The Mortal Storm

There are two things about THE MORTAL STORM that make it unusual. First, it comes from MGM, primarily known as the studio that produced glossy technicolor musicals. Secondly, the entire cast have roles that are unusual for their persona. Take, for example, all American Robert Young and Robert Stack as dedicated Nazis. Or Frank Morgan as a German professor in a highly dramatic role. Or Bonita Granville in one of her first near-adult dramatic roles. Or Dan Dailey before he became known principally as a musical star. Like several other films of this period (Escape, Nazi Agent, To Be Or Not To Be, The Great Dictator, Berlin Correspondent), it treats the subject of the approaching storm of Nazism with both conviction and emotional power. Tension builds once it becomes apparent that Margaret Sullavan (as Morgan's daughter) and James Stewart must leave their homeland to escape the Nazi menace that has slowly penetrated their village. The finale with the ski scenes of the two escaping down a mountain slope is played for maximum suspense as they flee to freedom in Austria. Produced on a handsome scale with realistic looking winter locations and featuring splendid performances from Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Robert Young, Frank Morgan, Robert Stack, Bonita Granville and Maria Ouspenskaya, it is guaranteed to keep you absorbed until the very end. Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart give their usual earnest performances but it's the superior script and Frank Borzage's expert direction that really counts here. Well worth viewing.

so disappointing. I'm a fan of war and spy movies and i was so anxious to see this one. I bought it and after 30 minutes of watching i shook my head and said....what a disaster. The acting is bad and all cast seem to throw out their lines to get get home as quick as possible. James Stewart is bland and margaret sullivan acts like a puppet on a string. the story line could have been interesting but was going all directions we see Granville for 5 minutes.......M organ doesn't come back...YET we see endless close up of fake skiing...and that seems to last for an eternity. Gave it a 2...for Frank Morgan....and beautiful mountains. WHAT a simply poor waste of time.

There is no way that I think this movie could have been done just a year or two before, as Hollywood had very mixed opinions about the Nazi menace. Many moguls just hoped the war in Europe would just blow over and few films really addressed the true Nazi menace until the US actually entered the war. However, one of the brave films to address it honestly and pre-December 1941 was Moral Storm. I commend it for both being willing to take a stand against repression AND for giving a fairly propaganda-free message. In other words, although the Nazis are portrayed as bad, they are not nearly as comical and over-the-top as they were often portrayed in later films. On top of the message, the acting is as good as it gets. Stewart, Sullavan, Morgan and the rest at their best. In particular, I find myself about to cry when Ms. Sullavan cried--she was THAT good. Also, in a bit of unusual casting, Robert Young (you probably know his from FATHER KNOWS BEST or MARCUS WELBY) played a Nazi. This was actually a great choice, as in most of his prior movies he'd cultivated a "nice guy" image--what better way to show the insidiousness of evil by having seemingly good people join them. For Frank Morgan, this was probably his best performance of his career. Perfect acting all around. While not one of the very greatest films ever made, it certainly stands out as perhaps the best of 1940. This is also very, very sad as the apparently cowardly (what other explanation could there be?) Academy didn't nominate the film for a single award!!!

