First Comes Courage (1943)

Director:

Dorothy Arzner

Writers:

Elliott Arnold (novel), Melvin Levy (screenplay),

Stars:

Merle Oberon, Brian Aherne, Carl Esmond

Cast

Cast overview:
Merle Oberon	...	Nicole Larsen
Brian Aherne	...	Capt. Allan Lowell
Carl Esmond	...	Maj. Paul Dichter
Isobel Elsom	...	Rose Lindstrom
Fritz Leiber	...	Dr. Aanrud
Erville Alderson	...	Soren
Erik Rolf	...	Ole
Reinhold Schünzel	...	Col. Kurt von Elser

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

nazi | title directed by female | norwegian resistance | based on novel

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Taglines:

"I married you to destroy you!"

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Genres:

War | Drama

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 July 1943 (USA)

Also Known As:

Crepúsculo Sangrento

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film was one of a handful of movies that were all released around the same time that dealt with the Norwegian Resistance in World War II. The movies include They Raid by Night aka "The Commandos Have Landed"; Commandos Strike at Dawn; and Edge of Darkness.

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Soundtracks

"Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46, 1st Movement (Morning Mood)"
(uncredited)
Music by Edvard Grieg
Played on piano at Nicole's apartment

User Reviews

The Boys Play With Their Toys

Dorothy Arzner's last directorial effort is replete with her usual feminist slant on things as Merle Oberon -- playing a Norwegian -- is caught between romantic Nazi officer Carl Esmond, who wants to marry her and British spy Brian Aherne who loves her, which is all a great inconvenience to her winning the war for Norway. The men are busy playing with their big tanks and their large meetings -- the state marriage of Esmond and Oberon with its TRIUMPH OF THE WILL sized set decorations are very funny. The occasional battlefield shots looks to me like they are modeled on those sets of plastic soldiers that used to be advertised on the back of comic books.

Oberon, appropriately enough, seems to spend much of her time trying to keep a straight face as Esmond tries to romance her into marriage. It fits neatly into the sort of movie that Arzner used to direct Ruth Chatterton in in the early 1930s, but here, deprived of her favorite screenwriter, Zoe Akins, and forced into the confines of wartime propaganda, she still manages to get in the occasional sly dig.