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Director Vincent Sherman's 1941 classic. As the people of Germany adapt to life under Nazi rule, two brothers find themselves on opposite sides of the country s new philosophy. Eric (Philip Dorn) is the leader of a resistance group, broadcasting clandestine radio messages telling the nation the truth about the war and Germany's new regime. His younger brother Kurt (Jeffrey Lynn) a solder maimed in the fighting, returns home from the frontline a true believer, dedicated to the cause. A gripping drama unfurls as the brothers' lives become intertwined when Kurt is tasked by the Gestapo to uncover the voice of the resistance.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
If you have read any of my other reviews you will see that they are all on war films.That being because i am a huge war film fan.At present i own about six hundred and have seen well over a thousand. So imagine my delight when "Underground" was released,a film i had never even heard of.My delight soon turned to despair when i realised it was being released by Pegasus Entertainment who are renowned for doing nothing with video or audio before releasing their films.If you have ever bought any you will know what i mean.Fortunately the video and audio transfer is pretty good for a release seventy years old.Yes there are some specks and flicks on the print and it is a little blurry in places but still very watchable.I have seen much worse.All we have at the menu is scene selections.Now before starting the film you just have to watch the menu screen.I cant figure out whether its brilliant or hilarious.Its on a cycle of about thirty seconds so wont take long to watch.The smoking weapon part made me chuckle.
The basic premise of the film is centred around two brothers in wartime Berlin.One (Eric) is the leader of the resistance group who broadcasts clandestine messages to the German people using an illegal radio.The other (Kurt) is a staunch Nazi who is maimed in the fighting and so returns home.Throw in the usual Gestapo officers,a love interest and what you have is all the ingredients for a good film which it does with aplomb.There are no real stars to be had and its obviously a "B" picture with low production values but this withstanding i really enjoyed it.Its unashamedly full of propaganda and i dont mind one bit.Yes its full of cliches but films of this ilk and age usually are.What sets it apart from some modern war films is its use of characters and a good story.All the actors do a more than adequate job and are aided by the solid direction of Vincent Sherman.Theres no real action to be had but the story still moves along quite nicely with enough happening to keep you interested so why not give it a go.
The basic premise of the film is centred around two brothers in wartime Berlin.One (Eric) is the leader of the resistance group who broadcasts clandestine messages to the German people using an illegal radio.The other (Kurt) is a staunch Nazi who is maimed in the fighting and so returns home.Throw in the usual Gestapo officers,a love interest and what you have is all the ingredients for a good film which it does with aplomb.There are no real stars to be had and its obviously a "B" picture with low production values but this withstanding i really enjoyed it.Its unashamedly full of propaganda and i dont mind one bit.Yes its full of cliches but films of this ilk and age usually are.What sets it apart from some modern war films is its use of characters and a good story.All the actors do a more than adequate job and are aided by the solid direction of Vincent Sherman.Theres no real action to be had but the story still moves along quite nicely with enough happening to keep you interested so why not give it a go.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I found this film enjoyable, although it was not without faults. Jeffrey Lynn, fresh from his role as the handsome young lawyer in the Roaring Twenties, tries hard to be convincing as the idealistic Nazi who eventually has a change of heart, but he is too wooden. This Warner Brothers' story of a family affected by Nazism must take second place to MGM's, The Mortal Storm, a much more convincing parallel (apart from Dan Dailey. A Nazi ? I think not) which appeared a year earlier. As usual with such Nazi themes the uniforms do not convince. But this film was made in 1941 when research into the minutiae of the Gestapo lacked the essential 'rigeur'. Still, it keeps the viewer in suspense, and everyone hates a villain, especially if he's a Nazi, and this film has some wonderful stereotypes. Philip Dorn, who is the heroic leader of the underground broadcasting movement, steals the show. At least his accent sounds believable.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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6 reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Underground - an old sleeper
10 Jan 2003
I saw this film on TV when I was a child. It made such an impression on me that I have searched for it for years, since VHS and then DVDs became widely available.
While it may not have the big names of other war movies, this one is a true morality tale. It grabs you by the gut and shows how people can be misled into following evil-doers, but it also points out that they can see the light, and regain their humanity.
