Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786302682601
Format: Black & White
ISBN: 6302682606
Label: MGM (Warner)
Manufacturer: MGM (Warner)
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: MGM (Warner)
Release Date: 1994-12-07
Running Time: 120
Studio: MGM (Warner)
Theatrical Release Date: 1943-04-24

Lewis Milestone was Hollywood's premier director of war films (starting with his 1930 Academy Award winner All Quiet on the Western Front), and Edge of Darkness is among his finest. Warner Bros.' biggest star Errol Flynn gets top billing, but his performance--remarkable for its unaccustomed sobriety--is only one admirable part of a strong ensemble. This underscores the theme of a remote Norwegian fishing village of 800 united selflessly in resistance to the 150 German troops garrisoned in their midst during World War II. Robert Rossen's screenplay is essentially a variation on the sturdy proletarian fables he'd been writing for Warners (the only outright unsympathetic Norwegian is the owner of the cannery!); every character in the large cast is sharply defined, taking his or her place in a nuanced allegory of the myriad ethical, political, and emotional tensions of occupation and resistance.

But what blows you away--besides the dramatic subject matter, the unorthodox Norway setting, and the eruptions of stark violence and atrocity--is Milestone's powerful direction and ultra-kinetic visuals. A town meeting conducted in the guise of an evening church service, with townsfolk arguing and interacting while continuing to face forward in their pews, is a brilliant set-piece; and throughout the film there are startling uses of a zoom lens (virtually unheard-of at the time), especially in the explosive action climax. To cite only the most stellar performers, Walter Huston and Ruth Gordon play the town doctor and his wife, Judith Anderson is Flynn's sister (hating herself for loving "good German" Tonio Selwart), Ann Sheridan plays Flynn's love interest and fellow resistance leader, and Helmut Dantine rattles the rafters as the German commandant, bitter at being stranded in a backwater of the war. Terrific movie. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Rating:
Summary: Forgotten Classic...
Comment: 1943's "Edge of Darkness" portrays the acute plight of a small Norwegian village trapped under the thumb of brutal Nazi occupation during the Second World War. The presentation by veteran director Lewis Milestone is especially poignant; modern viewers must remember that the liberation of Norway was still an uncertain two years off when the movie was released.

Errol Flynn leads in an understated but solid performance as an ordinary and underachieving fisherman who is forced by circumstances to mature and become the leader of the local resistance. Walter Huston and Ruth Gordon turn in strong supporting roles as the brave town doctor and his wife. Ann Sheridan plays Flynn's love-interest, who runs afoul of the occupying troops and exacts a terrible revenge.

This movie is noteworthy for its fully developed characters and its subtle but unmistakable theme of grace under pressure by its very human characters. The occupied and the occupiers are painted in subtle shades of gray and not the black and white depiction that might have been expected in a war-time movie.

This movie is highly recommended as an above average example of the World War Two genre.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A brave and interesting film!
Comment: The heroic resistance of the occupied Norway attracted, for some reason, a fair amount of interest, in "The Commandos Strike At Dawn,"

"The Moon Is Down," and "Edge of Darkness."

Lewis Milestone, who has made the pacifist "All Quiet on the Western Front, is a key figure in crusading films about war..

His "Edge of Darkness" is a brave and interesting film ,and a touching tribute to Norwegian courage during the Nazi occupation...

The characterization is cleverly drawn: Errol Flynn, the fisherman who assumes command of the resistance in his small Norwegian village; Ann Sheridan, the willful and obstinate daughter of the respected physician Walter Huston who didn't want to know but is led inexorably to aid the resistance after his innocent daughter is brutally raped by a German soldier; Ruth Gordon, his shy retiring wife, as the neurotic mother who lives in dreams of the past; her greedy brother, the opportunistic businessman Charles Dingle who owns the cannery which employs most of the villagers, a traitor who "deals in facts... The future is with the New Order."

After the battle between the German garrison and the townspeople, when all his hopes and dreams are shattered, he wanders through the devastated village claiming it as his own: "It's mine, it's all mine", he cries with mad irrational eyes to a German patrol... Of course he is shot down...

Another characters in the movie: John Beal, the weak and traitorous son; an innkeeper (Judith Anderson) whose hatred of the enemy is intensified by their killing of her husband; and a courageous schoolmaster (Morris Carvosky), whose ivory tower is completely smashed...

The most interesting feature of the film is in its declination of social structure... The capitalist Dingle, is recognized by the brutal Nazis; the humble fisherman Flynn becomes the leader of the underground movement...

All the peacetime hierarchies are overturned: the lovely Ann Sheridan is capable to fall in love with Flynn, who, in peacetime, would have been untouchable..

Decision-making is no longer the exclusive right of the town elders, but of everybody... All the villagers must be involved... In the church they gather to decide whether or not to accept British guns and bullets... It is a matter for the villagers to decide by concord of opinion... They talk until they have agreed..

The film ends with the marching into the hills to continue their resistance... Walter Huston stumbles and falls... Flynn and his fiancée rush to help him up... He protests, "I can manage alone!" They persist, and as they hold him between them, Flynn says, "There is no need to walk alone."

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A cult war movie!
Comment:
Impressive, absorbing and fundamental film during the Nazi take over in Norway. Lewis Milestone was a great director but when he decided to make a war movie something happened. He was provided by a special spell touch. It's happens the same when John Ford made a Western or Hitchcock a suspense picture. He was possessed by an inner call . There is a Spanish term previously used by Federico García Lorca when he meant that special phenomena. He talked about "to have hobgoblin". And precisely this is the appropriate term designed to L.M.
An efficient cast completes the whole work.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: great and moving film
Comment: "Edge of Darkness," is a great war film. The message is a good one. It's very patriotic and posative. Errol Flynn plays a Norwegian fisherman who helps fight the Germans and stopping them from taking over Norway. The scenes are really moving and worth seeing. It's very inspiring and one of the best films I've seen.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: where this story likely came from
Comment: All who see this film should read John Steinbeck's play "The Moon is Down".

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