THE SCREEN SPECTATOR - JULY 2024
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States' entry into World War II, Hollywood’s production of wartime propaganda films became a crucial component of the nation's war effort. Under the Roosevelt administration, the Office of War Information (OWI), through its Bureau of Motion Pictures (BMP), exerted unprecedented control over the content of American films. The OWI, established as the primary propaganda agency during World War II by executive order on June 13, 1942, was tasked with:
"Formulating and carrying out, through the use of press, radio, motion picture, and other facilities, information programs designed to facilitate the development of an informed and intelligent understanding, at home and abroad, of the status and progress of the war effort and of the war policies, activities, and aims of the Government.” (1)
In an effort to provide focus and clarity on the objectives of the OWI, the BMP issued "The Government Information Manual for the Motion Picture." Among other directives, the manual instructed film studios to consider the following before making a picture: "Will this picture help to win the war?" It also asked the studios to inject images of "people making small sacrifices for victory - making them voluntarily, cheerfully, and because of the people's own sense of responsibility." During its existence, the Bureau evaluated individual film scripts to assess how they depicted war aims, the American military, the enemy, allies, and the home front. (2)
To assist the war effort and boost morale, Hollywood in collaboration with the BMP, produced all genre of films, including war and action movies, musicals, and Homefront dramas. Among these, the Resistance film, a significant sub-genre of war film, served as an effective propaganda tool. While the majority of these films took place mostly in the European theater, a few like Lady From Chungking and Corregidor were set in China and the Philippines. Resistance films highlighted the importance of Allied solidarity and sacrifice, emphasizing the stark contrast between Nazi ideology and the American way of life. It's important to remember that as these films were written, produced, and released, the events depicted, although heavily dramatized, were either recent history or unfolding in real time. This relevance and immediacy resonated deeply with the American movie-going audience.
In 1942 and 1943, Hollywood released a cycle of films, some of them based on true stories of resistance from German-occupied countries. The crowning achievement of this cycle was, of course, Casablanca (1942), the classic World War II romantic drama set in the Moroccan city of Casablanca. It centers on Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), an American expatriate who must choose between his love for Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman) and helping her and her husband, a resistance leader, escape from the Nazis. Other films like Edge of Darkness, Hitler’s Madman, Hangmen Also Die!, Joan of Paris, and Hitler’s Children were also very effective in driving home the themes of American ideals, wartime duty, and sacrifice to the public.
Warner Brothers' Edge of Darkness, directed by Lewis Milestone, stars Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan, Walter Huston, Judith Anderson, and Ruth Gordon. It tells the story of the residents of Trollnes, a fictional Norwegian fishing village. The townspeople, forced to live under Nazi rule, find different ways to cope with the occupation. Some collaborate, some keep their heads down, and some actively engage in sabotage and other acts of resistance. As the brutality and cruelty of the occupation become harder to ignore, the people of Trollnes, when given a chance to plan a rebellion, decide that they would rather die fighting for their freedom than live under tyranny.
Helmut Dantine, who portrays the vengeful Nazi leader Captain Koenig, was a native Austrian and a vocal anti-Nazi. After Austria was annexed by Germany, he was eighteen when he was arrested and sent to a concentration camp. Fortunately, through family connections, he secured his release and fled to the safety of family friends in California. With his striking looks, Dantine was frequently cast as brutal Nazis and SS officers. His role is a poignant reminder of how many refugees, like him, found their way into these films. Knowing their personal stories adds an extra layer of impact to these portrayals.
“VERY VENOMOUS As commandant of the German forces of occupation in a Norwegian village in "Edge of Darkness," Dantine spills out all the venom he built up and suggested as the wounded soldier in his first production. He plays the nasty Nazi with an abandon that can be excused only in a picture of the trials and tribulations of the once-proud Norway.” - The Los Angeles Times, June 6, 1943
Edge of Darkness was one of several films set in Norway. Filmmakers used the Norwegians' fight against the Germans to highlight the stark contrast between the oppressive Nazi regime and the democratic ideals cherished by Americans.
In Commandos Strike at Dawn (1942) Paul Muni plays as a mild-mannered widower horrified by Nazi violence. He forms a resistance group and carries out acts of sabotage. This film was released early to serve as a morale booster after the Allied failure at Dieppe. In The Moon is Down (1943), starring Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Henry Travers, the citizens of a small Norwegian town are forced to work in the mines but with the help of clandestine allied supply drops violently resist their occupation.
