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a very typical British edifying war film from the very darkest year 1942 and sides with many others of the same kind, outdated today, but still interesting for their great moral enthusiasm about surviving and fighting tyranny.

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.

There have been plenty of fine war films and ones with a message or dealing with specific conflicts, am never going to dismiss every war film made during WW2 propaganda straight off the bat because many were more than that. 'The Day Will Dawn' was primarily seen for the cast, hard to go wrong with Deborah Kerr (in an early role), Finlay Currie and Francis L Sullivan, and because it was another film chosen to watch when visiting my godparents.

My feelings on 'The Day Will Dawn' were mostly moderately positive, while not being bowled over. Was to be honest expecting more considering the calibre of the cast, but considering the general reputation of similar films centered around WW2 it also could have been worse. 'The Day Will Dawn's' good intentions were truly admirable and very obvious and there are many good things, though more subtlety and consistency would have made it quite a bit better.

Am going to start with the good. The cast mostly are fine. Kerr did go on to do better and has an accent that would never pass for Norweigan in a million years, but she gives poignant dignity to a rather colourless role (particularly evident in the prison scene awaiting execution). Sullivan was seldom more malevolent than he is here and Currie is larger than life and touching. There is some nice photography and a stirring score.

Did think too that enough of the action roused, while the prison scene was pretty heart-wrenching and the climax terrifying. It also starts off with great promise and is well directed.

On the other hand, Hugh Williams has a very bland character and is too stiff and restrained in it. The pacing is not always consistent, at times it's perfect and exciting and at other times it could have been a good deal tauter and less deliberate.

While the intentions are obvious, good and noble, the film did feel heavy handed and pretty much reiterated what many know already regarding how evil the opposition was. While photographed well, 'The Day Will Dawn' is not that well made visually, with some cheap settings and over obvious, overused and even cheaper stock footage that is clumsily inserted.

In conclusion, above average if unexceptional. 6/10.

Hugh Williams plays a reporter dropped into Norway to find a U-boat dock that is sending out convoys to destroy British ships. His job is to find it and report back so that our navy can destroy it. He meets and falls in love with beautiful twenty one year old Deborah Kerr, a Norwegian.

Various other well known faces from that era of British film making crop up including Finlay Currie as Kerr's father, Francis L. Sullivan as a brutal Nazi officer, Griffith Jones as a German police chief, the great Ralph Richardson as another reporter, Roland Culver as a British navy bigwig, even Bernard Miles in a small role towards the end.

Much of the film is shot in the dark, which can be a bit boring as I couldn't see a lot of what was going on, but maybe that was to cover up some of the cheap sets used. I don't think much money was spent on this production so probably best to think of it as a play rather than a film.

Our hero, Hugh Williams is stiff as a board but fortunately he's completely out acted by our leading lady and it is not hard to see why Kerr became one of the great star actresses of the cinema.

One gripe is that I would have given a higher rating had the actor's accents been more consistent. Some like Kerr and other Norwegians, at least speak in broken English, which I think gives an impression of being foreign but for some annoying reason, Francis L. Sullivan, who is fine otherwise as the nasty German officer, speaks in perfect English with no attempt to disguise his voice at all. That rather spoilt the film for me as other Germans also just spoke in English with no accent.

One scene towards the end is particularly harrowing so still worth a watch, and to see Deborah Kerr of course near the start of her brilliant career.

This movie is markedly more propagandist in tone than most movies made in the UK about the war while it was still in progress.It more closely resembles the overtly patriotic US pictures from the same era such as Guadalcanal Diary or Back To Bataan .It does not neglect to pay a merited tribute to the Norwegian people for their resistance either.

Hugh Williams plays Colin Metcalfe ,a London journalist sent by his paper to Norway , soon to be conquered by the Nazis .He falls in love with Kari Alstead (Deborah Kerr)the daughter of a local fisherman(Finlay Currie).He returns to London after a short posting to Norway where he witnesses a Nazi submarine in operation .He is sent back to the country by Naval Intelligence to help the Royal Navy pinpoint the exact location of the U-Boat base from which crippling attacks are being launched on allied vessels .In the time he was away Kari has been forced to enter into an engagement with the Quisling police chief Gunther(Griffith Moore)in order to protect her father from arrest by the local Nazi chief (Francis L Sullivan).He is able to engineer a raid which is in turn followed by brutal Nazi repression The movie gives a good picture of life under the jackboot and is well acted -although for all her talent Deborah Kerr is not ideal casting as a Norwegian fisherwoman .Ralph Richardson impresses as a journalist and Roland Culver is good as Naval Intelligence man Rousing and patriotic, the movie ends with a typically robust Churchillian sentiment that still stirs the blood and it is good to see British cinema indulging in patriotism rather than restraint for once