6.2
633 Squadron
1964
Resistance fighters battle the Nazis in occupied Norway
The film pivots around the local Norwegian doctor and his family. The doctor's wife (Ruth Gordon) wants to hold on to the pretence of gracious living and ignore their German occupiers. The doctor, Martin Stensgard (Walter Huston), would also prefer to stay neutral, but is torn. His brother-in-law, the wealthy owner of the local fish cannery, collaborates with the Nazis. The doctor's daughter, Karen (Ann Sheridan), is involved with the resistance and with its leader Gunnar Brogge (Errol Flynn). The doctor's son has just returned to town, having been sent down from the university, and is soon influenced by his Nazi-sympathizer uncle. Captain Koenig (Helmut Dantine), the young German commandant of the occupying garrison, whose fanatic determination to do everything by the book and spoutings about the invincibility of the Reich hides a growing fear of a local uprising.
The film pivots around the local Norwegian doctor and his family. The doctor's wife (Ruth Gordon) wants to hold on to the pretence of gracious living and ignore their German occupiers. The doctor, Martin Stensgard (Walter Huston), would also prefer to stay neutral, but is torn. His brother-in-law, the wealthy owner of the local fish cannery, collaborates with the Nazis. The doctor's daughter, Karen (Ann Sheridan), is involved with the resistance and with its leader Gunnar Brogge (Errol Flynn). The doctor's son has just returned to town, having been sent down from the university, and is soon influenced by his Nazi-sympathizer uncle. Captain Koenig (Helmut Dantine), the young German commandant of the occupying garrison, whose fanatic determination to do everything by the book and spoutings about the invincibility of the Reich hides a growing fear of a local uprising.
Errol FlynnGunnar Brogge
Ann SheridanKaren Stensgard
Walter HustonDr. Martin Stensgard
Helmut DantineCaptain Koenig
Ruth GordonAnna Stensgard
Judith AndersonGerd Bjarnesen
Roman BohnenLars Malken
Monte BlueJens Petersen
Virginia ChristineHulda (Stensgard maid)
Morris CarnovskySixtus Andresen
Charles DingleKaspar Torgerson
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I have always wondered how it must have felt to make a 'wartime' movie about a war you're currently living in, and lately I stumbled upon a quintet of films made during the Second World War with Errol Flynn, of all people, battling the Nazis. Because of it both being by Turner Classic Movies AND had one film directed by Lewis Milestone (with one of the finest anti-war statements ever made, 'All Quiet on the Western Front', under his belt) and the others by none other than Raoul Walsh, I was, pardon the pun, 'in like Flynn'. But as Flynn had been one of my favourite actors of the period simply on the basis of 'The Adventures of Robin Hood', I honestly would have gone for it anyway. Yeah, you could say I love older movies! =) My best friend Earl remarked, 'By the end of WWII, they used up all of the good film titles,' and he probably has a point there, at least with this one, still getting quality usage THREE generations later, and with Mel Gibson to boot. But this was weird for a war film (looking at the resistance put up by a village of 800 Norwegians) bizarrely cast (with Ann Sheridan, Walter Huston, Judith Anderson and Ruth Gordon--all as the GOOD guys!), and had taped speeches by BOTH Churchill and Roosevelt. I read notorious British film critic Leslie Halliwell's review that everything was decent about the film except that it starred Flynn. He couldn't have been more wrong. I'm greatly looking forward to examining the other four films of the set, all directed by one of the most underrated American directors of all time--Raoul Walsh.
Art SmithKnut Osterholm
Nancy ColemanKatja, Koenig's woman
John BealJohann Stensgard
Frank WilcoxJensen, the shoemaker
Henry BrandonMajor Ruck
Tom FaddenHammer
Francis PierlotMortensen, the tailor
Kurt KatchGerman Landing Party CaptainThis has to be one of my favourite wartime dramas. Certainly it's a bit of a propaganda piece, but this depiction of a peaceful Norwegian fishing village suddenly put under the jackboot of their Nazi oppressors is remarkably potent - even now. Errol Flynn ("Gunnar") takes top billing, but that's really only nominal - it's all about an effective ensemble cast with the likes of Ann Sheridan ("Karen"), Walter Huston ("Stensgard") and the poignant scenes from Morris Carnovsky's educated - and therefore immensely threatening "Andresen" whose treatment by Helmut Dantine's suitably menacing and ruthless "Koenig" are easily the most potent amongst the scenarios in this otherwise rather savage indictment of the bullying and torment suffered by the townsfolk - some even asked to dig their own mass grave. It doesn't shy away from the "Quisling" issue - every town had one, and shows us something of the difficulties faced by his friends and family as it appears that he is playing both sides. There is plenty of stoic resistance - both in the pulpit from pastor "Aalesen" (Richard Fraser) and from this community at large - acts ranging from petty defiance to more effective and lethal responses. These all culminates in a conclusion that is suitably fitting with violence being deservedly visited on them so familiar with it. It's about faith, trust, loyalty and determination and as films of this genre go, I think it takes quite some beating.
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