Warner Bros. Pictures
Not part of a collection.
Edge of Darkness
Resistance fighters battle the Nazis in occupied Norway
The film pivots around the local Norwegian doctor and his family. The doctor's wife (Ruth Gordon) wants to hold on to the pretence of gracious living and ignore their German occupiers. The doctor, Martin Stensgard (Walter Huston), would also prefer to stay neutral, but is torn. His brother-in-law, the wealthy owner of the local fish cannery, collaborates with the Nazis. The doctor's daughter, Karen (Ann Sheridan), is involved with the resistance and with its leader Gunnar Brogge (Errol Flynn). The doctor's son has just returned to town, having been sent down from the university, and is soon influenced by his Nazi-sympathizer uncle. Captain Koenig (Helmut Dantine), the young German commandant of the occupying garrison, whose fanatic determination to do everything by the book and spoutings about the invincibility of the Reich hides a growing fear of a local uprising.
- Original title
- Edge of Darkness
- Language
- EN
- Country
- US
- Budget
- $1,653,000
- Revenue
- $3,669,000
CinemaSerf
Oct 25, 2022 · via TMDB
This has to be one of my favourite wartime dramas. Certainly it's a bit of a propaganda piece, but this depiction of a peaceful Norwegian fishing village suddenly put under the jackboot of their Nazi oppressors is remarkably potent - even now. Errol Flynn ("Gunnar") takes top billing, but that's really only nominal - it's all about an effective ensemble cast with the likes of Ann Sheridan ("Karen"), Walter Huston ("Stensgard") and the poignant scenes from Morris Carnovsky's educated - and therefore immensely threatening "Andresen" whose treatment by Helmut Dantine's suitably menacing and ruthless "Koenig" are easily the most potent amongst the scenarios in this otherwise rather savage indictment of the bullying and torment suffered by the townsfolk - some even asked to dig their own mass grave. It doesn't shy away from the "Quisling" issue - every town had one, and shows us something of the difficulties faced by his friends and family as it appears that he is playing both sides. There is plenty of stoic resistance - both in the pulpit from pastor "Aalesen" (Richard Fraser) and from this community at large - acts ranging from petty defiance to more effective and lethal responses. These all culminates in a conclusion that is suitably fitting with violence being deservedly visited on them so familiar with it. It's about faith, trust, loyalty and determination and as films of this genre go, I think it takes quite some beating.
talisencrw
Aug 6, 2016 · via TMDB
I have always wondered how it must have felt to make a 'wartime' movie about a war you're currently living in, and lately I stumbled upon a quintet of films made during the Second World War with Errol Flynn, of all people, battling the Nazis. Because of it both being by Turner Classic Movies AND had one film directed by Lewis Milestone (with one of the finest anti-war statements ever made, 'All Quiet on the Western Front', under his belt) and the others by none other than Raoul Walsh, I was, pardon the pun, 'in like Flynn'. But as Flynn had been one of my favourite actors of the period simply on the basis of 'The Adventures of Robin Hood', I honestly would have gone for it anyway. Yeah, you could say I love older movies! =) My best friend Earl remarked, 'By the end of WWII, they used up all of the good film titles,' and he probably has a point there, at least with this one, still getting quality usage THREE generations later, and with Mel Gibson to boot. But this was weird for a war film (looking at the resistance put up by a village of 800 Norwegians) bizarrely cast (with Ann Sheridan, Walter Huston, Judith Anderson and Ruth Gordon--all as the GOOD guys!), and had taped speeches by BOTH Churchill and Roosevelt. I read notorious British film critic Leslie Halliwell's review that everything was decent about the film except that it starred Flynn. He couldn't have been more wrong. I'm greatly looking forward to examining the other four films of the set, all directed by one of the most underrated American directors of all time--Raoul Walsh.
