Underground

This top rate production from Warners Bros., tells the story of the anti-Nazi underground and its attempts to sway the German people to reject the Nazi regime and put an end to its war machine. This film is far better than many other later anti-Nazi films cranked out by Hollywood during WW2. The cast all give top rate performances. Martin Koslec is effectively slimey as the Nazi secret police leader who is out to crush the underground. After seeing him here, no wonder he made a career portraying evil Nazi leaders. Perhaps the most memorable performance is by Wolfgang Zilzer as the sad, pathetic former underground leader who becomes a traitor in exchange for release from the hellish torture he is undergoing in a Nazi concentration camp. The scene where he is confronted by underground leaders and forced to commit suicide has real power. The lighting and the music are perfect. Seen today, this film might seem a bit optimistically naive. It gives the viewer the impression the Nazi regime would soon fall from power. None the less the film effectively portrays the terror inflicted on the German people to assure obedience to its corrupt and evil regime.

Note; One odd idea thrown in, is a suggestion about why Rudolph Hess fled Germany and flew into London. During one of the underground broadcasts, Philip Dorn states that Hess fled to escape the gestapo and tell the world the truth. This sounds a bit naive, since everything suggests in real life Hess was always a staunch supporter of the Nazi regime. Of course the whole Hess affair is still to this day shrouded in mystery, and we may never know the real reason why Hess flew into London. That, however is a matter of discussion for another forum.

The Warner Bros. trademarks--fast pacing, good photography, tight editing, a cast of veteran character actors--are in full bloom in this well-made thriller from Vincent Sherman, soon to be one of Warners' top directors. Philip Dorn (who was actually Dutch, not German) and Jeffrey Lynn are two brothers, Dorn the leader of an underground German anti-Nazi movement and Lynn a crippled German soldier unaware of his brother's activities. Martin Kosleck is fine as a reptilian Nazi officer eager to destroy the resistance, and Dorn and Lynn have seldom been better. Sherman even manages to throw in a little humor as he satirizes the paranoia of the regime--Mona Maris, an aide to Kosleck who is actually a member of the Resistance, starts a rumor at work about Himmler that builds to the point that when Kosleck eventually repeats it back to her a short time later it bears little resemblance to the one she started. Although it is a first-rate propaganda piece, it unfortunately bears little resemblance to the real conditions in Germany; there was actually very little resistance to Hitler and Naziism among the populace. What little resistance there was came mainly from Catholic priests and Protestant ministers, who were quickly arrested and thrown into concentration camps, where many of them died. There was a small student movement known as the White Rose that engaged in some anti-Nazi activities, but they were soon captured (many of them turned in by their parents!) and executed. In any event, this is a well made little piece and really deserves to be better known than it is. Check it out.

Watching Underground makes me wish that TCM would do an anthology of great B-movies. Limited budgets imposed constraints on production values -- sound stages and back lots instead of locations, black & white instead of color, character actors in leading roles. What budgets didn't constrain was acting, directing and writing. And what's cool is that there were lots of them, especially from the studio system, where great talent was on staff.

I don't think I've seen a wartime propaganda flick that pulls out all the stops quite like this one. Vile Nazis in their spiffy Nazi uniforms, sadism, torture, whips, dungeons, betrayal, sabotage, righteous rants by old professors...all here! Tight production and right casting make this a delicious grand guignol. Despite the grim theme, there are some pretty funny Hogan's Heroes moments. Example: a thuggish Gestapo underling is bragging to his secretary about a ghastly new torture method he's invented and complaining about Himmler's taking the credit. The secretary, who's in the underground, replies, barely containing her sarcasm, "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get a promotion."

And then, there's the ending, when one must face an excruciating dilemma -- to do something horrible and cruel for the greater good. It's something I don't know if I'd have the courage to do. Would you?

We now have all the answers, but this picture was released before WWII became a world war. It is likely there were rumors and inklings about underground movements but this may have been the first picture about a German resistance movement brought to the attention of the movie-going public. Imagine the surprise and amazement of American audiences trying to fathom the concept that Germany was not a monolith.

"Underground" is the tense and suspenseful story of two brothers on opposite sides of the war. Jeffrey Lynn is a Nazi officer discharged and returning home after losing an arm in combat and Philip Dorn is his older brother who is a member of the underground. We learn of the consequences to a resistance member if caught and of the attendant paranoia prevalent among members. Secrecy is necessary and required, under penalty of death.

The storyline is absorbing and the direction is spot-on throughout. The two stars are at their best, and this may be one of Jeffrey Lynn's best roles. The supporting roles are filled with competent German character actors who may be unfamiliar to many of us. "Underground" is a memorable rendering of a theme which has become very familiar to us over the years since the war. Well worth the time, which is only 95 fast-moving minutes.

This movie was made before the US entry into WWII. But, the story line clearly indicates the concerns we had with the Nazi party in Germany and their blatant disregard for the well being of their citizenry. There are no war scenes and only a couple of short action sequences but, despite this, the story moves at a very comfortable pace. Very good acting all around with Philip Dorn excelling as the leader of an underground group striving to keep the citizens informed as to the real aims of their Nazi leaders. He does this via a clandestine illegal radio operation which, of necessity, must continually move to various locales to transmit. Jeffrey Lynn plays Dorn's brother, a German soldier who, minus most of his left arm, returns home but is still a loyal German who is unaware of his brother's underground activities. This story is a good one and avoids most of the cliches that permeated many similar WWII movies. Martin Kosleck plays his usual role, that of an officious German officer but, even he, tones down his role and does not appear as menacing as he later became in other similar films. I enjoyed this 95 minute story and definitely recommend it to all fans of the suspense melodrama genre.