Like Norway, the determined resistance of the Czechoslovak people against Nazi terror garnered significant public support and solidarity. The assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, known as the Butcher of Prague, and the brutal reprisals inflicted on Czech civilians in the wake of his death were the subjects of two notable films released in 1943: Hangmen Also Die! and Hitler’s Madman.
Hitler’s Madman offers a fictionalized portrayal of the events surrounding the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. Directed by Douglas Sirk, the film powerfully captures the pervasive terror experienced by people under Nazi occupation. Featuring Patricia Morrison, John Carradine, and Alan Curtis, Hitler’s Madman intensifies its depiction of fear by dramatizing the daily humiliations and brutalities faced by civilians. These individuals endure arbitrary and collective punishment, verbal abuse, and live in a constant state of fear and suspicion. This atmosphere of oppression reaches a horrifying climax with the Lidice massacre.
In retaliation for Heydrich’s murder, the small town of Lidice, with its population of eight hundred, was obliterated. All male residents over sixteen were executed, the women were sent to concentration camps, and the youngest children were abducted and placed with German families.
The massacre, condemned worldwide, shocked a public still largely unaware of the full extent of Nazi atrocities. Initially titled Hitler’s Hangman, the film was produced by the Poverty Row studio PRC and later acquired by MGM after studio head Louis B. Mayer attended a private screening. Originally scheduled to hit theaters in early spring 1943, MGM postponed the film’s premiere to August to avoid competing with the March release of United Artists' Hangmen Also Die!
Hangmen Also Die! is a dramatization of the true events surrounding Heydrich's assassination. Directed by the legendary Fritz Lang and featuring a screenplay co-written by Lang and Bertolt Brecht, the film stars Brian Donlevy, Anna Lee, and Walter Brennan. Donlevy portrays František Svoboda, a Czech resistance fighter fictionalized as the actual assassin in the film. Svoboda escapes with the assistance of Mascha (Anna Lee) and her father, history professor Stephen Novotny (Walter Brennan).
In retaliation for Heydrich's murder, Novotny is taken hostage along with four hundred other Czech men, with the public warned that if the assassin does not surrender, all hostages will be executed. The film serves as a masterful morality play, created by those with firsthand experience of the rise of Nazi terror. Like Helmut Dantine, screenwriter Bertolt Brecht, a prominent figure in German theater, was also a European refugee, having fled Germany in 1939 to escape Nazi persecution. The film’s director, Fritz Lang, left Germany in 1933, and Alexander Granach, who portrays the Gestapo officer Alois Gruber, fled Austria, first to the Soviet Union and then to the United States.
The real-life experiences of the cast and crew, combined with the intense war coverage by news outlets, provide crucial context for understanding the era's mood and the motivations behind the release of these seemingly repetitive films. It is important to remember that at the time these films were released, an Allied victory was far from assured. The years 1942 and 1943 were particularly bleak, with news reports of fierce battles unfolding in the skies over Europe, along the Eastern Front, in North Africa, and in the Pacific.
One of the major themes emphasized by this subset of films is the importance of sacrifice. The willingness of individuals to sacrifice for the greater good exemplifies the collective spirit of all those opposing the Nazi regime, reinforcing the idea that resistance was not just an isolated act but a shared commitment—something that could be undertaken by everyone, everywhere. On the home front, this translated into seemingly small actions, such as American women donating their nylon stockings for recycling into parachute material or opting to walk or use public transportation to conserve fuel for military use.
Beyond Norway and Czechoslovakia, events in occupied France were also dramatized on screen in films like RKO's Joan of Paris (1942) and This Land is Mine (1943).
Directed by Robert Stevenson and starring Michèle Morgan and Paul Henreid, Joan of Paris tells the story of Joan, an ordinary French woman living under Nazi occupation. When duty calls, she helps a group of downed RAF pilots in evade capture by the Gestapo. Joan engages in a cat-and-mouse game with a sadistic Gestapo interrogator, Herr Funk (Laird Cregar), to ensure the men escape back to England, ultimately sacrificing her life for her bravery.
The stars of Joan of Paris, Michèle Morgan and Paul Henreid, both had personal experiences of displacement due to the Nazi regime. Michèle Morgan fled France in 1940, escaping the German invasion and the ensuing occupation that threatened her safety and career.
Paul Henreid, an Austrian whose father was Jewish, was a committed anti-Nazi. After Austria was annexed by Germany in 1938, he became a target of the Nazi regime. His outspoken opposition to Nazism led to his inclusion on the Germans' enemies list, and his assets were seized. Faced with increasing danger, Henreid and his wife escaped to London, where they sought refuge and safety away from the escalating persecution in their homeland.
