Náufragos

America might still have officially been neutral in 1941, but Hollywood filmmakers were beginning to poke at the nation's conscience with films like the unjustly overlooked So Ends Our Night. A young Glenn Ford and Fredric March stay one step ahead of the Nazis as they journey from country to country without passports only to meet with indifference to their plight wherever they go. Its message is still relevant today - and still as overlooked.

This film focuses on the plight of Jews fleeing Nazi Germany. It is fairly well made but the script, based on a novel by famed writer Remarque, tends to wander rather aimlessly, making for a less than compelling film. March is fine as a man who has escaped from a concentration camp, leaving behind his beloved wife in Germany. In one of his earliest roles, baby-faced Ford turns in an impressive performance as March's fellow escapee. Sullavan, in one of her last films, is also good as Ford's love interest. Dee gets third billing, but has only a few minutes of screen time as March's wife. The film looks good visually, but the pacing leaves something to be desired.

The mind-numbing horror of Fascism in Germany was bad enough, even before the ultimate horror of the Holocaust was eventually made known, and "So Ends Our Night" was an extremely brave attempt in 1941 to bring home to the people of the USA, (before they entered WW2), the extent of repression and State-sanctioned bigotry that Nazi Germany had imposed on its people from the 30s onwards. Set within the context of a conventional Hollywood drama, it nevertheless pulled few punches and showed how tyrannical governments subject their people by gradually increasing degrees, and how freedom is eroded rather than outlawed overnight. Seeing it with post-Holocaust eyes makes its warning that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, even more powerful and cogent, and it is a film that also manages to show that it is not governments that "bestow" freedom, but the determination and will of people themselves to maintain it. Well directed by John Cromwell, and with excellent performances from Frederic March and Margaret Sullivan, (who particularly seems to infuse her performance with genuine conviction), with welcome appearances from Anna Sten (a much better actress than has ever been fully recognised), and Erich von Stroheim, as well as a very young Glenn Ford. Although seldom remembered nowadays, this is a film that is well worth seeking out, and I don't think you will be disappointed if you do so. Highly recommended, and long overdue for critical rehabilitation.

Wartime drama from United Artists and director John Cromwell. Three Austrian citizens find themselves outcasts in their own land after the rise of fascism. Josef Steiner (Fredric March) is persona non grata thanks to his outspoken political beliefs, while young man Ludwig Kern (Glenn Ford) learns that he is half-Jewish. Academic Ruth Holland (Margaret Sullavan) is fully Jewish, with the added "crime" of having been engaged to an Aryan. These struggles to survive as they are arrested and deported multiple times, sent to countries throughout Europe.

This film was a political hot potato when it was released, as Hollywood was warned by the Production Code not to make any overtly anti Nazii films. Therefore this adaptation of an Erich Maria Remarque novel was independently produced by David Loew and Albert Lewin, who took their chances with the film getting approval, which it did. It's a powerful, moving indictment of the activities of the time, with good performances, especially from a very young Glenn Ford, whose career was said to have been greatly boosted by his turn here. Ironically, both star Fredric March and director John Cromwell would become subjects of US government displeasure during the HUAC era. The movie earned an Oscar nomination for Best Score (Louis Gruenberg).

If you had taken tenth grade world history in the early 60s and your teacher liked to show movies in class and was semi cool, as mine was, this is the anti Nazi film he or she would have shown. In other words, this is a thoughtful, admirable, well intentioned and ever so faintly dull work that I would gladly have traded for fifteen minutes of "Notorious" or ten of "Inglorious Bastards".

Best thing about it is William Daniels' cinematography and William C Menzies' production design which together create a dark, menacing Central Europe of the mind as the lights are starting to go out, literally and figuratively. Also, John Cromwell's direction, although sluggish at times, does manage to capture the sense of rootless, suspended animation in which many refugees find themselves. And Frederick March, as always, gives a most compelling performance.

Worst things about it are. Screenwriter Talbot Jennings' too florid, too philosophical, too Nobility Of Man dialogue and the incredibly dull pairing of Glenn Ford and Margaret Sullivan as Jews on the run. (These two are about as Hebraic as Carolina pork bbq).

Give it a generous B minus 'cause it had the courage to be not only anti Nazi during the height of isolationism but anti chief Hollywood anti semite and censor, Joe Breen, as well.

PS...A personal note. This is my 1000th review on IMDB and it's been a total blast. Love the edit feature (most of my thoughts are second and third ones) and the overall intelligence of my colleagues (with a couple exceptions, of course). Very few rabid right or left wingers or Kay Francis/Mickey Rooney nostalgists in evidence. Looking forward to the next couple thou.