Days of Glory

The Russian German war was the greatest battle ever fought and strangely has been ignored by Hollywood. This film, made when the Russians had yet to reach Berlin, was probably a propaganda piece of its time and suffers from some sugary Hollywood treatment. The appearance of a Moscow ballet dancer, and her inevitable love affair with the local guerilla leader, glamourises what was, in reality, a dirty hard war. Whilst we can respect this well-directed movie we can also ask why Hollywood has yet to record its tribute to the amazing determination of the Russian people who were not particularly well led yet overcame such enormous odds. Never mind "Saving Private Ryan" - what about Ivan's story, Mr Spielberg? The Cold War is over, the archives are open, the film is there to be made!

Vladimir (Gregory Peck) leads a group of guerrillas against the Nazi invaders in the forests of Russia. His small group is waiting for the order to attack. It finally comes with the message "The snow will fall".

The film is well acted with tense moments, eg, when the German soldier makes his escape with only Nina (Tamara Toumanova) in the hideout to defend herself alone against him. The group dynamics are well portrayed within this troupe of rebels and there is a very human element to the story. There are poignant scenes including Nina's silence when Mitya (Glenn Vernon) is taken by the Germans and the film has a memorable ending. It's patriotic but it's still a good film.

Gregory Peck is the leader of a group of Russian Guerillas who are fighting the invading Nazis. Peck is the leader of the group but there isn't that many people in the group, they even have a teenager and his younger sister helping out. They also have a woman sharpshooter and several other members. They go out at night to do some damage and hide out by day. They take in a ballet dancer who doesn't want to kill but winds up killing an escaping Nazi. Peck and the dancer end up falling in love and have several love scenes together. They blow up an ammunition train and they also have to hold off some Nazis when the Russians want to do a counter-attack. This was Gregory Peck's first film but this wasn't his best film.

Patriotic Hollywood movie about a Soviet Union guerrilla when Russia was invaded by the ruthless Nazis ; subsequently , brave Guerrilleros fighting back . And presenting the motion picture debut of a cast of new personalities. The flick is set during Nazi onslaught , on June 22, 1941, the Fuehrer sent his war machine , an armored attack crashing across the frontiers of the USSR , unleashing a furious Blitzkrieg. 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 a flag-waving and propaganda film but at the time US and USSR were allied , it deals about some idyllic Soviet people . As their peaceful existence is brutally interrupted when they are suddenly attacked by German planes, in the first wave of the Nazi assault on the Soviet Union. As most of the men flee to the hills to form a guerrilla unit . The first part describes life of a little rebel group led by Vladimir (Gregory Peck) who falls for Ballerina Nina (Tamara Toumanova) , all of them are good people (Alan Reed , Maria Palmer ,Lowell Gilmore , Glen Verdon , Hugo Haas) who bravely fight against the violent encroachment . There happens the Nazi invasion and they're surrounded and bombed . By the way , protagonist Peck making the romantic interludes with Tamara Toumanova playing a Catholic Ballerina from Bolshoi who joins the godless guerrilla . The second part is quite starkly moving developing account of deeds that befall about the freedom fighters and when they go into action , including impressive battles . Burning with Love and Hate! A rolling wall of hell that couldn't be stopped... A handful of men who had to stop it!

The interesting and quite beautifully made film with implecable credits results to be a gripping war story dealing with the Germans overrunning the Eastern Russia with valiant , courageous villagers facing on Nazis and starring Gregory Peck/Vladimir almost single-handely battling as well as resisting the brutal enemy .This picture has presented a cast of new personalities starring , cautioning as opening credits , as closing credits . Peck making his debut as a Russian guerrilla in one of these propagandist WWII tributes to Soviet Allies which caused much embarrassment after that . In addition , there was a clutch of newcomer players . Casey Robinson's thought-provoking screenplay , based on an original story by Melchior Lengyel , is much more concerned with their doggedly upright , gallant resistence under siege than with any jingoist or political purpose . This unnerving epic depicts the horror war as Nazi atrocities and as the resistance fighters roam the Russian countryside attacking during the cruel invasion . Although melodramatic moments in overall effects, also has moments of astounding power with some overwhelming sequences. No one had much to tell for the movie by the time , but it is surprisingly convincing , intriguing , thrilling and sober . The picture has great actors , being film debut of Gregory Peck, Alan Reed ; the credits specify all in the credited cast were making their screen debuts , although Maria Palmer, Hugo Haas and Tamara Toumanova appeared in films in earlier years . This ¨Days of Glory¨ bears remarkable resemblance to ¨The North Star¨ (1943) by Lewis Milestone with prestigious actors as Walter Huston , Dana Andrews, Farley Granger , Anne Baxter, Erich Von Stroheim as usual official Nazi, Dean Jagger, among them . Cinematography is well supplied by Tony Gaudio , being filmed in Cedar City, Utah, and RKO Studios , Gower Street, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California . As well as atmospheric and evocative score by Daniele Amfitheatrof .