Joan of Paris was a box office hit and was also praised by critics:
“There are, doubtless, untold dramas and deeds of noble sacrifice occurring every day now under the darkling roofs of Paris. Sometime in the future, when the lamps of that great city burn bright again, the world may know and pay honor to some of her nameless heroes of today, but until then our minds can only fancy the contours of their grave and perilous lives. Such a manifest fancy, within the realm of probability, is RKO's "Joan of Paris," which came to the Rivoli on Saturday. For here is a tale of personal valor and selfless sacrifice which is told so simply and eloquently, and is so beautifully played that it might be a true re-enactment of a gallant episode.” -Bosley Crowther New York Times, Jan 26, 1942
Jean Renoir’s This Land Is Mine, starring Maureen O’Hara and Charles Laughton, is set in an unnamed European country. Although Renoir, who fled France in 1940 due to the German invasion and occupation, does not specify the location, it serves as a stand-in for France. In the film, Laughton plays Albert Lory, a mild-mannered village schoolteacher who candidly acknowledges his own cowardice. Amid the German occupation, Albert and his fellow townspeople navigate the precarious balance of survival, grappling with the choices of collaboration or resistance, and confronting the moral dilemmas each option presents. Albert ultimately comes to understand that, even under the threat of immense danger, there is a moral imperative to resist injustice and fight for freedom—mirroring the ultimate sacrifice made by Michèle Morgan’s character, Joan, in Joan of Paris.
RKO’s Hitler’s Children (1943) represents a significant shift in the narrative of resistance films, expanding the focus from occupied territories to highlight Germans who opposed Hitler from within Germany itself. As one of the most sensational wartime propaganda films, Hitler’s Children not only became RKO's highest-grossing film of the year but also ranked among the top ten highest earners, with ticket sales totaling $3,355,000.
Directed by Edward Dmytryk on a B-movie budget of $205,000, Hitler’s Children stars Kent Smith, Bonita Granville, and Tim Holt. The film dramatizes the spiritual, moral, and ethical toll inflicted on German youth under the Nazi regime. Set in Berlin in 1933, it follows Professor Nichols (Kent Smith), who runs the American Colony School located directly next door to the Horst Wessel School, where young Germans are indoctrinated into Nazism. During a schoolyard brawl between the students of the two schools, Karl Bruner (Tim Holt), a German youth born in the United States, meets Anna Muller (Bonita Granville), an American citizen born in Germany, and they form a friendship despite their differing political views.
Six years later, Karl, now a Gestapo lieutenant, expels foreign and “undesirable” students from the American school, including Anna, who is classified as German. Professor Nichols attempts to locate Anna but faces obstacles from both the American consulate and Anna's terrified German grandparents. Anna is eventually found in a German girls' camp run by Karl, where she pretends to be a loyal Nazi convert to survive. Despite her efforts to conform, Anna's outspoken hatred for the regime leads to her continued resistance. As her situation worsens, Karl and Anna develop feelings for each other. When Anna is ordered to be sterilized, Karl offers to protect her if she bears his child, but she refuses and escapes, only to be captured and publicly whipped. Karl intervenes to stop the whipping, sealing their fate. Both are put on trial, and before their execution, Karl denounces Hitler's regime.
With its sensational portrayal of Nazi breeding camps, torture, and violence, the film created a major impact. Edward Dmytryk recalled:
“For instance, Hitler’s Children, made at RKO, was based on what was known of the Fuhrer’s work battalions and his drive to breed an Aryan race. Despite a budget of $100,000, which hardly suggested crowded theaters, the film became a huge success. It was largely credited with pulling the studio out of financial trouble and was also my passport into the Big Time.”
The film’s provocative content guaranteed producer Edward Golden would struggle to get the film made. After being rejected by several studios, RKO agreed to produce the movie and Golden was able to secure approval from the censors, who initially objected to scenes of mass sterilization, Anna’s flogging, and Karl’s suggestion that they have a child out of wedlock.
Virtually every studio head told him it couldn't be made. It was too brutal. Our public couldn't endure-anything so horrible and frank. The idea of bringing children into the world out of wedlock, for the state, so Hitler could carry on his hideous regime, was something beyond our ken.
That the great American people were far too tender-hearted to look at a picture of this sort (which was based on fact,) Mr. Golden didn't believe it and said "Phooey!" - The Los Angeles Times, March 28, 1943
Resistance films were generally profitable for studios and popular with audiences, playing a significant role in boosting morale, promoting unity, and emphasizing the importance of sacrifice. However, following the D-Day invasion of France in 1944, the rapidly changing situation in Europe rendered many resistance storylines outdated as Allied troops liberated occupied territories.
