apparent. Instead, the Hollywoodized version of the Russians is given and their government, it seems, is freedom-loving and decent! What a lie. Because of this, the movie ONLY has value as a historical curiosity as propaganda. I would be very afraid someone might view it today and take it for fact instead of complete fiction. Despite this movie's attempts to portray it otherwise, Stalinism ranks as one of the greatest evils in human history.

While this is essentially the same review I gave to another pro-Russian propaganda film of this era, MISSION TO MOSCOW, The North Star is a little better as far as entertainment value is concerned. You'll rarely see the Nazis portrayed in as evil a light in any American film of the time. But it is nonetheless a lie from start to finish in regard to its portrayal of the Russians. While the people were brave and decent, its leader was the epitome of evil.

The North Star (TNS), Warner Brothers' Mission to Moscow (1943) and MGM's Song of Russia. (1944) comprise the three most important pro-Soviet films to be made in Hollywood during WWII. Together, they also generated much controversy notwithstanding their alleged best intentions. They remain like antiques--time capsules from the distant past that captured stories defying what most reasonable people would expect to come out of the American film industry.

Of the three films, TNS was probably the most ambitious. It ventured into a rare and difficult genre---by mixing two very different types of stories into one movie with the hope that both would succeed with its audience. This has been attempted many times before---with mixed and often problematic results. See, e.g. Eating Raoul (1982), Something Wild (1986), Little Murders (1971) and Penny Serenade (1941).

In the case of TNS, the first 35 minutes or so pose an extended exposition of happy and bucolic peasant life at a Soviet commune---complete with lots of singing and dancing. It is somewhat unsettling to watch all this because (as we now know) it is essentially fantasy not grounded in reality. Also, all the actors look and sound like the Americans that they are. This further contributes to the unreal quality of TNS's first act and often makes it painful to watch.

The second act of TNS presents us with a highly realistic depiction of the Nazi invasion and occupation of the village, with all its misery, cruelty and hardship. Much of this section is also difficult to sit through, because it is almost too immediate and emotionally draining to take in.

The final portion of TNS documents the villagers fighting back and organizing an anti-Nazi rebellion. It also contains pacifist propaganda that many critics believe is Communist in nature. The script by Lillian Hellman went through extensive revision by other hands--so much so that she is reputed to have said that in its final form, TNS was "a big time, sentimental, badly directed, badly acted mess."

No doubt Hellman may have been thinking about the production problems encountered by Samuel Goldwyn in making TNS. He originally sought director William Wyler and cinematographer Gregg Toland. Both became unavailable because of military service, and Goldwyn settled on stalwarts Lewis Milestone and James Wong Howe, respectively. The young female leading part was to be played by Teresa Wright, who became indisposed because of illness. It was later assumed by Anne Baxter. The young male lead was given to teenager Farley Granger in his first film.

TNS had two of Hollywood's "favorite Nazis" Erich von Stroheim and Martin Kosleck playing German doctors who are not averse to performing medical procedures of unspeakable barbarism. TNS is also distinguished by the presence of two of Hollywood's finest character actors--Walter Brennan and Walter Huston. There is something strange in seeing the reputedly conservative Brennan so deeply involved in a socially liberal production like TNS--but there it is!

Critics were divided on TNS. Many from "the mainstream" spoke positively about the picture, but the Hearst publishing organization savaged the film as "pure Bolshevist propaganda" according to Alvin H. Marill's book Samuel Goldwyn Presents (A. S. Barnes and Co., Inc.1976).

In the end, TNS remains a movie that must be seen and judged in the context of its own time and circumstances. Yes, it is often simplistic, naive and perhaps more fiction than fact. But TNS is always interesting and absorbing---and certainly worthy of your attention. You don't expect a Model T Ford to perform like a current Ford F-150 truck---but there is still a lot to be said about that Model T!

