A family is divided by two sons' belief in "the new Germany" in "The Mortal Storm," a 1940 film set at the time that Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Frank Morgan plays the Jewish (though he is only referred to as non-Aryan) Professor Roth who has a son and a daughter Freya (Margaret Sullavan) with his current wife, and two stepsons (one of whom is the most baby-faced Robert Stack you could ever imagine). The two boys, along with Frey's boyfriend Fritz (Robert Young), have embraced the "New Germany" and follow its dictates. This causes Freya to reject Fritz and turn to friend Martin Breitner (James Stewart) who rejects the party and has always been secretly in love with Freya. When Martin helps a teacher being pursued by the Nazis get to Austria, Martin himself becomes a man pursued.
This is an excellent film, but first, a word about accents. Here we go. I have read several comments that no one attempted an accent except of course those who already had one, like Maria Ouspenskaya, and this always makes it confusing for the viewer. HOWEVER, the acting rule is this: When a play or movie is set in a country where English is not the first language, obviously, the people in that country ARE NOT SPEAKING English. In this case, they are speaking German, not English with a German ACCENT. Therefore, one does NOT use an accent. This is true for Chekhov, Ibsen, whomever. So the fact that James Stewart "didn't even attempt an accent" is because he shouldn't have had one, nor should Margaret Sullivan, Robert Young, Frank Morgan.
The movie is poignant and suspenseful, with marvelous performances by this top cast, particularly from Stewart, Morgan, and Sullavan. Sullavan, a consummate stage performer until her suicide, is underrated as a film actress but always gave excellent performances. In fact, her screen test for "Rebecca" is one of the finest seen on the documentary about the search for a Mrs. DeWinter.
Some interesting features - first of all, I didn't actually recognize Robert Stack; secondly, a very young Dan Dailey has a rare dramatic turn as a Hitler youth; thirdly, one questions escape to Austria, except that in 1933, Austria was still available to flee to. At this time in Germany, artists like Billy Wilder were escaping to Berlin as well, and many left the country from there. The movie talks around the subject of Jews, never referring to anyone as Jewish, and it does not actually refer to the Nazi party though swastikas abound. This makes "The Mortal Storm" all the more fascinating.
The best feature of the movie is that it's about a simple, happy family who live among friends in a university town in Southern Germany, and how the rise of Hitler broke that family apart and changed and ruined the lives of ordinary people. One thinks of the Franks and the families like the one characterized in "The Mortal Storm," with hopes and dreams and ambitions. If they were among the very fortunate, those hopes, dreams and ambitions were put on hold for over a decade; if not, they were wiped out by complete evil. Hitler hated this film. Gee, I wonder why.