It is important to note that these films also had significant shortcomings. They often relied on oversimplified narratives and stereotypes, which could foster prejudice and a lack of nuanced understanding. Post-war critiques of propaganda films highlight their role in shaping a skewed perception of the enemy and the war, as well as their contribution to post-war disillusionment when the idealized portrayals did not align with the complexities of the post-war world. Despite these issues, these films remain both entertaining and enlightening artifacts of the era.
Selected Sources, Articles, Films and Further Reading:
Koppes, Clayton R., and Gregory D. Black. “What to Show the World: The Office of War Information and Hollywood, 1942-1945.” The Journal of American History 64, no. 1 (1977): 87–105. https://doi.org/10.2307/1888275.
WartimeHollywood https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/teachers/modules/ww2/wartimehollywood.html
Hollywood Enlists: The Propaganda Films of World War 2
Helmut Dantine: The “Nazi” Who Hates Hitler
Hitler’s Children: A New Picture Brings Fame to the Producer
You can watch the following films for free:
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Hitler’s Children, Joan of Paris, Commandos Strike at Dawn, Edge of Darkness
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Heat Lightning (1934)
If you’ve never seen Heat Lightning, you need to brace yourself for the simmering to a boil performance given by Aline MacMahon.
“The setting: a gas station in the middle of a sweltering, desiccated nowhere. The women: Olga (Aline MacMahon), a wary, weathered loner with a knack for fixing cars, and Myra (Ann Dvorak), her pretty kid sister who dishes up diner chow and dreams of romance. The film: Heat Lightning, an edgy, femme prenoir that turns incendiary when visitors arrive -- two bejeweled divorcees and Olga's old love, a killer on the lam. Guiding a cast that also includes Preston Foster, Lyle Talbot, Glenda Farrell, Ruth Donnelly, Frank McHugh and Jane Darwell, Mervyn LeRoy (I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang) ramps up pre-Code wisecracking and vise-like tension into an emotional wallop of an ending.”
you can buy HEAT LIGHTNING here
The Mayor of Hell (1933)
James Cagney may be the headliner, but the kids steal the show.
“You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. Politicos award gangster Patsy Gargan a cushy job as a honcho at a woefully run boys reform school. No experience necessary. No expectations. No problems. But firebrand Patsy (James Cagney) runs up against plenty of problems in this impassioned Depression-era mix of social conscience filmmaking and the gangster genre. He sees something in the kids -- himself. He, too, was raised in the slums. And he decides to defy everyone to give the kids opportunities he never had. Yet all the good Patsy does could collapse when he missteps into his life of crime.”
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Ann Dvorak: Hollywood’s Forgotten Rebel by Christina Rice
“As the first full-length biography of an often-overlooked actress, Ann Dvorak: Hollywood's Forgotten Rebel explores the life and career of one of the first individuals who dared to challenge the studio system that ruled Tinseltown. The actress reached her pinnacle during the early 1930s, when the film industry was relatively uncensored and free to produce movies with more daring storylines. She played several female leads in films including The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (1932), and Three on a Match (1932), and Heat Lightning (1934), but after her walk-out, Warner Bros retaliated by casting her in less significant roles.”
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Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver
The book that inspired the classic 1958 film.
“A gripping tale of deceit, murder, and a sensational trial, Anatomy of a Murder is unmatched in the authenticity of its settings, events, and characters. This new edition should delight both loyal fans of the past and an entire new generation of readers.
"The characters are as fresh as when they were first created, the tension high, and the cross- examinations and legal chicanery full of suspense. The novel is simply what it says on the cover. A classic." - Tangled Web
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Steve Allen on life during The Great Depression
Steve Allen discusses how his experience during the Great Depression influenced the way his generation raised their Baby Boomer children.
Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake on the radio
While the 1946 film O.S.S. costarred Geraldine Fitzgerald, this Lux Radio Theatre dramatic adaptation features the film’s star Alan Ladd with his frequent onscreen partner Veronica Lake.
Let’s take a time travel trip ‘round about Hollywood
This 1931 Cinecolor short is a captivating time capsule, offering a travelogue view of a Hollywood long ago.
and finally. . .
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What Steve Allen said was/is true in many ways....what you a person will do when they are hungry enough and then concerns/regrets they shielded/saved their children from what they experienced and it not always resulting in their best interest.