The start of this movie shows a Ukranian village, happy and peaceful. Five youths, Dana Andrews, Anne Baxter, Farley Granger, Jane Withers, and Eric Roberts, go out on a picnic, but before they make it back home, their lives are disrupted by a Nazi invasion. Bombs, soldiers, and gunshots make them transition from innocence to realism, and by the end of the film, their lovely little world isn't the same.

In the first, very lengthy section of the film, the merry-making is just too merry. How many Ukranian songs and group dances do we have to sit through? One more, and then another, and then just one more. Then, when the kids go out on their harmless outing, it isn't really harmless. Jane Withers is in love with Dana Andrews, but he continually insults her appearance and intelligence. Is this courtship supposed to be cute? The transition from peace to war feels intentionally dramatic, as if screenwriter Lillian Hellman had a smug smile on her face as she said the words she believed no one had ever said before: "War is bad."

If all war movies were like The North Star, no one would ever go to see them and the genre would fade away. Thankfully, not all of them are this bad. I still haven't recovered my jaw from the ground after learning it was nominated for six Academy Awards.

Yesterday on TCM I came into the middle of a movie where I immediately recognized one of my favorite actors, Dana Andrews, and recognized the unmistakable voice of Walter Brennan even when his face was covered with the beard of a Slavic Patriarch. Looking them both up along with IMDb on my cell phone internet connection led me to North Star (1943). I followed the movie to its conclusion and discovered that although I found it to be a likely bit of war propaganda, that such rah-rah-whatever-side-the-USA-happens-to-support-at-the-time films probably resonate with me, even when they're sort of corny and propagandistic. Some of the charges made in the movie against the Wehrmacht were so seemingly outrageous that I decided to do further research, and eventually came to your website again and read Varlaam's review and more thoroughly looked at the credits and so forth and discovered that the scriptwriter was - uh oh - Lillian Hellman.

Varlaam was correct to point out that when the Germans invaded Ukraine, then a part of the USSR, they were greeted as liberators, indeed I have personally seen film footage of Ukrainian women throwing roses in the paths of German soldiers. This was because the Ukrainians were starving (over 7 million of them by that point), which fact was caused by Soviet Collective Farming. Malcolm Muggeridge of course exposed the Ukrainian starvation, while the New York Times' Walter Duranty covered it up. This then begs the question: why WOULD Dana Andrews, Walter Brennan, Anne Baxter, etc. lend their names to a film of this sort? Moreover, who would write it? The answer is that Lillian Hellman wrote it. Lillian Hellman was such an unrepentant Communist that she actually praised the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

The really sad part is that an important feature of the movie, the use of Russian children by the Wehrmacht as human blood banks, appears potentially to be true. Yet there were only two hits on the first page of google hits that are NOT false positives when you type in Nazis used children as blood banks, and only one of those two (the top two) was a serious historical journal article, the other merely a chat board discussion. It's mentioned in the historical article that the Soviets mentioned this charge at Nuremburg, and it's the one charge that got dropped. Is it possible that, given Hellman's reputation, that she was seen as a biased boy crying wolf? Who knows? I'd be curious to know if there are others who, like me, tend to like the really mushy "mainstream of American 'thought'" (or perhaps I should say, 'feelings') movies of the 1940s (perhaps the influence of my parents) but who, having become older and wiser, wonder how much of what they "know" about reality is influenced by films with a fairly biased perspective. The sad part of Hellman's movie is that the most shocking part of her movie may be true, but unfortunately has largely gone into the dustbin of history due to the fact that her perhaps justified charge against the Wehrmacht has been thrown out with the bathwater of her Communist ideology.

The peace-loving Ukrainian town called "North Star" celebrates the Communist lifestyle by singing and dancing, unaware blood-thirsty barbarians are lurching at the gate. Yup, it's June 1941, and Nazis are about to attack our dear friends in the Soviet Union. It begins after a group of young "Russians" - handsome teenager Farley Granger (as Damian Simonov), pretty girlfriend Anne Baxter (as Marina Pavlova), older brother Dana Andrews (as Kolya Simonov), chubby Jane Withers (as Clavdia Kurina), and cute Eric Roberts (as Grisha Kurin) - go on a merry frolic to holiday in Kiev.