The motion picture was professionally directed by Jacques Tourneaur , though the film never rises above tub-thumping , and being unforced and natural , at times .Tourneur directed all kinds of genres and he was an expert on terror cinema (Cat people , Leopard man, I walked with a Zombie , Night of the demon) , Western (Wichita , Great Day in the Morning, Canyon Passage , Stranger on Horseback) , Film Noir (Berlin Express , Out of past , Nick Carter master detective) and adventures (Flame and the arrow , Marathon battle , Appointment in Honduras , Tombuctú , City under the sea) .Torneur knew the imagination was stronger than anything filmmakers could show visually and played on it with breathtaking results . Rating : 6.5/10 . Decent wartime movie . It will appeal to Gregory Peck fans .

(Some Spoilers) Despite the high hopes and bombastic claims by Adolf Hitler and the German High Command about achieving a swift and total victory in the invasion of the Soviet Union by Hitler's Wehrmacht which racked up spectacular results in the summer and fall of 1941. As cold and freezing weather set in the invading Axis forces started to bog down due to the severe Russian winter and stubborn and fanatical Soviet resistance. By the Red Army on the front lines and the Russian partisan bands behind them.

The Russian partisans were groups of lightly armed but highly motivated and disciplined men and women who ambushed German, and their allies, troops and disrupted the German supply and lines of communications. From the start of the war with the USSR on June 21, 1941 to when the German Army was finally driven out of Russia in the early spring of 1944 Russian partisans inflected over 500,000 casualties on the German army and it's allies. The film "Days of Glory" is about one of these Russian partisan bands, operating out of the swamps marshes and forests around the town of Yasnaya Polyana in Central Russia, led by Soviet Red Army officer Vladimir (Gregory Peck).

Far better then most movies made by Hollywood during WWII "Days of Glory" didn't overdo the Russian heroics as well as the evil and viciousness of the invading Germans. The bravest thing that happened in the movie, in regard to the Russian partisans, was when young Mitya, Glen Veron, was captured by the German Army. When Mitya was about to be executed he had a smile on his face and defiance in his voice, toward his German executioners, as he was hung in the town square.

The Germans for their part were brutal and ruthless to the Russian people that they were in control of. Non the less the Germans weren't as bad as in movies like "The North Star". Where they drained out the blood, like vampires, of the Russian villagers to be used to treat wounded German soldiers, with badly needed blood-transfusions. Or even like in the film "Till We Meet Again" where they, the Germans, raped and inducted Catholic Nuns into brothels to serve and entertain the German Army.

The movie has a very sad and touching love story with Vladimir and the two women who were in love with him Yelena & Nina, Maria Palmer & Tamara Toumanova, and resulted in one of them getting killed by the Germans. Leaving the other feeling guilty, and in a way responsible, about what happened to her. Yelena was a hardened guerrilla fighter who killed over 60 German soldiers during the war. Nina was a sweet sensitive and no-violent young women who was a star dancer in the Russian Bellet before the war began and a Russian guerrilla fighter after it started.

Even though the war action in "Days of Glory" was very sparse when it did come on the screen it was awesome. With a spectacular German ammunition train explosion and a tremendous shoot-out with the attacking German Army, at the very end of the movie. With the Russian Partisans, led by Vladimir and Nina, fighting for their lives with mostly home-made guns and grenades against German tanks planes and artillery pieces. "Days of Glory" did in no way celebrate the brutal Joeseph Stalin regime that ran Russia during WWII as well as before and after the war. In fact I don't remember hearing even once "Comrad Stalin's" name mentioned in the movie.

The film "Days of Glory" was about a people, the Russian people, raising up against an invader and fighting him with everything that they had at their disposal, as meager as it was; in order to drive him, the Germans, out of their homes and land for good and forever.