The Day Will Dawn

We have seen this before, the freedom fighters of Norway under Nazi occupation, their hardship, their courage, their determination, their heroism and so on, and if this film at least is better than "The Moon Is Down" on the same theme, it's not up to Errol Flynn's "The Edge of Darkness". The one outstanding asset of this film though is the leading lady, a very young Deborah Kerr, who in a way sustains the whole movie. In the beginning she is just a very cheerful and happy Norwegian lass, but when the Germans come to build an oil refinery, which turns out to be a submarine base, the Norwegians get into trouble, and in order to save her father's life (Finlay Currie) Deborah has to marry the local Quisling, the local police, whom the Norwegians don't know at first that he is collaborating with the Germans (Francis L. Sullivan, awesome as usual.) When Hugh Williams as an English spy learns this on his second coming, he fell in love with Deborah during the first, he is not very happy.

It's a very typical British edifying war film from the very darkest year 1942 and sides with many others of the same kind, outdated today, but still interesting for their great moral enthusiasm about surviving and fighting tyranny.

Called the day will dawn in europe, but the avengers in canada and the united states. It's a brit film. Reporter colin metcalfe (hugh williams) is assigned to the european beat, after hitler moves into poland. When the germans sink his boat on the way to norway, no one seems to believe him. But he does fall for kari (young deborah kerr, in an early role), the captain's daughter. And as the german ships come into the harbor, pretending to be merchant ships, colin is abducted and held prisoner by the germans. Will metcalfe ever get to tell what he knows? Will his stories make a difference? The script is peppered with patriotic messages. A call to take action, avoiding neutrality, as hitler moves into more euro countries. Acc to imdb, this was released in the united kingdom in june 1942, so both britain and the united states were already actively in the war by then. This seems to start the story from earlier, before britain was involved in action. Directed by harold french. According to wikipedia dot org, french lost his own wife in a bombing raid in 1941. Produced by general films, and distributed in the united states by paramount. It's a little disjointed, but does show the chronology of events in europe.

Horse race tipster and journalist Metcalfe is picked for the job of foreign correspondent in Norway when Hitler invades Poland. On the way to Norway his boat is attacked by a German U-Boat, however when he tells the navy about it they disbelief him and, to make matters worse, he is removed from his job. When German forces invade Norway, Metcalfe returns determined to uncover what is going on and stop the Germans in their tracks.

1940's British cinema is understandably packed with wartime propaganda pieces. This film doesn't stand out from the pack but it is still worth a watch. The basic plot is interesting and provides tense drama towards the end, even if it gets all confused at times in the middle and some of it didn't quite hang together for me. The action is a little stilted at times and the film never misses a chance to show how very selfish and foolish the German officers are. This is a little heavy handed but what did you expect from a propaganda film? However it is badly done at times and seems heavy handed.

The cast are mainly good. Williams is typical of the stiff upper lip English heroes of this type of film. Again it seems a little stiff but it's the usual sort of English gentleman that we wanted to see at the time – especially when compared to the slimly cowardly Germans shown here. The support cast are OK despite the very, very iffy Norwegian accents, but this doesn't matter too much.

Overall this film is typical British wartime propaganda. The Brits save the day, the Germans are cowardly, sacrifice is made but the greater good is served. As a Brit this is a solid bit of entertainment for a rainy Saturday afternoon, but probably not much more capable than that.

This early Deborah Kerr role steals the film, The Day Will Dawn, an early WW2 film about the invasion and occupation of Norway, a topic seldom seen in Hollywood films. English films tended to explore topics that Hollywood films avoided. In Hollywood, intellectual exploration was considered box office poison. This movie, despite the hilarious nazi scene of a nazi officer killing a Norweigen traitor by shooting at the wall, is very effective for most of the film, and highlights Kerr's acting talents. The rest of the cast, particularly Kerr's father, do a very good job in the film. Some portrayals of the nazis border on cartoonish, but that is to be expected, considering the time period. A good WW actioner.

The purpose of many of the films made during WWII was to rouse the people in favor of the war effort....a sort of positive propaganda effort. And, when it comes to this goal, few pictures do as well as "The Day Will Dawn" (also called "The Avengers").

The story begins with the Nazi invasion of Poland. The scene opens up in a newspaper office and folks are excited about the UK finally being at war...but also concerned that the British government has so far done nothing to check the Germans. One of the reporters, Colin Metcalfe (Hugh Williams) is sent on assignment to cover Norway. This is before the German occupation of the country, but Colin is concerned by the actions of the supposedly peace German seamen...he sees them as preparing for the invasion of Norway. His attempt to warn the British government and people is twarted however....and later he finally gets the chance to redeem himself....by sneaking back into Norway and helping his air force to locate and destroy a secret German submarine base.

The film has a pretty good cast. In addition to Williams, Ralph Richardson, Deborah Kerr (in one of her first films) and Finlay Currie also are there to provide excellent support. As far as the rest of the picture goes, it's near perfect and very well made....aside from the overuse of bad (scratchy) was stock footage.