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
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Errol Flynn
Gunnar Brogge
Ann Sheridan
Karen Stensgard
Walter Huston
Dr. Martin Stensgard
Helmut Dantine
Captain Koenig
Ruth Gordon
Anna Stensgard
Judith Anderson
Gerd Bjarnesen
Roman Bohnen
Lars Malken
Monte Blue
Jens Petersen
Virginia Christine
Hulda (Stensgard maid)
Morris Carnovsky
Sixtus Andresen
Charles Dingle
Kaspar Torgerson
Richard Fraser
Pastor Aalesen
Art Smith
Knut Osterholm
Nancy Coleman
Katja, Koenig's woman
John Beal
Johann Stensgard
Frank Wilcox
Jensen, the shoemaker
Henry Brandon
Major Ruck
Tom Fadden
Hammer
Francis Pierlot
Mortensen, the tailor
Kurt Katch
German Landing Party Captain
Tonio Selwart
German Corporal Paul
Nora Bush
Townswoman (uncredited)
Glen Cavender
Cannery Worker (uncredited)
Noble 'Kid' Chissell
Townsman (uncredited)
William Edmunds
Elderly Sailor (uncredited)
Kit Guard
Townsman in Church (uncredited)
Kenner G. Kemp
Soldier (uncredited)
Kurt Kreuger
German Co-Pilot (uncredited)
Dudley Field Malone
Winston Churchcill (voice) (uncredited)
Torben Meyer
Cannery Clerk (uncredited)
Robert Milasch
Townsman (uncredited)
Harry 'Snub' Pollard
Townsman in Church (uncredited)
Henry Rowland
Helmut (uncredited)
Carl Sklover
Soldier (uncredited)
Cap Somers
Soldier (uncredited)
Ray Spiker
Townsman (uncredited)
Helene Thimig
Mrs. Frida Malken (uncredited)
Dorothy Tree
Solveig Brategaard (uncredited)
Peter van Eyck
German Soldier (uncredited)
Roland Varno
German Lieutenant (uncredited)
Hans Heinrich von Twardowski
German Co-Pilot (uncredited)
Paul Kruger
—
George Magrill
—
Orry-Kelly
Costume Design
Lewis Milestone
Director
Jack L. Warner
Executive Producer
Franz Waxman
Original Music Composer
Robert Rossen
Screenplay
Message from Malta
The Film Narrator
Casablanca
Das Boot
Homecoming
Hope Dies Last
Rome, Open City
The Man Who Planted Trees
The Ascent
To Be or Not to Be
The Adventures of Werner Holt
Rio Bravo
Notorious
Marriage Italian Style
Memoirs of a Geisha
The Dirty Dozen
Sunflower
Au Revoir les Enfants
And the Violins Stopped Playing
Confidence
The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society
Lifeboat
Everything Is Illuminated
Conspiracy
God Does Not Believe in Us Anymore
Fortress of War
Poslední ples na rožnovské plovárně
Valkyrie
The Dam Busters
Long Dark Night
Jakob the Liar
The Last Note
Goebbels and the Führer
Traitor
2 or 3 Things I Know About Him
A Woman in Berlin
The Eternal Sea
To End All Wars
Germans
Frontier(s)
Ambush
1944 The Final Defence
The Sign Painter
Buffet Titanic
The Good German
Keep 'Em Slugging
The Lamp Still Burns
A Yank in the R.A.F.
People with Wings
Wunderland
Leningrad
Ardennes Fury
Werewolves of the Third Reich
Pegasus Bridge
Thanks Girls and Goodbye
When Elvis Came to Visit
Suzanne
Untitled Jewish Film
My Soul Is a Witness
Winter Shadows
Paths of Glory
Judgment at Nuremberg
Empire of the Sun
The Book Thief
The Guns of Navarone
49th Parallel
55 Days at Peking
Escape to Victory
The Seventh Cross
The One That Got Away
The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
The War Below
The Last Rifleman
Battleground
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Long Voyage Home
Hell Is for Heroes
The Counterfeit Traitor
Tobruk
Story of G.I. Joe
The Battle of the River Plate
The Devil's Brigade
The Sea Chase
Waiting for Anya
633 Squadron
Eichmann
Apr 9, 1943
New York City, New York
Apr 24, 1943
