UnowPriceless hyped garbage

ChicRawIdol A brilliant film that helped define a genre

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

mark.waltz In 1941, rising Warner Brothers director Vincent Sherman took two different looks at the World War II underground. The Damon Runyeon like "All Through the Night" took the mugs of New York City and had them exposing Fifth Columnists utilizing an upscale auction shop as their base of operations, and "Underworld" revealed that even the families of World War I who were still haunted by losing that war didn't want to be involved in Hitler's war simply because they knew the motivations for it were wrong. In fact, an entire family finds themselves being torn apart by the political differences between two brothers (Jeffrey Lynn and Philip Dorn), the youngest a devoted Nazi soldier and the other secretly working in the underground.While the outstanding "All Through the Night" focused on comic undertones with a serious main plot, "Underground" is strictly dramatic, and powerfully so. It was released before the United States got involved in World War II, while "All Through the Night" got released almost immediately afterwords. That film had the ironic coincidence of an attempted attack on the New York Harbor, coming just as Pearl Harbor was attacked. Certainly heavy on propaganda, it served the purpose of letting Americans know that just because the enemy was near didn't mean that every citizen of that enemy nation was on the side of evil. The righteous include Lynn and Dorn's parents, a neighbor (Ludwig Stossel, a victim of Nazi villainy in "All Through the Night") who lost his son in battle, a café violin player (Kaaren Verne, "ATTN's" heroine) and even the severe looking assistant (Mona Maris) to nasty Nazi Martin Koslock, also called back by Sherman to play the head speaker at the Nazi meeting in the conclusion of "ATTN". It should be noted that Maris looked pretty much exactly the same in 20th Century Fox's banal "Berlin Correspondent", although in that film, there was no doubt where her loyalties lay.This is one of those war films which grabs you from the beginning and never lets you go. While it is clear that the underground for the most part will come out on top, there are some gripping moments where your doubts take over, such as a chase sequence where Kosleck and his men head to the location where Dorn's radio truck is in the process of delivering an underground message. There's also a hand-ringing confrontation between Dorn and another member of the underground with a recently released concentration prisoner, basically brainwashed by years of torture into doing the Nazi's bidding. When he tries to plead for his life, it almost appears that the good guys are the actual bad guys, but a twist in their decision of how to handle him gives way to a powerful moment of retribution and atonement. The ending is straight out of "A Tale of Two Cities", but is moving rather than corny, even though I found myself quoting Ronald Colman's delivery of Dicken's immortal words in the film's final moments. Verne, whose "All Through the Night" character became involved with the Nazi's merely to save her imprisoned father, is clearly on the side of the underground, and when she is exposed for being the recipient of newly purchased radio equipment, she undergoes a torture so brutal that it is difficult at times to watch, especially when Kosleck forces her to sign a statement indicating that she was treated fairly. Presented with much subtlety, "Underground" is an important film in the sense that almost 75 years later reminds its new audiences to not judge the entire population of a nation by its leaders or military, in other words, to minimize the hate and remember that people of free minds will always stand up to their government, even if their lives are threatened.

