The Moon Is Down
The story of a small town in Norway that resists German occupation during World War II. Based on a John Steinbeck novel.
The story of a small town in Norway that resists German occupation during World War II. Based on a John Steinbeck novel.
Cedric Hardwicke
Col. Lanser
Henry Travers
Mayor Orden
Lee J. Cobb
Dr. Albert Winter
Dorris Bowdon
Molly Morden
Margaret Wycherly
Mme. Sarah Orden
Peter van Eyck
Lt. Tonder
William Post Jr.
Alex Morden
Henry Rowland
Capt. Loft
E.J. Ballantine
George Corell
The story of a small town in Norway that resists German occupation during World War II. Based on a John Steinbeck novel.
There are only a few period wartime stories told around events in the occupied Kingdom of Norway, and this is one of the better efforts. Sir Cedric Hardwicke is the Nazi colonel sent to supervise a small town that exists to support a nearby iron-ore mine. A sophisticate, of sorts, he initially attempts to deal reasonably with the townspeople led by their Mayor (Henry Travers) but soon realises that these people are not the type to sit idly by, sabotage soon becomes rife - and a battle of wills - and philosophies - ensues. It has some subtly to it, both Hardwicke and Peter van Eyck ("Lt. Tonder") demonstrate some degree of humanity from the occupier's perspective, and both Travers and Lee J. Cobb ("Dr. Winter") deliver well as the peaceful, elderly, men who do not consider themselves to be brave, but they are proud and are determined to see off their murderous guests - even if it costs them their lives. It is plausible, which helps enormously, and the pace from Irving Pichel draws us into their ghastly predicament well. Made mid-WWII, it has a slight tinge of propaganda to it, but the characters have an element of authenticity about them that makes this a decidedly more nuanced watch than many of it's time.
When Norwegian resistance leader Lieutenant Erik Bergman reports the location of a German V-2 rocket fuel plant, the Royal Air Force's 633 Squadron is assigned the mission to destroy it. The plant is in a seemingly-impregnable location beneath an overhanging cliff at the end of a long, narrow fjord lined with anti-aircraft guns. The only way to destroy the plant is by collapsing the cliff on top of it.
During the harrows of WWII, Jo, a young shepherd along with the help of the widow Horcada, helps to smuggle Jewish children across the border from southern France into Spain.
Set in German-occupied Norway, resistance fighter Knut Straud enlists the reluctant physicist Rolf Pedersen in an effort to destroy the German heavy water production plant in rural Telemark.
In the Warsaw ghetto in 1943, Jews rise against the Nazis.
Fr. Hugh O'Flaherty is a Vatican official in 1943-45 who has been hiding downed pilots, escaped prisoners of war, and Italian resistance families. His activities become so large that the Nazis decide to assassinate him the next time he leaves the Vatican.
A chronicle of the Cristeros War (1926-1929), which was touched off by a rebellion against the Mexican government's attempt to secularize the country.
Members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division are fighting for their country amidst the rugged terrain of Bastogne, Belgium, in December 1944. Holley and his American compatriots have already seen one of their own, Roderigues, perish under enemy fire. The men try to rebuff another series of Nazi attacks, but what they really need is a change in the weather. Without clear skies, they'll never get the air support they need.
In 1944 France, an American Intelligence Squad locates a German Platoon wishing to surrender rather than die in Germany's final war offensive. The two groups of men, isolated from the war at present, put aside their differences and spend Christmas together before the surrender plan turns bad and both sides are forced to fight the other.
After the fall of Tobruk in June 1942, U.S. Army sergeant Joe Gunn leads his tank into the Sahara desert, in order to evade advancing Rommel's forces and reach Allied lines. Along the way he picks up few Allied soldiers, but soon they are running out of water. They find water at the ancient well, but the well is a goal of an entire German battalion. Despite the impossible odds, Sergeant Gunn decides to defend the well.
The remarkable true-life survival story of a Jewish boy hiding and being hunted in the forests of Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, based on Maxwell Smart's memoir.