Crepúsculo sangriento

Two of Hollywood's British colony are the leads in this Columbia Pictures war film about the Norwegian Resistance. Brian Aherne and Merle Oberon, a British barrister and a Norwegian woman who have some before the war history come together when British commandos raid Norway.

Oberon has a dangerous assignment, she plays the mistress of a German Major Carl Esmond and as such is despised by her fellow Norwegians. But in fact she's a spy for the Allies. Still it's not easy to hang around knowing that you're vilified behind your back.

Wouldn't you know it Aherne is landed by submarine and is to make contact with Oberon. He also knows the local Norwegian terrain. Can they get their mission done and keep their minds on the mission is the theme of First Comes Courage.

Carl Esmond does a good job as the major who is a typical cruel Nazi, but whom you also feel a bit sorry for as Oberon is making a fool of him. As such he has a bit more dimension to him than Conrad Veidt as Major Stroesser in Casablanca.

After a lot of hot and heavy action when the commandos do raid, the ending is a Casablanca like one and I'll not say more.

First Comes Courage is distinguished by the good performances of its leads, Oberon, Aherne, and Esmond and the first rate action sequences. Kudos also to Isobel Elsom as a Norwegian nurse who sacrifices much herself. The film hardly has the staying power of Casablanca, the difference between the major leagues and Double A baseball.

Dorothy Arzner's last directorial effort is replete with her usual feminist slant on things as Merle Oberon -- playing a Norwegian -- is caught between romantic Nazi officer Carl Esmond, who wants to marry her and British spy Brian Aherne who loves her, which is all a great inconvenience to her winning the war for Norway. The men are busy playing with their big tanks and their large meetings -- the state marriage of Esmond and Oberon with its TRIUMPH OF THE WILL sized set decorations is very funny. The occasional battlefield shots looks to me like they are modeled on those sets of plastic soldiers that used to be advertised on the back of comic books.

Oberon, appropriately enough, seems to spend much of her time trying to keep a straight face as Esmond tries to romance her into marriage. It fits neatly into the sort of movie that Arzner used to direct Ruth Chatterton in in the early 1930s, but here, deprived of her favorite screenwriter, Zoe Akins, and forced into the confines of wartime propaganda, she still manages to get in the occasional sly dig.

The film is so much better than the book. You can better understand the motivations and limitations of the characters. This movie has been quite a favorite of mine.

There were several "Norwegian fishing village" movies made in the thick of WWII, to show American audiences why we needed to help the world and inspire us to be as courageous as the peasants in the movies. First Comes Courage is one such movie, and while I appreciated Merle Oberon's performance, it's not my favorite of the subgenre.

Merle fans will love her in this, playing a strong secret spy who has to withstand the entire town turning against her. She's pretending to be the faithful mistress of Carl Esmond, one of the top Nazi officers occupying the town, but secretly she's working with the underground resistance and passing along pillow talk secrets. There are some very tense situations where her cover threatens to be exposed, but she's got one strong backbone!

Where does Brian Aherne come in? He also works for the resistance, and he comes to town on a special mission. Will he mind that Merle's been cozying up to Carl, or will he realize it's all in the line of duty? If you've never seen one of these movies before, you'll probably really like it. I've seen Edge of Darkness, however, and have been spoiled by the best!

Dismissed by the late David Shipman as 'idiotic' and given short shrift by the eminent female critic C. A. Lejeune, 'First Comes Courage' is familiar today largely as the final title in Dorothy Arzner's filmography. Seemingly marking a striking departure with the romantic dramas she was associated with during the twenties & thirties since it comprises one of the fast-growing genre of dramas depicting the resistance in Europe, it's not quite the radical break with her earlier work it might initially seem since Arzner subsequently made training films for the Womens Army Corps before leaving Hollywood for good.

Those studying this film for evidence of female empowerment will be gratified to notice that it was edited like many of her previous films by a woman, while Merle Oberon's dismissal of Nazis as "All of you are weak, cowardly, little people!" evokes the scene where Maureen O'Hara turns on the men in her audience in 'Dance, Girl, Dance'. An interesting subtext is further provided by the presence of Isobel Elsom as a doctor also shown as connected to the resistance; while the disapproving looks Oberon receives from other Norwegian women eloquently demonstrates what the locals thought of horizontal collaboration.