Surgirá a Aurora

British wartime propaganda film in which Hugh Williams plays a British foreign correspondent investigating German U-boat activities in Norway. The disparate elements of the film however, in terms of location, narrative and character, do not seem to have been successfully combined into a cohesive whole. Apart from the Hugh Williams character there is a lack of focus, and the film comes across as episodic and disjointed. Ralph Richardson, for example, is for the most part wasted in a role which despite popping up briefly all over the place, seems to have very little relevance to either plot or theme. Finlay Currie, always worth watching, does well by his part and has the most convincing accent of the piece, but Deborah Kerr sounds as Norwegian as praties. Francis L Sullivan trots out another of his well worn villains.

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.

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.

I found the best scenes in this movie to be the ones in which Deborah Kerr was acting. And I'm not even a fan of hers (or I wasn't, before this!) so that must say something about her...it was only about her 5th or 6th role, she was very young, yet she was perfect for the role. The rest of the movie traveled along fairly slowly, but luckily had a few exciting war time scenes, and an outstanding, terrifying, climax. Good for a rainy day, and don't give up on it. 7/10.