This is really a very fine movie, something I did not expect from the leads, neither of whom have ever done much for me. If you watch it thinking of the time of its release - August 1940, by which time France had signed an armistice with Germany and Germany occupied two thirds of France while getting ready to start its assault on England - it seems particularly ominous.
The one part that could have used a lot more work in the script is explaining why Eric Hoffman, the male lead, would have fallen for the propaganda of the Nazi regime, especially after having lived in the U.S. for so many years. We never know if it is the ideology that has swayed him, or the attractive blonde (played well by Anna Sten).
The movie does a fine job of letting us see only slowly the horrors - some of them - of the Nazi regime, first letting us hear only the positive propaganda.
All the acting is good.
There is no real love story here, which, I suppose, is one reason the movie failed to leave a mark. But it is well-made, and must have come as a wake-up call to at least some Americans who believed, as so many still did in 1940, that the war in Germany was none of our business.
Definitely worth watching. You won't be bored.
The one part that could have used a lot more work in the script is explaining why Eric Hoffman, the male lead, would have fallen for the propaganda of the Nazi regime, especially after having lived in the U.S. for so many years. We never know if it is the ideology that has swayed him, or the attractive blonde (played well by Anna Sten).
The movie does a fine job of letting us see only slowly the horrors - some of them - of the Nazi regime, first letting us hear only the positive propaganda.
All the acting is good.
There is no real love story here, which, I suppose, is one reason the movie failed to leave a mark. But it is well-made, and must have come as a wake-up call to at least some Americans who believed, as so many still did in 1940, that the war in Germany was none of our business.
Definitely worth watching. You won't be bored.