Sacrificio supremo

There were several "Norwegian fishing village" movies made in the thick of WWII, to show American audiences why we needed to help the world and inspire us to be as courageous as the peasants in the movies. First Comes Courage is one such movie, and while I appreciated Merle Oberon's performance, it's not my favorite of the subgenre.

Merle fans will love her in this, playing a strong secret spy who has to withstand the entire town turning against her. She's pretending to be the faithful mistress of Carl Esmond, one of the top Nazi officers occupying the town, but secretly she's working with the underground resistance and passing along pillow talk secrets. There are some very tense situations where her cover threatens to be exposed, but she's got one strong backbone!

Where does Brian Aherne come in? He also works for the resistance, and he comes to town on a special mission. Will he mind that Merle's been cozying up to Carl, or will he realize it's all in the line of duty? If you've never seen one of these movies before, you'll probably really like it. I've seen Edge of Darkness, however, and have been spoiled by the best!

The film is so much better than the book. You can better understand the motivations and limitations of the characters. This movie has been quite a favorite of mine.

Dorothy Arzner's last directorial effort is replete with her usual feminist slant on things as Merle Oberon -- playing a Norwegian -- is caught between romantic Nazi officer Carl Esmond, who wants to marry her and British spy Brian Aherne who loves her, which is all a great inconvenience to her winning the war for Norway. The men are busy playing with their big tanks and their large meetings -- the state marriage of Esmond and Oberon with its TRIUMPH OF THE WILL sized set decorations is very funny. The occasional battlefield shots looks to me like they are modeled on those sets of plastic soldiers that used to be advertised on the back of comic books.

Oberon, appropriately enough, seems to spend much of her time trying to keep a straight face as Esmond tries to romance her into marriage. It fits neatly into the sort of movie that Arzner used to direct Ruth Chatterton in in the early 1930s, but here, deprived of her favorite screenwriter, Zoe Akins, and forced into the confines of wartime propaganda, she still manages to get in the occasional sly dig.

Merle Oberon ("Nicole") is quite effective in this tale of the Norwegian resistance to the occupying Nazis. She earns the disdain of her fellow countrymen by fraternising with "Maj. Dichter" (Carl Esmond) but is really milking him for information which she has passed on to the British. When a few commandos are parachuted in - including "Lowell" (Brian Aherne), the true love of "Nicole" - things really start to heat up and just about everybody's life is on the line. "Dichter" is also now really starting to smell rat very close to home. It's a good, solid adventure story this with plenty of stirring music from Ernest Tock that builds to quite a fitting, exciting and touching denouement. The sentiment of courage and bravery is well delivered. The strength of character from this young woman determined to do her bit for her nation, regardless of the risk to herself, is well captured by Dorothy Arzner here. There is plenty going on for 90 minutes and it is well worth watching.

One of the users said s/he almost gave this film an 8. That was my exact opinion, until I watched "The Mortal Storm". In my opinion, this is a better film with an equally impressive and handsome hero and a more impressive (albeit more glamorous looking) heroine - less romance, more sacrifices, which seemingly best suited during wartime.