In 1941, rising Warner Brothers director Vincent Sherman took two different looks at the World War II underground. The Damon Runyeon like "All Through the Night" took the mugs of New York City and had them exposing Fifth Columnists utilizing an upscale auction shop as their base of operations, and "Underworld" revealed that even the families of World War I who were still haunted by losing that war didn't want to be involved in Hitler's war simply because they knew the motivations for it were wrong. In fact, an entire family finds themselves being torn apart by the political differences between two brothers (Jeffrey Lynn and Philip Dorn), the youngest a devoted Nazi soldier and the other secretly working in the underground.
While the outstanding "All Through the Night" focused on comic undertones with a serious main plot, "Underground" is strictly dramatic, and powerfully so. It was released before the United States got involved in World War II, while "All Through the Night" got released almost immediately afterwords. That film had the ironic coincidence of an attempted attack on the New York Harbor, coming just as Pearl Harbor was attacked. Certainly heavy on propaganda, it served the purpose of letting Americans know that just because the enemy was near didn't mean that every citizen of that enemy nation was on the side of evil. The righteous include Lynn and Dorn's parents, a neighbor (Ludwig Stossel, a victim of Nazi villainy in "All Through the Night") who lost his son in battle, a café violin player (Kaaren Verne, "ATTN's" heroine) and even the severe looking assistant (Mona Maris) to nasty Nazi Martin Koslock, also called back by Sherman to play the head speaker at the Nazi meeting in the conclusion of "ATTN". It should be noted that Maris looked pretty much exactly the same in 20th Century Fox's banal "Berlin Correspondent", although in that film, there was no doubt where her loyalties lay.
This is one of those war films which grabs you from the beginning and never lets you go. While it is clear that the underground for the most part will come out on top, there are some gripping moments where your doubts take over, such as a chase sequence where Kosleck and his men head to the location where Dorn's radio truck is in the process of delivering an underground message. There's also a hand-ringing confrontation between Dorn and another member of the underground with a recently released concentration prisoner, basically brainwashed by years of torture into doing the Nazi's bidding. When he tries to plead for his life, it almost appears that the good guys are the actual bad guys, but a twist in their decision of how to handle him gives way to a powerful moment of retribution and atonement. The ending is straight out of "A Tale of Two Cities", but is moving rather than corny, even though I found myself quoting Ronald Colman's delivery of Dicken's immortal words in the film's final moments.
Verne, whose "All Through the Night" character became involved with the Nazi's merely to save her imprisoned father, is clearly on the side of the underground, and when she is exposed for being the recipient of newly purchased radio equipment, she undergoes a torture so brutal that it is difficult at times to watch, especially when Kosleck forces her to sign a statement indicating that she was treated fairly. Presented with much subtlety, "Underground" is an important film in the sense that almost 75 years later reminds its new audiences to not judge the entire population of a nation by its leaders or military, in other words, to minimize the hate and remember that people of free minds will always stand up to their government, even if their lives are threatened.
While the outstanding "All Through the Night" focused on comic undertones with a serious main plot, "Underground" is strictly dramatic, and powerfully so. It was released before the United States got involved in World War II, while "All Through the Night" got released almost immediately afterwords. That film had the ironic coincidence of an attempted attack on the New York Harbor, coming just as Pearl Harbor was attacked. Certainly heavy on propaganda, it served the purpose of letting Americans know that just because the enemy was near didn't mean that every citizen of that enemy nation was on the side of evil. The righteous include Lynn and Dorn's parents, a neighbor (Ludwig Stossel, a victim of Nazi villainy in "All Through the Night") who lost his son in battle, a café violin player (Kaaren Verne, "ATTN's" heroine) and even the severe looking assistant (Mona Maris) to nasty Nazi Martin Koslock, also called back by Sherman to play the head speaker at the Nazi meeting in the conclusion of "ATTN". It should be noted that Maris looked pretty much exactly the same in 20th Century Fox's banal "Berlin Correspondent", although in that film, there was no doubt where her loyalties lay.
This is one of those war films which grabs you from the beginning and never lets you go. While it is clear that the underground for the most part will come out on top, there are some gripping moments where your doubts take over, such as a chase sequence where Kosleck and his men head to the location where Dorn's radio truck is in the process of delivering an underground message. There's also a hand-ringing confrontation between Dorn and another member of the underground with a recently released concentration prisoner, basically brainwashed by years of torture into doing the Nazi's bidding. When he tries to plead for his life, it almost appears that the good guys are the actual bad guys, but a twist in their decision of how to handle him gives way to a powerful moment of retribution and atonement. The ending is straight out of "A Tale of Two Cities", but is moving rather than corny, even though I found myself quoting Ronald Colman's delivery of Dicken's immortal words in the film's final moments.
Verne, whose "All Through the Night" character became involved with the Nazi's merely to save her imprisoned father, is clearly on the side of the underground, and when she is exposed for being the recipient of newly purchased radio equipment, she undergoes a torture so brutal that it is difficult at times to watch, especially when Kosleck forces her to sign a statement indicating that she was treated fairly. Presented with much subtlety, "Underground" is an important film in the sense that almost 75 years later reminds its new audiences to not judge the entire population of a nation by its leaders or military, in other words, to minimize the hate and remember that people of free minds will always stand up to their government, even if their lives are threatened.