Surrender

"Surrender" was a film made during an era when many Allied nations were reassessing Germany and WWI. While Americans and the French once hated the Germans, in the late 20s and into the 30s attitudes changed. Now, movies like "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "Grand Illusion" portrayed the 'enemy' as morally similar or even equivalent to soldiers from their own country. And, considering WWI was a war with no good guys nor bad, it was reasonable to see them in a different light in the decades after this war. Because of this change, a film like "Surrender" makes much more sense put into this context.

The film is set at a German prisoner of war camp located next to a castle owned by the Reichendorf family. Here, the French prisoners spend their time working like dogs to grow crops to feed the Germans. But it is NOT a fun prison camp...the rules and punishments are strict! Into this camp comes a new prisoner, Sergeant Dumaine (Warner Baxter) and he's different because he's a skilled electrical engineer and is soon drafted into providing electricity to the castle and camp. Because of this, he's able to spend time with the Germans and see them in ways other prisoners couldn't. In particular, he gets to know a pretty young lady and they eventually fall in love. But it's still wartime and Dumaine still has an obligation to escape...even if it might be his life.

The film has some things I appreciated, such as showing some of the cost of war. The commandant (Ralph Bellamy) is a physical mess due to injuries incurred in the war and the surviving Reichendorf son is obviously affected by PTSD. But the film also is a bit too sentimental and it's odd that the Germans and French pretty much look and sound like Americans! Worth seeing, but on balance, the French film, "Grand Illusion", is a much better film that covers much of the same material.

When an eager young interviewer tape-recorded James Wong Howe in 1970 and asked him whom he considered to be the best director he'd ever worked with, he was startled beyond measure to hear Howe reply, without the lightest hesitation, "William K. Howard." My eager young friend had expected the cinematographer to name Martin Ritt or John Frankenheimer or even Daniel Mann. But he'd never even heard of William K. Howard! Yet Howe went on to explain that in his opinion, Howard was by far the most imaginative and talented director he'd ever come across. A director who had visual style, flair and know-how!

Howe was in China when talkies arrived, shooting backgrounds that were later used in Shanghai Express. "When I came back, I had no experience with sound pictures and I couldn't land a job. After a year out of work, I met William K. Howard. I made some tests for him and he hired me to work on Transatlantic. That was something remarkable. I used wide angles and deep focus throughout, long before Citizen Kane. When they saw Transatlantic, critics pointed out that the camera had finally started to move in the talkies."

After films for Howard Hawks, William Cameron Menzies and Raoul Walsh, Howe was re-united with Howard on Surrender and we can see exactly what Howe meant by imaginative direction. Visually, the picture is a feast for the eyes, as the camera swoops, glides and dollies through the enormous Reichendorf sets. The film editing is often equally swift, innovative and effective.

Unfortunately, the script is somewhat dated. But worse, the acting is not so hot. A director can do little with his script, but his players are entirely his responsibility. Leila Hyams is a most lovely girl, but her acting seems neither confident nor convincing, although she improves as the plot progresses. Sir C. Aubrey Smith, on the other hand, makes the opposite error. He plays his part at full volume, shouting and ranting as if he were on a theatre stage not a movie set. Warner Baxter mouths his dialogue with clarity, but with little or no expression. Only Ralph Bellamy and Alexander Kirkland impress.

C. Aubrey Smith sends his four sons off to the Great War, with speeches of how great it is to be German and the Kaiser and the family's glorious history. By 1918, three of them are dead. Only Alexander Kirkland, who's engaged to Leila Hyams is still alive and at the front. Meanwhile, next to Smith's castle, a prisoner-of-war camp lies. Its commandant is Ralph Bellamy, a martinet whose right side has been blown away. He keeps putting the moves on Miss Hyams.

Warner Baxter is a French sergeant who comes to the POW camp. Because he is an electrical engineer, he is put to work wiring the castle. He and Miss Hyams fall in love. Then, one day, home comes Kirkland on leave.

Visually this is an amazing movie, another great collaboration between director William K. Howard and James Wong Howe. The opening sequence, all night and fog, is brilliant and stark. Throughout the movie, other sequences approach this, particularly the one of the prisoners who have escaped and been recaptured, waiting to be executed.

the story is not so amazing, sheer melodramatic, post-All-Quiet-on-the-Western-Front stuff, with Kirkland as the aesthete trapped in a military tradition in a hopeless war, and Warner Baxter as... well, he's the romantic lead. Even worse is the dialogue by S.N. Behrman. It might have worked on paper in the Pierre Benoît novel the movie is derived from. In the mouths of the actors it sounds very stiff.

And yet...so much of it looks in broad outline like LA GRANDE ILLUSION that I will assert that Renoir and Spaak plundered the book for that great film, and perhaps the movie. Erich von Stroheim would be working for Fox the year after this came out, and his role in Renoir's film -- which was originally much shorter, stretched out at von Stroheim's request and writing, looks like a merging of the two German officers.

This is not a great film, but the visuals keep it constantly fascinating. And the possibility of its linkage to a great masterpiece adds an allure to it.

...of this prisoner-of-war drama from Fox and director William K. Howard. During the final months of World War One, a P. O. W. Camp is set up near a Prussian castle. French prisoner Dumaine (Warner Baxter) plots his escape until he falls in love with Axelle (Leila Hyams), the beautiful granddaughter of the senile Count (C. Aubrey Smith) who resides in the castle. The camp commandant, the horribly scarred Captain Ebbing (Ralph Bellamy), loves Axelle as well, setting the stage for further conflict. Also featuring Alexander Kirkland, William Pawley. Howard Phillips, George Beranger, Bodil Rosing, Joe Sawyer, J. Carrol Naish, and Virginia Weidler in her film debut.

Director Howard, working with cinematographer James Wong Howe, adds a lot of visual panache, with moody shadow play throughout. Baxter is kind of bland, as is Hyams, but the latter looks good. The usually reliable Smith plays his character so broadly that his scenes descend into farce. Bellamy has one of his most interesting roles as the tragic Ebbing, a decent man at heart whose war injuries have left a bit twisted mentally. He makes the whole film worthwhile.