The singing quintet seems to need only Julie Andrews as a leader, but Dana Andrews (no relation) skips out in front. Then, pig farmer Walter Brennan (as Karp) meets them on the road, and leads them in another chorus. He seems grumpier singing than Mr. Andrews did dancing. Yet, this film is NOT a musical comedy - and, the Germans attack. Suddenly, the happy hikers aren't so cheerful; in fact, they will have a difficult time getting back to "North Star" alive. Back in town, kindly doctor Walter Huston (Pavel Grigorich Kurin) will confront Nazi doctor Erich von Stroheim (as Von Harden).

This is not one of the best World War II propaganda films produced in Hollywood, because the joyousness of the opening sequence is entirely too strained (not to mention painfully unbelievable). Yet, there is no denying "The North Star" is a good effort, overall. On advise from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Samuel Goldwyn and William Cameron Menzies assembled a remarkable team, ably led by director Lewis Milestone. The six "Academy Award" nominations reflect the impressive crew, which included writer Lillian Hellman, photographer James Wong Howe, and composer Aaron Copland.

Once you get past the ridiculousness of the situation, the movie gets stronger. While not entirely impressive as Ukrainian Communists, the ensemble cast is very good. Ms. Baxter, in an early role, and Mr. Granger, in his first appearance, are a lovely young couple. Mr. Huston is excellent; especially, watch his final confrontation with Mr. Stroheim, who continues to build upon the role he began in D.W. Griffith's World War I opus "Hearts of the World" (1918) - from clicking his heels (there) to draining the blood out of innocent children (here). Also shining are Ms. Withers and the dependable Mr. Brennan.

****** The North Star (11/4/43) Lewis Milestone ~ Anne Baxter, Farley Granger, Walter Huston, Jane Withers

This film is an out and out falsification of conditions on Soviet collective farms. It is pro-Communist propaganda designed to present the collective farms as filled with "happy, well-fed peasants", when it fact, the conditions were horrendous. And the peasants were forced by violence, mass murder and mass starvation into the collective farms.

The film is so filled with falsifications that the expert of the crimes of the Stalin Period (1927-53), British historian Robert Conquest calls it, "a travesty greater than could have been shown on Soviet screens (in the 1940s)." (Robert Conquest, "The Harvest of Sorrow," page 321, Oxford, 1984)

When pro-Communist influence is talked about in Hollywood, this movie is exactly what is meant. Despite the fact the truth about the horrors committed by the Soviet regime was known long before this movie, pro-Communists in Hollywood made this movie as an attempt to influence American audiences to have a favorable view of the Evil Empire.

Lenin and Stalin murdered more people than Hitler did before the last had even come to power; Stalin himself was to order more mass-killings-- and genocide against the Ukrainian people, and others--by himself than Hitler did. In fact, it is not going to far, by ANY stretch of the imagination to say that Hitler was an amateur in mass murder who learned many lessons from the master: Stalin.

Yet all the while pro-Communists like the writer of this movie, the despicable Lillian Hellman were denouncing Hitler, they were actively aiding Stalin's campaign to deceive the West about his own crimes.

It's one thing to ignore or fail to speak up about crimes against humanity. It is entirely something else to actively help cover them up. The makers of this film were AT BEST tools; at worst accomplices of the worst mass-murderer in history.

If you've ever wonder what HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) was looking for when it investigated Communist influence in Hollywood THIS is exactly it! Those who believe that HUAC (and Sen. Joe McCarthy's hearings) were "witchhunts" are deluding themselves. The proof of Communist influence--in Hollywood--is right here; as well as in the films "Misson to Moscow" and "Song of Russia."