Morgenrot

The small town gathers to cheer the departing heroes, officer and crew of a submarine in the Great War. Then it turns into two movies: the men on the submarine, as they hunt a ship in the Atlantic that will bring supplies and personnel to Russia, and then become the prey of a spy ship; and the people -- mostly the women -- left behind to worry and grieve and get on with the daily routine of life and war.

It has two directors: Gustav Ucicky, at the peak of his fame and power (he would wind up in Vienna after the Anschluss. His directing would tail off, only to begin anew in 1947), and Vernon Sewall,. Sewall would not receive another directing credit for ten years, although he would be a key player behind the camera, part of the team that made EDGE OF THE WORLD

The result is a well-made movie, an early talkie submarine movie that includes most of the tropes of submarine movies to this day: the cramped space; the constant companionship of death; the nearly sexual ecstasy when torpedoes sink the enemy craft, and the dull, blank despair of a mortally wounded submarine with its crew trapped within. THe crew refer to the boat as a living thing, stubborn and defiant, and the movie makes it easy to see why. For 1931, it's an amazing film. It's still very good ninety years later.

This film was the first to have its premiere after Hitler became Reichskanzler (prime minister), so it is not a nazi film by itself but produced and censored before. The owner of the producing company (Hugenberg) was head of the monarchist DNVP (german nationalist peoples party), so the makers views displayed in the film are 'compatible' with the context (imperial Germany in WW1).The sometimes stilted way of talking is oldfashioned but authentic or even moderated(see below). The technical accurateness of the film is stunning (a hallmark of german sub movies). The warships are real (german T-boats equal to WW1 destroyers, a light cruiser and the last riveted german sub design based on a war type). The events in the film are based on specific real cases or (as the rumour spreading in the village) 'true to original'. E.g. the sinking of the cruiser en route to Russia resembles the death of Lord Kitchener, whose ship was sunk either by a mine layed by a sub or by a subs torpedo (unclear because the sub never returned home). The encounter with the Q-boat and the scene with more men than Tauchretter (emergency diving gear) 'everybody or nobody!' happened several times in reality. So this film is probably the most realistic sub movie ever made. But the film gained a very bad reputation, because nazi propaganda used it for its own purposes (including glorifying heroic death). Goebbels ordered one cut to be made: After the successful sinking of the cruiser the sub commanders mother (Adele Sandrock) refuses to celebrate with the officials because 'So many innocent people were killed just because they did their duty as our people do.They too had relatives now mourning the losses.So we should not gloat but thank god that this time our relatives will come back alive.'. This seemed unacceptable, so this scene was removed. After the war it was put back and another scene got removed: On one occasion, when the commander is forced to hold a patriotic speech he says 'About once a century a country needs a great war like a cleaning thunderstorm to stay united and not to become decadent'. Both cuts I consider as questionable. While it is quite doubtful if any common person in WWI would have said that killing the enemy is nothing to celebrate (so the film ist more moderate than reality instead of vice versa), the opinion 'too long peace results in especially nasty wars' was common and has some of truth in it. Conclusion: This film should be shown without cuts but maybe with some background information. It is in my opinion the best Sub movie made in Germany (far superior to 'Subs westward ho' [crude propaganda] and 'the boat' [even the books author complained about adulterations]),to say nothing of Hollywood junk like 'U 571'.

Outdoor U-Boat scenes in Morgenrot were filmed in Helsinki, Finland in co-operation with Finnish Army. Finland was the only country in Europe to allow Ufa to use her U-Boats for filming.

Liason officer was Heikki Parkkonen, head of filming in Finnish Army and also another member of his staff, photographer Vilho Armas Pentikäinen took part of filming. Parkkonen did actually part of shooting for the film. Later was found that Pentikäinen was spying for Russia. He defected in 1933 to Russia.

Parkkonen and navy commanders Eero Rahola and Akseli Raninen took part of Berlin festivities of film premiere in January 1933.

This film essentially begins during World War 1 with three submariners "Kapitanleutnant Helmut Liers" (Rudolf Forster), "Oberleutnant Phipps Fredericks" (Fritz Genschow) and "Seaman Jaul" (Paul Westermeier) being proudly cheered by the citizens of their small hometown just prior to their catching the train to return to duty. Although the wife of "Seaman Jaul" (Paul Westermeier) is sad to see him go, she isn't overcome with fear for his safety due to the fact that she is convinced he will return to her alive and well. Conversely, "Helmut Liers' mother" (Adele Sandrock), who has already lost two of her sons in this war, is definitely concerned and would prefer that he resign from the Imperial German Navy to help manage the business left to her by her deceased husband. Likewise, another woman by the name of "Grete Jaul" (Camilla Spira) is also concerned but, although everyone assumes she is worried about the safety of her supposed boyfriend Phipps Fredericks, she is secretly in love with Helmut Liers--who is Phipps' senior officer--and this has the potential of causing problems further on down the line. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that, despite the propaganda aspects of this film, this turned out to be a pretty good submarine movie for the most part with extremely good action scenes for its time. Also worth note is the manner in which the director (Gustav Ucicky) captured the horrible waste brought on by the war by inserting a scene depicting a train filled with soldiers going off to war with passing another one containing those severely injured headed in the opposite direction. Whether the government censors fully appreciated this depiction of this particular tragedy of war is not known to me. In any case, although the film definitely shows its age, I enjoyed it for the most part, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.