This is like the ABCs of Naziism. In 1933 Germany there is this perfect family headed by a beloved, elderly professor of physiology, Frank Morgan (the wizard of Oz). His wife is devoted to him and their children, two young men and a girl, Margaret Sullavan. On the old fellow's 60th birthday he is given a tribute in his classroom by two of his students, the medical student Robert Young, and the veterinarian James Stewart. Both of them are in love with Sullavan but Young is the more assertive of the two and seems to be winning her heart. That night, at dinner, the prof is presented with a birthday cake and the family and guests, including Young and Stewart, applaud when he blows out the candles. The dinner is interrupted by the radio announcement that Hitler has been appointed chancellor. The festive group creaks for a few moments and then falls apart. Young and the prof's two sons cheer. Germany will now be renewed and the so-called pacifists quieted. The professor himself looks thoughtful. Stewart is patently disappointed. The women voice no opinion but seem worried. Kinder, Kirche, Kuchen. Overnight -- and I mean RIGHT AWAY -- Robert Young and the prof's two sons begin wearing Nazi uniforms and acting like robots. They denounce the Roth family and Stewart while standing at attention and addressing the walls. They are organized by Gauleiter Dan Dailey, if you can imagine Dan Dailey as a sneering Nazi. What follows is a kind of Kindergarten lesson on how Fascism works. You must be of Aryan descent to be free of harassment, naturally, and you must be politically correct. Otherwise you are either jailed like the professor, who has been teaching that there are no differences between Aryan and non-Aryan blood, or else you are beaten and finally driven into exile like the dissident Stewart. One by one, the political demands destroy the affectionate world we were introduced to. Stewart and Sullavan try to make their escape over the mountains into Austria, not anticipating that it will be only a temporary haven. It's a Classic Comic version of the rise of Naziism, boiled down to its value-laden essence. The story doesn't try to explain the nationalistic appeal of Hitler. There's nothing about the resentment and humiliation of the treaty ending World War I. There's nothing about the reparations Germany paid or the explosive inflation that followed. There are virtually no thoughtful conversations about anything. The comic book characters seem to speak in little balloons over their heads. Yet I think it's a valuable movie. For one thing, there are some gorgeous second-unit shots of mountains under a silvery sheen of snow, stippled with dark evergreens. The final scene, in which we hear Robert Young's boots echoing forlornly in the empty house, is pregnant with loss. For another, the evolution of social relationships lends the movie some poignancy. For another, I honestly believe that this will provide a necessary history lesson for people, mostly youngsters, whose curiosity doesn't extend beyond their own body sheaths. Years ago, Barbara Tuchman gave a lecture on the causes of World War I at a famous Midwestern university and one of the students thanked her, adding that he'd always wondered why the other was called World War II. (That's at a university, not a home for the cognitively challenged.) For another thing, it helps put our current Zeitgeist into the perspective it so desperately cries out for. We're throwing around words like "Fascism" and I doubt that half those using it could define it. And -- isn't it terrible to throw this lovable old professor in jail because the science he teaches is politically incorrect, discordant with what a certain segment of the population wants to hear? "Creationism," anyone? Or will you have "evolutionary theory?" I watched it all the way through, despite its dated qualities, wishing that everyone under the age of, say, fifty could sit through it. This is how bad it can get.

Any movie that has Robert Young, Robert Stack and Ward Bond cast as Nazis is at least worth watching. And this movie does not disappoint. This movie portrays the disintegration of a German family in the immediate aftermath of Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933. The family splits along political lines, with some for and others against Hitler. This family is symbolic of what probably happened to families throughout Germany as people had to choose whether to support Hitler, even against their better judgment, or rely on the strength of their convictions and face the consequences - ostracism, beatings, arrest, internment and death. This movie also suggests that although most Germans wholeheartedly welcomed Hitler's rise to power and gladly rallied around the Nazi flag with its infamous symbol, the swastika, some Germans rejected the Nazi message of bigotry and violence. Robert Young's portrayal of a loyal Nazi with a guilty conscience and Frank Morgan's portrayal of a "non-Aryan" physics professor are particularly noteworthy performances. Although the movie was made in 1940, its message transcends the bounds of time and therefore is definitely worth watching.

***SLIGHT SPOILERS*** "The Mortal Storm"(1940)was one of the few films, before the outbreak of World War II in America,that tackled the subject of the Nazi regime in Germany. The only other truly memorable film about this subject made in the same year was "The Great Dictator",except this was a black comedy poking fun at Adolf Hitler and definitely isn't as powerful as the other film. "The Mortal Storm" has to be one of the most gripping films you'll ever see and should be shown in high schools and universities around the world to show students how easily the Nazis could manipulate people into thinking as they did. The film is based on a novel by Phyllis Bottome and tells the story of Professor Roth(Frank Morgan)and his family living a quiet and peaceful life until they overhear that Hitler has become chancellor of Germany on the radio. His sons and his daughter's(Margaret Sullavan)fiance(Robert Young)are excited when they hear that war is soon going to begin in Germany and are eager to do their part. The rest of the family and a close friend,Martin Bretiner(James Stewart)aren't that thrilled about the news. They feel that Hitler's views on the human race are wrong and that people should have the right to think as they believe. Unfortunately,this bit of advice doesn't stop them. The Roth family is torn apart forever. The professor's(Morgan) sons leave home,because they don't want to be associated with people that disagree with the Nazis. The professor is also arrested for talking about scientific human facts, in a classroom,that the Nazis find as untrue. Freya(Sullavan) breaks her engagement with Fritz(Young)and falls deeply in love with Martin(Stewart). Their lives become filled with danger as well. As a viewer,you see people struggling to survive in a cruel world as best as they can. The performances in this film are extraordinary. James Stewart and Margaret Sullivan are fine as a couple in love at the wrong time. Frank Morgan is poignant and gives a memorable performance as Professor Roth. Maria Ousapenska is great,as usual,as Stewart's wise and dedicated mother. She dominates every scene she's in. Also, good are Robert Young in an unconventional role as a Nazi officer and a young Robert Stack as one of Morgan's sons. The ending is tragic, but conveys a strong message. I highly recommend this movie to anyone. I give it 9 stars out of 10.

