DAYS OF GLORY (1944)

After coming thru on a trio of cost-conscious poetic shockers for producer Val Lewton @ R.K.O. (CAT PEOPLE the first), director Jacques Tourneur got a budget bump and a whole cast of debuting actors working for writer/producer Casey Robinson on this flag-waving WWII story. That flag sported a hammer & sickle, but Allied friendship was the order of the day, as shown here by a motley gang of mixed-sex Russian Partisans, living together in a glorified bunker when they’re not out on guerrilla raids & skirmishes against Nazi occupation. Mere prologue to the big push coming soon to drive the enemy out of the country whatever the cost. Tourneur has few problems adapting to a studio soundstage Russia, much of the war action still lands with a punch, especially the final battle sequence. But proves less comfortable camouflaging Casey’s soundstage dramatics which feel a little too neat & canned; and shared too evenly between partisans, each one with a specialty to act out. Gregory Peck. almost ridiculously handsome, an above-the-title star from his first entrance, is the tough commander who can’t help but fall for ‘useless’ ballerina Tamara Toumanova who’s wandered in to their little fort after her dance troop broke up. But she soon gets in the swing of things, killing a Nazi intruder and joining on offence when not cocking that Greta Garbo-like eyebrow. So too the film, good agit-prop when not cocking its melodramatic eyebrows.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Peck, none too happy with this debut, established himself in his next film, THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM/’44, even got an Oscar nom. In hindsight, he probably comes off better in GLORY with its less ambitious one-note role.

DOUBLE-BILL: For Hollywood style Nazi resistance of the period, try the Norwegian-set EDGE OF DARKNESS/’43 (Lewis Milestone; Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan). For something more realistic, Andrei Tarkovsky’s stunning debut pic IVAN’S CHILDHOOD/’62.