The North Star (1943)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Lewis Milestone

Writers:

Lillian Hellman (story)
Lillian Hellman (screenplay)

Release Date:

3 March 1945 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama | War

Tagline:

A rolling wall of hell that couldn't be stopped... A handful of men who had to stop it!

Plot:

A Ukrainian village must suddenly contend with the Nazi invasion of June 1941.

Plot Keywords:

Nazi | Blood Transfusion | Walking | Soviet Union | Guerrilla Warfare

Awards:

Nominated for 6 Oscars.

Cast

Anne Baxter	...	Marina Pavlova
Dana Andrews	...	Kolya Simonov
Walter Huston	...	Dr. Pavel Grigorich Kurin
Walter Brennan	...	Karp
Ann Harding	...	Sophia Pavlova
Jane Withers	...	Clavdia Kurina
Farley Granger	...	Damian Simonov
Erich von Stroheim	...	Dr. von Harden
Dean Jagger	...	Rodion Pavlov
Eric Roberts	...	Grisha Kurin
Carl Benton Reid	...	Boris Stepanich Simonov
Ann Carter	...	Olga Pavlova
Esther Dale	...	Anna
Ruth Nelson	...	Nadya Simonova
Paul Guilfoyle	...	Iakin

Also Known As:

Armored Attack (USA) (recut version)

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German | Russian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:G | Sweden:15

Company:

Samuel Goldwyn Company, The

Trivia:

Film debut of Farley Granger.

Quotes:

Iakin, bearded schoolmaster: It is not my custom to start your vacation with a lecture, but this is the summer of 1941 - a solemn time. No one of knows what will happen. I don't have to remind you that we are people with a noble history. You are expected to carry on that history with complete devotion and self-sacrifice. I think you'll do that. And now, have a happy summer.

Soundtrack:

Chari Vari Rastabari

Surreal. . .and an amusing side note about movie trivia and IMDb

A friend of mine who is a professor of communications always points out to me, the professor of history, that all film must be placed in the context of the day it was filmed. Definitely the case here with this rather surreal gem. Why do I call it surreal? Well anyone who is reading this most likely knows the background of the film and its later impact, but for me it is just utterly strange to see this attempt at making a community in the Soviet Union look "just like us." The two Walters? Huston and Brennan? Quintessential American characters. . .and I kept waiting for Walter B. to ask for his false teeth or sing "give me that old time religion," and for Walter H. to go into his "gold dance." And Aaron Coplan with the sound track? Though a valiant attempt to sound "Russian" you could still hear the Americana and expect the dance, at any moment to shift into a hoe down. Compare Dana Andrew's incredibly bad monologue as he flies to his death in this film, (and yes sounding like a bad monologue from a Soviet propaganda film) to his stunning performance, but two years later in Best Years of Our Lives, when without saying a word, just sitting in a bomber with that "thousand yard stare", we far better grasp the horror of war. Years back the Soviets, who loved Mark Twain, supposedly made a movie of Tom Sawyer. I guess the effect must of been the same. There are some stories that just don't translate, and this film is one, a strange heavy handed attempted at propaganda.

I've shown parts of this film several times to my WWII class and they sit there gape mouthed, not knowing whether to laugh or cry with embarrassment for all involved.

Now to the trivia and IMDb site, and may it be a warning to you. I travel to Mongolia every year to do research. Several years back one of my traveling companions was a film buff like myself and we'd pass the long hours of bouncing around in the back of a jeep over the trackless steppes talking about favorite movies and peppering each other with trivia questions, informally keeping score with the winner (or was it the loser) having to chug down some more fermented horse milk. We drifted on to this movie chuckled about it and then I asked the fatal question.. .who wrote and directed it? And then we sat there blank faced. NEITHER of us knew the answer. The most golden of all rules, never ask a movie trivia question without IMDb on hand had been broken. You undoubtedly know the torment that resulted. For days, back and forth we agonized over an answer the nearest computer terminal five hundred kilometers away. We'd of given gallons of that horse milk to suddenly fall upon an Internet Cafe out in the Gobi. At two in the morning, one of us would roll over in our tent and curse the other "Who the $$$%^& wrote the $$$%*% screenplay?" It was hell. And then, the strangest rescue I've ever experienced. We were camped along the Orkhon River and in the distance, like the lone rider approaching in Lawrence of Arabia, we saw a jeep. A shimmering dot that a half hour later pulled up and stopped. . .and out piled three elderly British ladies, sounding for all the world like they were straight out of a Monty Python skit. Actually they were an awe inspiring delight, three women in their sixties, fulfilling an old school girl promise to one day explore Mongolia together. . .and they pull up to our camp in the middle of no where. So of course we invite them to stay, and we are soon in deep conversation about our love of the country, when suddenly it hit me. . .here might be our rescue.

"Ladies, this might sound strange, but my friend and I have a question. . ." "Oh go ahead dear.. ." and again it was like being in Monty Python.

"Would any of you know who wrote the screenplay for North Star?" "Oh you mean Lillian Hellman my dear. . ." They got our finest bottle of vodka as a reward. How the hell they knew, well it turned out our rescuer was a film buff as well. And the lesson was learned. NEVER ask a film question unless you know the answer, or have IMDb on hand...which is still difficult in some places in the middle of Mongolia