Ombre al confine

Hugh McGrath (Douglass Montgomery) escapes from a German POW camp. He's in big trouble coz not only has he escaped, but he has also killed a German guard in doing so. A nationwide search for him is launched. He makes it to Berlin where he takes shelter with Anna (Constance Bennett). However, Detective Gotz (Oskar Homolka) is never far behind....

I felt that more could have happened in the film and I'm not sure what the title means. The acting is fine by all concerned, although it is slightly unbelievable how Anna and Hugh fall in love and marry in such a short space of time. The film is tense during two main sections - the beginning when Hugh makes his escape, and more notably, at the end, once Hugh and Anna make a break for it. In between this, we have quite an empty film with Hugh holed up in Anna's department. Still, it's an OK film - and I didn't expect the sacrifice at the end.

Michael Balcon was ever the ambitious producer. In 1934, he decided to make a movie that would play overseas, so he hired a couple of American stars, Constance Cummings and Douglas Montgomery and made a movie about an escaped Prisoner of War falling in love with a poor German girl in this movie. Given the cast and the setting, he hoped this would play in the U.S. and perhaps even Germany.

Unfortunately, this movie did not work out as he had hoped. I attribute it to a schmaltzy story and lack of any distinction other than its stars. This production looks like something that John Stahl might have done at Universal. Neither do the stars offer any particular chemistry in this effort.

Balcon would keep on trying to crack the American market. He would succeed with Hitchcock ... and lose Hitchcock to Hollywood. It would take greater American familiarity with Britain, gained during the Second World War, and a lighter touch for the Ealing comedies to break into the American market: movies that were successful because they were distinctively British... and funny... and were better movies, too.

Still trying to figure out what 'everything is thunder' means. It is uttered by the hero of the film, but it's difficult to guess why or what he means. It is uttered during one of the many protracted lulls in the action - in fact, all the action is in the very beginning and the very end of the picture.

Douglass Montgomery is an escaped WW1 POW who makes his way to Berlin. There he meets Constance Bennett, and there the action stops, as the picture falls flatter than a pancake. It is a very unlikely and hurried romance as they fall in love, exchanging unusual dialogue in an as unconvincing a love story as you are likely to see. Some slight tension comes from the detective chasing him, played by Oscar Homolka, but he is underutilized.

The pacing is very uneven, as mentioned, and the picture has an unsatisfactory ending, unexpected and anticlimactic. Montgomery is a weak lead and Miss Bennett has a thankless role, and it needed a stronger director. "Everything Is Thunder" could have been a much better picture under different circumstances and in different hands, and is recommended with a caveat; don't expect too much.

In World War I, a Canadian POW escapes and is hidden by a Berlin streetwalker in "Everything is Thunder" from 1936. The stars are Constance Bennett, Douglass Montgomery, and Oscar Homolka.

Hugh (Montgomery) is able to bribe a prison camp guard, but the guard turns on him and in the ensuing fight, the guard dies when he falls on his knife. Hugh escapes, but the guard's death starts a national search.

Hugh pretends to be a discharged German soldier who has a wooden leg. It's pieces of wood held together that he can remove at will. He makes it to Berlin, where he meets the beautiful Anna (Bennett), a prostitute.

When Anna, a true German, realizes who he is, she is ready to turn him in, but the two are falling in love. They decide to both escape to neutral territory.

The last half hour or so of this film is very fast-moving and exciting. The last shot is absolutely beautiful. It's not a great film, but it has good performances and a decent story.

Had "Everything is Thunder" been made later and set in WWII, perhaps it would have worked better. As it is, the film suffers from believability many, many times...and the most egregious mistake is showing Germans betraying their country repeatedly...something which just wouldn't have happened during WWI...and would have still been pretty unlikely during WWII. Trust me on this...I used to teach World History.

When the story begins, you learn that a Canadian officer, Hugh McGrath (Douglass Montgomery), is in a German POW camp...and that he'd already tried to escape three times. The fourth time seems to be the charm, as he is able to escape...though he kills one of the guards in the process. This means, if captured, McGrath will almost certainly face the firing squad. It helps that McGrath speaks fluent German and that he finds the great cliche--a hooker with a heart of gold (Constance Bennett). Inexplicably, she befriends him, sells all her possessions and heads to the Dutch border with him! If this isn't hard enough to believe, wait until you get to the insane ending!!!

In the film, almost no one speaks with anything other than an American or Canadian accent. Of the leading characters, only Oskar Homolka has a Germanic accent and you never hear Montgomery speak a word of German! Add that to the folks betraying Germany right and left and you're left quite confused. Overall, the acting and romance is nice...though the romance also makes no sense nor do many folks' actions throughout the movie.