Sincere, moving story about the Nazi takeover in Germany and its affect on one family in particular. The father (Frank Morgan) is sent to a concentration camp. His stepsons become ardent Nazis, as does the man who was supposed to marry his daughter (Margaret Sullavan). This also drives a wedge between the sons and a lifelong friend (James Stewart), who is in love with Sullavan. Beautifully acted with fine performances from all. Stewart and Sullavan are amazing. Robert Young, usually playing good guy parts, here plays a Nazi. Bonita Granville does well, as does Ward Bond in a villainous part. Maria Ouspenskaya is brilliant as usual. But the best kudos would have to go to Frank Morgan for his sensitive, intelligent performance. Possibly the finest of his career. Robert Stack also appears as one of the Nazi stepsons and plays a part in the film's powerful final scene. This is truly a classic in every sense of the word. It's a movie that should be seen by everybody, both for its content as well as its historical value.

Things we take for granted such as freedom to think as we believe and to express those thoughts were snatched away abruptly from the German people in 1933 when Adolph Hitler was "elected" chancellor of Germany. Freedom was replaced by the New Order and as most people know, millions of people were murdered simply because they didn't fit the racial "norms" or accept the dictates of what the government said one should believe, It's 1933 and Professor Viktor Roth (Frank Morgan) lives with his wife, 2 step sons, daughter and young son in a comfortable home in a university town in the Alps. Although the word is never mentioned, it is clear Professor Roth is Jewish and his life becomes endangered when the Nazis take over. While his 2 stepsons join the party, as does Fritz, his daughter's fiance (played by Robert Young), his daughter and their old family friend Martin (played by Jimmy Stewart) defy the common tide and resist joining the party. And it is Jimmy Stewart who expresses it best - by saying freedom to believe as a person wants to is food and drink to him. And it turns out, it's food and drink to Freya Roth (played by Margaret Sullavan), the young daughter to whom he is attracted. She breaks her engagement to Fritz and escapes -- or tries to -- with Martin. He had already fled to still free Austria while helping a Jewish school teacher escape. This movie says much about what we take for granted - the sacredness of the right to act, believe, speak and think as a person wishes to, unencumbered by government dictates or threats. These gifts are precious and we have no idea just how precious until they are threatened. If, God forbid, that should ever happen, it is only hoped we have the same courage as young Freya and Martin. This movie is compelling in a quiet way. There are no shoot 'em ups, no gory prison or execution scenes, no barbarity is shown. But it is there nevertheless and perhaps that is what makes the viewer keep watching. The only drawback is that it was written in 1940 so viewers back then don't really know the ending because the war had another 4 y ears to go and victory was by no means certain in 1940. The U.S. hadn't entered the war yet but word was leaking out as to what was really going on in Germany at the time. It's a shame more people didn't listen and that more people didn't pay attention to the message delivered in such a subtle way in this movie.

You have to accept the fact that Hollywood cast the least-German looking and sounding actor in town to play the leading man in the German-set drama The Mortal Storm. As usual in films, the good guys sound American and the bad guys sound either British or have some semblance of an accent. In this movie, Frank Morgan, Jimmy Stewart, and Margaret Sullavan don't change anything about their usual appearances or voices. Robert Young, on the other hand, sports a short hairdo, because he supports the Nazi regime. Margaret starts the movie engaged to Robert, but do you think she'll transfer her affections? This movie is boring, bland, and with the exception of Frank Morgan, badly acted. He's given a few touching scenes as his students and fellow professors love him then cast him aside, but the rest of the characters aren't written to be intriguing or motivating. Who wants to watch George Bailey on the run from his fellow "Germans" because he refuses to salute when he sees them? Trust me, there are so many other good war movies set in Europe and made during WWII. Find another one to watch, even if you like this cast.

Although I have read that MGM, in an effort not to alienate the lucrative German movie market, deliberately removed any reference to the location of the movie, I did not find this to be the case. Constantly throughout the film we are told that these events are taking place in a town in southern Germany. And even though no mention is made of the Jews, only Non-Aryans, when we see Frank Morgans character, Professor Roth, in the concentration camp he has the letter "J" printed on the cuffs of his prison uniform. Yes, the word "Nazi" was never used, but the swastika was everywhere! They even had swastika lighting! All in all, I enjoyed this film quite a bit. Most of the performances were very good, particularly James Stewart and Frank Morgan. However, Robert Young's portrayal of a Nazi torn between duty and old friendships is unconvincing.