I defy anyone with an ounce of compassion to view this film's final scene without shedding a tear. I plan to show it to my children, because it is rare that you see such a vivid dislay of both the worst and the best that people have to offer in one film. I highly recommend it.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Hidden Classic
16 Mar 2002
Underground is a film that is hardly known today, perhaps because it lacks any major stars. It's basically a B-movie cast in a film that is not produced to be just a programmer. Set during the early days of World War Two, it features Jeffrey Lynn and Philip Dorn as German brothers involved on opposites of the conflict. Dorn is a leader of the underground movement, while Lynn is a soldier fiercely loyal to the Fuhrer. Dorn's underground members send out leaflets denouncing the Nazis, but more effectively, they broadcast an outlawed radio program that the Nazis want desperately to stop. When Lynn falls in love with Kaaren Verne, another underground member, things get even more complicated. The performers are all quite good (including Martin Kosleck as one of those detestable Nazis portrayed in WWII films), and director Victor Sherman, an accomplished director, tells the story very effectively. It moves along well, builds up excellent suspense, and develops a lot of sympathy for its characters and their cause. This is a great film to "discover", and I hope that on video, it will become more well known. It deserves the attention.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
"Jeffrey Lynn...Philip Dorn...Vincent Sherman ~ Underground (1941)...Vci Home Video"
6 Sep 2006
Format:DVD
VCI Home Video and Warner Bros. presents "UNDERGROUND" (1941) (95 mins B&W) . . . under Vincent Sherman (Director), William Jacobs (Producer), Hal B. Wallis (Producer), Jack L. Warner (Producer), Oliver H.P. Garrett (Short Story Author), Charles Grayson (Screenwriter), Edwin Justus Mayer (Short Story Author), Sidney Hickox (Cinematographer), Adolph Deutsch (Composer (Music Score), Leo F. Forbstein (Musical Direction/Supervision), Thomas Pratt (Editor), Charles Novi (Art Director) . . . . . cast includes Jeffrey Lynn (Kurt Franken), Philip Dorn (Eric Franken), Kaaren Verne (Sylvia Helmuth), Mona Maris (Fraulein Gessner), Frank Reicher (Prof. Baumer), Peter Whitney (Alex ), Martin Kosleck (Heller), Erwin Kalser (Dr. Franken), lka Gruning (Frau Kranken), Egon Brecher (Herr Director), Ludwig Stossel (Herr Muller), Hans Schumm (Heller's Aide), Wolfgang Zilzer (Hoffman), Henry Brandon (Rolf), Lotte Palfi (Greta Rolf) . . . . . our story deals with the Third Reich and two brothers who are fighting on different sides...with a backdrop of the Nazis' searching for a resistance radio broadcast and trying desperately to silence it once and for all...the script is top notch and the performances are first rate, with a bigger and better film than they expected.when first filming...with solid acting from Jeffrey Lynn and Philip Dorn who are both believeable and keep the pace of suspense growing to a climatic end.
Special footnote, Director Vincent Sherman (July 16, 1906 - June 18, 2006), born in Vienna, Georgia), was a Hollywood director...His movies include Mr. Skeffington (1944), Nora Prentiss (1947), and The Young Philadelphians (1959)...He began his career as an actor on Broadway and later films...He directed B-movies for Warner Bros. before moving up to A-pictures...He was a good friend of actor Errol Flynn, whom he directed in The Adventures of Don Juan (1949)...He directed three Joan Crawford movies The Damned Don't Cry! (1950), Harriet Craig (1950), and Goodbye, My Fancy (1951)...He became known as a "woman's director" (a title he hated), because he could evoke powerful performances from female stars. He would counter this by pointing out that he also directed Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, Richard Burton, and Paul Newman...Sherman died less than a month shy of his 100th birthday.
BIOS:
1. Jeffrey Lynn (aka: Ragnar Lind)
Date of birth: 16 February 1909 - Auburn, Massachusetts
Date of death: 24 November 1995 - Burbank, California,
2. Philip Dorn (aka: Hein van der Niet)
Date of birth: 30 September 1901 - Scheveningen, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
Date of death: 9 May 1975 - Los Angeles, California
3. Vincent Sherman (Director) (aka: Abraham Orovitz)
Date of birth: 16 July 1906 - Vienna, Georgia,
Date of death: 18 June 2006 - Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California
Want to thank VCI Home Video for releasing "Underground" (1941) - Director Vincent Sherman, the digital transfere with a clean, clear and crisp print...looking forward to more high quality releases from the vintage era of the '40s...order your copy now from Amazon or VCI Entertainment where there are plenty of copies available, stay tuned once again for top notch wonderful character actors of the cinema brought back so many wonderful memories of the times when film makers cared about you who purchased a ticket and came back for more...just the way we like 'em.
Total Time: 95 mins on DVD ~ VCI Home Video 7234 ~ (12/28/2004)
Special footnote, Director Vincent Sherman (July 16, 1906 - June 18, 2006), born in Vienna, Georgia), was a Hollywood director...His movies include Mr. Skeffington (1944), Nora Prentiss (1947), and The Young Philadelphians (1959)...He began his career as an actor on Broadway and later films...He directed B-movies for Warner Bros. before moving up to A-pictures...He was a good friend of actor Errol Flynn, whom he directed in The Adventures of Don Juan (1949)...He directed three Joan Crawford movies The Damned Don't Cry! (1950), Harriet Craig (1950), and Goodbye, My Fancy (1951)...He became known as a "woman's director" (a title he hated), because he could evoke powerful performances from female stars. He would counter this by pointing out that he also directed Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, Richard Burton, and Paul Newman...Sherman died less than a month shy of his 100th birthday.
BIOS:
1. Jeffrey Lynn (aka: Ragnar Lind)
Date of birth: 16 February 1909 - Auburn, Massachusetts
Date of death: 24 November 1995 - Burbank, California,
2. Philip Dorn (aka: Hein van der Niet)
Date of birth: 30 September 1901 - Scheveningen, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
Date of death: 9 May 1975 - Los Angeles, California
3. Vincent Sherman (Director) (aka: Abraham Orovitz)
Date of birth: 16 July 1906 - Vienna, Georgia,
Date of death: 18 June 2006 - Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California
Want to thank VCI Home Video for releasing "Underground" (1941) - Director Vincent Sherman, the digital transfere with a clean, clear and crisp print...looking forward to more high quality releases from the vintage era of the '40s...order your copy now from Amazon or VCI Entertainment where there are plenty of copies available, stay tuned once again for top notch wonderful character actors of the cinema brought back so many wonderful memories of the times when film makers cared about you who purchased a ticket and came back for more...just the way we like 'em.
Total Time: 95 mins on DVD ~ VCI Home Video 7234 ~ (12/28/2004)
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