Themes: Crimes Against Humanity, Teachers and Students, Love Triangles
Main Cast: Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Robert Young, Frank Morgan, Robert Stack
Release Year: 1940
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
The Nazi Party's rise to power has disastrous consequences for a German family in this drama. Victor Roth (Frank Morgan) is a college professor teaching in Germany in 1933 who leads a peaceful and contented life with his wife Emelie (Irene Rich), son Rudi (Gene Reynolds), daughter Freya (Margaret Sullavan), and stepsons Otto (Robert Stack) and Erich (William T. Orr). However, Adolph Hitler's emergence as Germany's ruler has an unexpected impact on their lives. Fritz (Robert Young) and Martin (James Stewart) both vie for Freya's hand in marriage, but anti-Nazi activist Martin is forced to flee to Austria, while Freya is disturbed by Fritz's membership in a pro-fascist group. Victor repudiates Hitler's theories about Aryan superiority in class, and he not only loses his teaching position, but he is sentenced to a concentration camp. And while Emelie and Rudi join Freya as she tries to escape to Martin's new home in Austria, they find themselves hunted by Otto and Erich, now members of the Hitler Youth. The Mortal Storm was perhaps the most explicitly anti-Nazi film made in Hollywood prior to America's entry into WWII, and it resulted in all of MGM's product being banned in Germany. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
The Mortal Storm is admittedly propaganda, but it's intensely powerful propaganda and thus results in a film that is hard to forget. Storm's faults are obvious; it is at times blatantly manipulative, it paints some of its characters in strict black or white terms, and it occasionally goes over the top in its emotional reaches, and in so doing turns maudlin. Yet the force of the film is such that none of this matters very much. Credit is certainly due to director Frank Borzage, who turns in some of his most committed and visually pleasing work here. Borzage seems to have fallen in love with his dolly while making Storm, and the camera moves back and forth and in and out with a remarkable fluidity. His hand is especially evident in the last few minutes of the film, when he mixes visual and aural clues to create heightened emotions quite effectively. The director is also blessed with an exceptional cast, with James Stewart dependably solid and symbolically good without becoming a stereotype, and Margaret Sullavan near perfect. The supporting cast is uniformly good, with special praise for Robert Stack's enormously effective Otto. Chilling and compelling, The Mortal Storm retains its impact even after the passage of many decades. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Cedric Gibbons - Art Director, Wade B. Rubottom - Art Director, Adrian - Costume Designer, Gile Steele - Costume Designer, Lew Borzage - First Assistant Director, Frank Borzage - Director, Elmo Vernon - Editor, Jack Dawn - Makeup, William H. Daniels - Cinematographer, Frank Borzage - Producer, Victor Saville - Producer, Sidney Franklin - Producer, Edwin B. Willis - Set Designer, Douglas Shearer - Sound/Sound Designer, George Froeschel - Screenwriter, Claudine West - Screenwriter, Phyllis Bottome - Book Author
The Mortal Storm is a 1940 film that was one of the most direct anti-NaziHollywood films released before the American entry into the Second World War. It stars James Stewart as a German who refuses to join the rest of his small Bavarian town in supporting Nazism. He falls in love with "non-Aryan" Freya Roth (Margaret Sullavan), the daughter of a Junker mother and a "non-Aryan" father.
Freya and her father are implied to be Jews but the word "Jew" is never used, and they are only identified as "non-Aryans"; in addition, Freya's half brothers are all members of the Nazi Party. Though it is understood that the film is set in Germany, the name of the country is rarely mentioned except at the very beginning in a short text of introduction. MGM purposely did not mention the name of the country or the religion of Freya's family because of the large German market for its films, but it was to no avail—the movie infuriated the Nazi government and it led to all MGM films being banned in Germany.
The Mortal Storm was the last movie Sullavan and Stewart ever did together. Sullavan is a young German girl engaged to a confirmed Nazi (Robert Young) in 1933. When she realizes the true nature of his political views, she breaks the engagement and turns her attention to anti-Nazi Stewart. Later, trying to flee the Nazi regime, Sullavan and Stewart attempt to ski across the border to safety in Austria. In the attempt Sullavan is gunned down by the Nazis (under reluctant orders from her ex-fiance, who has tried to spare her, but has been ordered to track her down by his superiors). Stewart, at her request, picks her up and skis into Austria so she can die in a free country.
The Pride and the Man •Dollars of Dross •Land o' Lizards •Immediate Lee •Flying Colors •Until They Get Me •The Gun Woman •The Curse of Iku •The Shoes That Danced •Innocent's Progress •Society for Sale •An Honest Man •Who Is to Blame? •The Ghost Flower •The Atom •Toton the Apache •Whom the Gods Would Destroy •Prudence on Broadway
1920s
Humoresque •The Duke of Chimney Butte •Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford •Back Pay •Billy Jim •The Good Provider •The Valley of Silent Men •The Pride of Palomar •The Nth Commandment •Children of the Dust •The Age of Desire •Secrets •The Lady •Daddy's Gone A-Hunting •The Circle •Lazybones •Wages for Wives •The First Year •The Dixie Merchant •Early to Wed •Marriage License? •Seventh Heaven •Street Angel •Lucky Star •They Had to See Paris •The River
Strange Cargo •The Mortal Storm •Flight Command •Smilin' Through •The Vanishing Virginian •Seven Sweethearts •Stage Door Canteen •His Butler's Sister •Till We Meet Again •The Spanish Main •Magnificent Doll •I've Always Loved You •That's My Man •Moonrise
