***SPOILERS*** Overly talkative with almost no action WWII era film about the Nazis attempt to brainwash a local population in an unnamed French town in the glories of the Aryan race and eternal wisdom of their leader Adolph Hitler. Of course the people in town know that's all BS but have no choice but to go along with it in order to keep from being sent to the nearest Nazi concentration camp or gestapo firing squad.
It when acts of sabotage is committed against the occupying German troops that the man in charge German Army Major Eric Von Keller, Walter Slezak, takes the gloves off and threatens to takes hostages and have them shot if the sabotage continues.The person who''s behind all this is hot headed Paul Martin, Kent Smith, who despite his out front love of the German occupiers, he's alway seen partying and drinking with them, secretly hates their guts and does everything to make their stay in town as uncomfortable as possible. Including dropping a bomb on a German army military car and killing two of its occupants.
As things turn out Maj. Von Keller has a bunch of Frenchmen taken hostage and threatened to have them shot at sunrise if the killer of the two German solders doesn't give himself up.Two of those held hostage by the Germans are school teacher Albert Lory, Charles Laughton, and history and philosophy professor Sorol, Philip Merivale, who later met his end before a German firing squad. It's then that things get real interesting in that the wanted man's-Paul Martin-sexy sister Louise, Maureen O'Hera, works together with Albert as a French History teacher whom Albert is madly in love with.
As things turn out it's Albert's mom Mrs. Emma Lory, Una O'Connor, who fingers Paul as the bomber by telling Louise's fiancée train superintendent George Lambert,George Sanders, that it was Paul who snuck into the Lory home with a wounded hand after he escaped from the German Army dragnet after doing in the two German solders. Lambert the butt kissing and gutless wonder that he is in order to save his behind puts the finger on Paul,by reporting him to major Von Keller, and at the same time hoping that no one in town, especially Louise, would ever find that out!
It's when Paul is finally killed in a shootout with the Germans that Albert is released from prison which has Louise suspect that he fingered her brother in order to gain his freedom. The fact that Albert had nothing to do with Paul's death,in fact it was his concerned mom Mrs. Emma Lory who was responsible for it, made his go down to the train depot to confront George Lambert who he in fact knew was the person,after Mrs.Lory revealed that Paul was the mysterious saboteur, who fingered Louise's now dead brother Paul. As things turned out George, when forced by Major Von Keller to turn over his girlfriend Louise to the gestapo for aiding and abetting her brother Paul's escape, blew his brains out moments before and enraged Albert got to his office.
***SPOILES*** Arrested for George's murder Albert decides to for once in his cowardly life to take a stand and not only takes responsibility for George's murder,in killing him in his mind not in real life, and let the chips fall where they may; Which is a volley of bullets from a German firing squad. The movie gets a bit ridicules with Albert getting all the time he needed to make a fool of not only the Germans but their French collaborators as well with the German soldiers and authorities at his trial doing nothing to stop him acting as if their brain dead or suffering from the advanced stages of Alzheimer's Disease. With Albert going on endlessly on the stand with how the townspeople should stand up for their rights and that George did the right thing in blowing his brains out was so surreal and unbelievable, in that not one of the Germans attending his trial bothered to stop him from talking, that it just destroyed every point he tried to make in his long winded speech. One of those points was that he was not allowed freedom of speech that he claimed the German authorities took away from him and his fellow Frenchmen and women.
****MAJOR SPOILER***The ending was a bit bizarre in that Albert was found innocent of murdering George yet is arrested and possibly shot, off camera, for moments later reading to his students the Bill or Right and US Constitution! And even more bizarre after Albert is taken away Louise picks up where he left off, reading to her student class, within earshot of the German soldiers and gestapo the very same thing without being arrested and put before a firing squad!
P.S Both Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara were united in "This Land is Mine" some four years after they starred together in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" where they played very similar parts. The homely non attractive and deformed hunchback guy-Charles Laughton-in love with the beautiful hot blooded and sexy gypsy girl-Maureen O'Hara.
It when acts of sabotage is committed against the occupying German troops that the man in charge German Army Major Eric Von Keller, Walter Slezak, takes the gloves off and threatens to takes hostages and have them shot if the sabotage continues.The person who''s behind all this is hot headed Paul Martin, Kent Smith, who despite his out front love of the German occupiers, he's alway seen partying and drinking with them, secretly hates their guts and does everything to make their stay in town as uncomfortable as possible. Including dropping a bomb on a German army military car and killing two of its occupants.
As things turn out Maj. Von Keller has a bunch of Frenchmen taken hostage and threatened to have them shot at sunrise if the killer of the two German solders doesn't give himself up.Two of those held hostage by the Germans are school teacher Albert Lory, Charles Laughton, and history and philosophy professor Sorol, Philip Merivale, who later met his end before a German firing squad. It's then that things get real interesting in that the wanted man's-Paul Martin-sexy sister Louise, Maureen O'Hera, works together with Albert as a French History teacher whom Albert is madly in love with.
As things turn out it's Albert's mom Mrs. Emma Lory, Una O'Connor, who fingers Paul as the bomber by telling Louise's fiancée train superintendent George Lambert,George Sanders, that it was Paul who snuck into the Lory home with a wounded hand after he escaped from the German Army dragnet after doing in the two German solders. Lambert the butt kissing and gutless wonder that he is in order to save his behind puts the finger on Paul,by reporting him to major Von Keller, and at the same time hoping that no one in town, especially Louise, would ever find that out!
It's when Paul is finally killed in a shootout with the Germans that Albert is released from prison which has Louise suspect that he fingered her brother in order to gain his freedom. The fact that Albert had nothing to do with Paul's death,in fact it was his concerned mom Mrs. Emma Lory who was responsible for it, made his go down to the train depot to confront George Lambert who he in fact knew was the person,after Mrs.Lory revealed that Paul was the mysterious saboteur, who fingered Louise's now dead brother Paul. As things turned out George, when forced by Major Von Keller to turn over his girlfriend Louise to the gestapo for aiding and abetting her brother Paul's escape, blew his brains out moments before and enraged Albert got to his office.
***SPOILES*** Arrested for George's murder Albert decides to for once in his cowardly life to take a stand and not only takes responsibility for George's murder,in killing him in his mind not in real life, and let the chips fall where they may; Which is a volley of bullets from a German firing squad. The movie gets a bit ridicules with Albert getting all the time he needed to make a fool of not only the Germans but their French collaborators as well with the German soldiers and authorities at his trial doing nothing to stop him acting as if their brain dead or suffering from the advanced stages of Alzheimer's Disease. With Albert going on endlessly on the stand with how the townspeople should stand up for their rights and that George did the right thing in blowing his brains out was so surreal and unbelievable, in that not one of the Germans attending his trial bothered to stop him from talking, that it just destroyed every point he tried to make in his long winded speech. One of those points was that he was not allowed freedom of speech that he claimed the German authorities took away from him and his fellow Frenchmen and women.
****MAJOR SPOILER***The ending was a bit bizarre in that Albert was found innocent of murdering George yet is arrested and possibly shot, off camera, for moments later reading to his students the Bill or Right and US Constitution! And even more bizarre after Albert is taken away Louise picks up where he left off, reading to her student class, within earshot of the German soldiers and gestapo the very same thing without being arrested and put before a firing squad!
P.S Both Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara were united in "This Land is Mine" some four years after they starred together in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" where they played very similar parts. The homely non attractive and deformed hunchback guy-Charles Laughton-in love with the beautiful hot blooded and sexy gypsy girl-Maureen O'Hara.