This Land Is Mine

In an unnamed European town (it's a symbolic stand-in for France, but the characters are all British), the German army moves in and sets up occupation. Local school teacher Albert (Charles Laughton) is more concerned with his romantic feelings for co-worker Louise (Maureen O'Hara) and escaping from the clutches of his over-protective mother (Una O'Connor). However, when a resistance movement begins against the occupation, Albert may find himself drawn into it.

Director Renoir manages to inject some originality into well-trod territory. Laughton is very good as the weak-willed Albert, and he's ably matched by the strong and beautiful O'Hara. George Sanders seems a bit wasted in his role as a collaborator, but he gets one really good scene. The biggest surprise was Kent Smith, an actor who I usually regard as a waste of space. Here, playing a daring resistance fighter operating right under the Germans' noses, he's charismatic and exciting. The movie won an Oscar for Best Sound.

One last bit of comparative trivia: This Land Is Mine was a big hit, with a record-breaking opening weekend. This was because it opened on a then-unheard-of 72 screens. Today, the big superhero movies open on thousands of screens.

Although I consider myself a film buff, I confess I had never of this film until I saw being broadcast last night at 1.30 in the morning. I was expecting some pedestrian war time propaganda but the presence of Charles Laughton convinced me to watch it. I am astonished that such a powerful film is so little known and broadcasting only rarely.

One could argue (as had been done in the comments here) that Laughton's transformation from mouse to man is rather too swift. I myself found it totally convincing but it is in the nature of Hollywood to exaggerate these things to make a good movie.

The comparison to "inherit the wind" and "To Kill a mockingbird" is well made here, but the question remains, why is this film so little known? The answer, I think, is that those films make the middle classes feel good about themselves. Everyone fancies themselves to be an Atticus Finch who can recognise the ignorance of 'common people'. But TLIM points the accusing finger at the Atticus Finch's of the world, the men of learning and intelligence who are quite prepared to justify working with evil and persuading themselves that it is not so bad. As such it is as relevant (sadly) as it ever was.

Charles Laughton delivers one of the finest courtroom speeches that you are ever likely to see (it certainly ranks with Spencer Tracy in "Inherit the Wind", or Gregory Peck in "To Kill a Mockingbird" ). Here, though, Laughton is not pleading the case for the defense or the prosecution, he is pleading for his own life in a Nazi "show-trial".

Rather than saving his own life by following the instructions of the German authorities, Laughton chooses to use the opportunity presented by his conducting his own defense to launch a masterful indictment of the Nazi regime. His speech to the jurors and the packed, public galleries is delivered with the sincerity and authority which only an actor with Laughton's many talents, could hope to muster. Inspired by Laughton's speech, the jurors find the courage to acquit him and Laughton dashes from the court to the school where he is a teacher.

Having made such a speech, Laughton knows that he has signed his own death warrant. There is just time, before the German soldiers come to take him away, for one final speech to his beloved class of school-children. Once again, Laughton produces the goods in this very touching scene as he reads to the children articles from the Declaration of the Rights of Man.

Most of this film is typical, low-budget, World War Two propaganda but Laughton raises it above the mediocre. Maureen O'Hara is gorgeous as the fellow teacher with whom Laughton is in love. Also worth watching, as ever, is Una O'Connor as Laughton's mother.

Jean Renoir managed to flee France because of the Nazi invasion and spent World War II turning out some pretty good films in America. Maybe the best is this heartfelt tribute to his beloved and occupied France.

He got the best possible actor for his protagonist. Charles Laughton could play tortured and flawed human beings like no other actor ever could in the English speaking world. Here he is a French schoolteacher, middle-aged, shy, and mother dominated by Una O'Connor. And he's afraid of his own shadow.

He also loves neighbor and fellow schoolteacher Maureen O'Hara and she's got a fiancé who's a collaborator and a brother in the resistance played by George Sanders and Kent Smith.

It's all these people's story and even the local gauleiter Walter Slezak is not a simple brute as Nazis are so often portrayed.

The story involves Laughton's growth as a human being, seeing what is happening to his town, the people around him, and most of all to the school to both the children and the teachers. The last twenty minutes of the film are almost exclusively his. In both a courtroom and a classroom, he has some brilliantly delivered speeches explaining to the town why they must resist the evil upon them.

For me the best scene is in the courtroom where Laughton is accused of murder and throws away a carefully prepared script that Slezak has offered him. He tells the town what they need to hear and then declares his love for O'Hara and the reasons for him doing what he's doing.

During that part of Laughton's speech the camera focuses totally on Maureen O'Hara and her reactions to Laughton's words. It's a beautiful crafted scene by a great director.

A film classic for the ages.

In an interview with Cahiers du Cinema in the 1950s, Renoir reluctantly referred to this film as "my own propaganda." Early Hollywood depictions of the french had portrayed them as unscrupulous collaborators. (That includes Casablanca). Renoir, who was in France when it fell, was justified to feel this was an unfair portrayal. This Land is Mine was his way of showing America what it was like to be a conquered country. Each character becomes an icon of every section of French society. It's not trademark 'Renoir' and he admits it. Because it was so important to make sure the film found its audience, he says he "took less risks"

The mission worked. The film was a success and attitudes towards the French changed... two other Warner Bros films, also starring Bogart, made after Casablanca (and more importantly This Land is Mine), portray the French as heros and patriots with a just cause.

Brilliant acting, brilliant script, brilliant propaganda!