Tempestades d'Alma

The Roth family lead a quiet life in a small village in the German Alps during the early 1930's. When the Nazi's come to power, the family is divided and Martin Brietner (James Stewart), a family friend is caught up in the turmoil.

This is a hard film to find -- I checked in multiple libraries throughout the state of Wisconsin, and every considered buying it. And even then, a good copy is hard to track down. Why? The story is excellent, and it is early James Stewart... this should be a classic, but instead remains almost completely unknown.

I want this film to see a resurgence (or maybe just a surge). I want it to get a decent transfer, released on a nice DVD with features, and I want people to have actually heard of it. Few films had the courage to stand up to Hitler before the war, and I doubt any of the few others did so as forcefully as this one did.

I've often thought that the best way to see The Mortal Storm is back to back with Three Comrades. Both films are about post World War I Germany, both films from MGM, both films have Margaret Sullavan, and Robert Young in them and both directed by Frank Borzage. Three Comrades has its story take place during the Weimar Republic with the beginning of the rise of Nazism and The Mortal Storm takes place as the Nazis are solidifying their control over Germany.

Both films are about how the political changes affect some very ordinary people. This film deals with the Roth family, Frank Morgan and Irene Rich, their children Margaret Sullavan and Gene Reynolds and Irene's sons by a first marriage, William T. Orr and Robert Stack. And of course Robert Young and James Stewart who are rivals for Sullavan.

The stepsons and Young are confirmed Nazis, they see Hitler's rise to power as a great thing, that Germany will take her place among the first rank of nations. Morgan, Stewart and Sullavan are appalled by the excesses and brutality in stamping out any contrary opinions that think the Third Reich is not a good thing.

It's hard to believe, but before World War II, Jimmy Stewart was cast in a few roles that are foreign types. Later on Stewart was the quintessential American character and the public would never have accepted him. He played non-Americans in Seventh Heaven, The Shop Around the Corner, and The Mortal Storm. The last two were done to critical and commercial success. Stewart's character of Martin Breitner, a farmer who wants to be a veterinarian, is as idealistic and decent as the very American Jefferson Smith. Probably why the public accepted Stewart in this role.

Also because the entire cast is American with the notable exception of Maria Ouspenskaya as Stewart's mother. So no foreign speech pattern stood out.

Frank Morgan was usually cast at MGM as a comic befuddled buffoon. Here in The Mortal Storm he shows his great skill as a player going completely against how he was usually typed. He's a college science professor who will not teach any Nazi pseudo-science about racial superiority of the Germans. His non-Aryan, read Jewish, name is carefully noted several times though the word 'Jew' is never used.

Margaret Sullavan once again is a tragic heroine. Considering the limited amount of films she did, I think Margaret Sullavan had more screen deaths per film than any other female player. She carried an aura of tragedy about her, probably a carry over from her real life. She and Stewart make a pair of tender lovers, just as she did in Three Comrades with Robert Taylor. Their life and happiness together are sacrificed by a brutal political regime.

Note the performances of Ward Bond as the local brownshirt, storm trooper leader and Dan Dailey as the young local head of the Hitler youth. Good studies in the kind of people the regime attracted and who could rise to the top in that kind of society.

The Mortal Storm still holds up well after over 60 years, a great study in the early days of a regime that made the world suffer.

Powerful anti-Nazism, anti-fascism drama.

Follows the lives of a German family and their friends as Hitler comes to power in the 1930s, and the results of this change. Explores very directly the effects of Nazi rule, how freedoms are lost and the right to be different and think differently is destroyed. Shows very vividly the effect of group-think/mob-think and the cult of personality.

Yes, it was made during World War 2, so is to some extent a propaganda movie. However, the themes explored can be applied to any fascist country.

Can be compared to Charlie Chaplin's "The Great Dictator", which was released in the same year. While Chaplin used satire and comedy to mock the Nazis, this movie is pure drama, and stands alongside The Great Dictator in exposing the evil that was Nazism.

This is probably one of the best anti-Nazi films produced in Hollywood before the US entry into WWII. The film does an excellent job in a very melodramatic "MGM" way of showing how an ordinary town and its citizens willingly and some unwillingly were affected by the state policies that National Socialism brought. It's too bad that the studios didn't make more of these films in those days. A fine cast headed by James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan make this an great film to watch. Watch for early performances by actors Robert Young, Robert Stack and Dan Dailey.

Things we take for granted such as freedom to think as we believe and to express those thoughts were snatched away abruptly from the German people in 1933 when Adolph Hitler was "elected" chancellor of Germany. Freedom was replaced by the New Order and as most people know, millions of people were murdered simply because they didn't fit the racial "norms" or accept the dictates of what the government said one should believe,

It's 1933 and Professor Viktor Roth (Frank Morgan) lives with his wife, 2 step sons, daughter and young son in a comfortable home in a university town in the Alps. Although the word is never mentioned, it is clear Professor Roth is Jewish and his life becomes endangered when the Nazis take over. While his 2 stepsons join the party, as does Fritz, his daughter's fiance (played by Robert Young), his daughter and their old family friend Martin (played by Jimmy Stewart) defy the common tide and resist joining the party. And it is Jimmy Stewart who expresses it best - by saying freedom to believe as a person wants to is food and drink to him. And it turns out, it's food and drink to Freya Roth (played by Margaret Sullavan), the young daughter to whom he is attracted. She breaks her engagement to Fritz and escapes -- or tries to -- with Martin. He had already fled to still free Austria while helping a Jewish school teacher escape.

This movie says much about what we take for granted - the sacredness of the right to act, believe, speak and think as a person wishes to, unencumbered by government dictates or threats. These gifts are precious and we have no idea just how precious until they are threatened. If, God forbid, that should ever happen, it is only hoped we have the same courage as young Freya and Martin.

This movie is compelling in a quiet way. There are no shoot 'em ups, no gory prison or execution scenes, no barbarity is shown. But it is there nevertheless and perhaps that is what makes the viewer keep watching. The only drawback is that it was written in 1940 so viewers back then don't really know the ending because the war had another 4 y ears to go and victory was by no means certain in 1940. The U.S. hadn't entered the war yet but word was leaking out as to what was really going on in Germany at the time. It's a shame more people didn't listen and that more people didn't pay attention to the message delivered in such a subtle way in this movie.