sol ***Some Spoilers*** Pre-Pearl Harbor Hollywood war propaganda flick involving a group of anti-Nazi Germans trying to get the message through to the German people just how rotten the Nazi regime is. Using a shortwave radio the anti-Hitler Germans use it to bring out that the war news is not as bright as their controlled media tells them that it is. There's the sinking of the German super battleship Bismark with all 2,800 sailors, aboard as well as the mysterious flight of Nazi Deputy Fuhrer Rudolph Hess to England whom were told by the Free German radio announcer Eric Franken, Phillip Dorn, just had about enough of Hitler's Germany and escaped to freedom to the British isles! In fact Hess was later tried as a Nazi war criminal at Nuremberg and given a life sentence and then committing suicide, or suspected being murdered, in his Spandou Prison jail cell in 1987 after spending almost 50 years behind bars!It's when Eric's brother Kurt, Jeffery Lynn, shows up with his left arm blown off in Norway that Eric and his members of the anti-Nazi underground run into trouble in that unlike Eric Kurt is a die-in-the-wool Nazi who'll turn him as well as anyone else, even his parents, in if he suspected them of being traitors to their country! It's when Kurt meets Eric's girlfriend and fellow anti-Nazi German violinist Sylvia Helmuth, Kaaren Verne, that his unyielding love for the Fatherland takes a backseat!At first not believing that Sylvia is working for the German underground Kurt is given the job by his superior Col.Heller, Martin Kosleck, to spy on her after she got caught receiving radio equipment through the mail that was banned by the German Government. What Col.Heller doesn't realize is that he has a spy in his own office in the person of his private secretary Fraulein Gessner, Mona Maris, who relays everything going there on to the underground keeping them one step ahead of his henchmen who are out to arrest and execute them. ***SPOILERS*** It's Kurt's lame attempt to prove his worthiness to the Nazi cause as well as save Sylvia from a gestapo firing squad that in the end backfires in him exposing the entire underground movement, as well as his brother Eric, to Col Heller storm troopers. With Eric and his fellow anti-Nazi freedom fighter now about to get the ax, or guillotine, Kurt finally sees the light and joins to good fight by becoming the star announcer of new the Free German Movement after those of the old one have been arrested and slated to be executed by the gestapo!Heart wrenching final with Eric & Co. about to get it in the neck as all of a sudden we and the Nazi gestapo about to do Eric in hear Kurth's voice come out load and clear as it's broadcast all over Berlin denouncing the Nazi Regime and rallying the German people to overthrow it! That's before the Nazis ends up doing to the German people what their about to do to Eric & co, which they ended up doing anyway in the spring of 1945, if the German masses don't rise up and overthrow them before it's too late!

jacksflicks Watching Underground makes me wish that TCM would do an anthology of great B-movies. Limited budgets imposed constraints on production values -- sound stages and back lots instead of locations, black & white instead of color, character actors in leading roles. What budgets didn't constrain was acting, directing and writing. And what's cool is that there were lots of them, especially from the studio system, where great talent was on staff.I don't think I've seen a wartime propaganda flick that pulls out all the stops quite like this one. Vile Nazis in their spiffy Nazi uniforms, sadism, torture, whips, dungeons, betrayal, sabotage, righteous rants by old professors...all here! Tight production and right casting make this a delicious grand guignol. Despite the grim theme, there are some pretty funny Hogan's Heroes moments. Example: a thuggish Gestapo underling is bragging to his secretary about a ghastly new torture method he's invented and complaining about Himmler's taking the credit. The secretary, who's in the underground, replies, barely containing her sarcasm, "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get a promotion."And then, there's the ending, when one must face an excruciating dilemma -- to do something horrible and cruel for the greater good. It's something I don't know if I'd have the courage to do. Would you?

jim riecken (youroldpaljim) This top rate production from Warners Bros., tells the story of the anti-Nazi underground and its attempts to sway the German people to reject the Nazi regime and put an end to its war machine. This film is far better than many other later anti-Nazi films cranked out by Hollywood during WW2. The cast all give top rate performances. Martin Koslec is effectively slimey as the Nazi secret police leader who is out to crush the underground. After seeing him here, no wonder he made a career portraying evil Nazi leaders. Perhaps the most memorable performance is by Wolfgang Zilzer as the sad, pathetic former underground leader who becomes a traitor in exchange for release from the hellish torture he is undergoing in a Nazi concentration camp. The scene where he is confronted by underground leaders and forced to commit suicide has real power. The lighting and the music are perfect. Seen today, this film might seem a bit optimistically naive. It gives the viewer the impression the Nazi regime would soon fall from power. None the less the film effectively portrays the terror inflicted on the German people to assure obedience to its corrupt and evil regime. Note; One odd idea thrown in, is a suggestion about why Rudolph Hess fled Germany and flew into London. During one of the underground broadcasts, Philip Dorn states that Hess fled to escape the gestapo and tell the world the truth. This sounds a bit naive, since everything suggests in real life Hess was always a staunch supporter of the Nazi regime. Of course the whole Hess affair is still to this day shrouded in mystery, and we may never know the real reason why Hess flew into London. That, however is a matter of discussion for another forum.